Quote for finding a leak

The house is not fit for purpose. The E.A and/or vendor are on a sticky wicket leaving a house in that condition. Put your foot down and demand a full & permanent repair or demand your deposit back.

L'prof wrote: »

We have paid a fully refundable deposit on a house in Athenry. After the engineer inspected the house he found evidence of a leak in the understairs toilet. Estate agent is saying he's not prepared to do any work on it or reduce the price. How much would it cost to investigate whether or not there is indeed a leak before we decide one way or another what we're going to do?

Did you ask the plumber? Are the vendors ok with somebody taking up the floor to investigate? If they're not then you know what you need to do. Surveys are part of the cost of buying a house and sometimes it seems like money wasted if you don't buy the place but its probably more accurately described as money saved.

You're not really at the stage yet where you want a price reduction. You just want to know the cost of the works required to put it right and factor that in to your decision.

OP, did you ask the vendor if they knew about the leak?

L'prof wrote: »

....
If I had a ballpark figure for how much the work would cost, we'd have a better idea what we want to do.

How long is a piece of string...


Two examples,


Example 1
Similar to what you describe, loosing hot water at a fast rate but only showing mild damp staining on the wall. Pipe rotted behind plaster board wall as it went into the tiled concrete kitchen floor.
Re-routed the pipes under and behind kitchen units to re-connect further along the system.
Less than a days work and a few lengths of pipe and some fittings.


Example 2
Central heating system loosing pressure in an apartment. All the pipework was very old gun barrel buried under tiled concrete floor. Owner did not want to dig up the tiled floor as the tiles were not available which meant that most of the apartment would have to be re-tiled and there was no guarantee that the pipework would not leak elsewhere.
They chose to de-commission the central heating system and fit storage heating instead as surface pipework was not really an option due to the layout. Worked out expensive.

Kristopherus wrote: »

The house is not fit for purpose. The E.A and/or vendor are on a sticky wicket leaving a house in that condition. Put your foot down and demand a full & permanent repair or demand your deposit back.

Not sure what you mean by a "sticky wicket". Buying a second hand house here is essentially a private sale. It is up to the purchaser to inspect and decide.

The vendor does not guarantee anything. The auctioneers have so many get out clauses that they are at arms length from any problems.