wind damage

dcorcaigh

Hi I hope someone can help me out. We built a new single story house last year with the snags completed in mid-June 2013 and final payment made to the builder around that time. With the recent storms and windy weather we are having, some damage was done to the house, we lost some slates, flashing ripped off one of the roofs and also some damage done to a couple of the velux windows the cost of the repairs came to €1150. The main damage was caused by the flashing coming off in the high winds and I was wondering should this damage have been covered by the builder? Surely you wouldn’t expect this this to happen on a new build? I was wondering what peoples thought is on this before I question the costs with the builder. Thanks.

sydthebeat

House insurance.

That's what it's for.

dcorcaigh

yes we have insurance but we have an excess that needs covering, so its going to cost us money!
I think righly or wrongly that this shouldnt happen in the first year of a new house?

CJhaughey

How much wind should a newbuild be able to stand?
The winds were exceptionally strong and did a lot of structural damage everywhere.
Why do people always look for someone else to blame?

sydthebeat

Are you going to pay money to a surveyor to try to prove, in a court case, that the builder was somehow negligent in discharging his duties? or are you going to pay an engineer to prove, in a court case, that the workmanship was somehow defective?
Did you pay for some professional to inspect the builders work during construction?
who is going to prove that the damage wasnt caused by some flying piece of debris hitting your house?

see what im getting at??

home insurance covers these incidents and excess's are something you choose when purchasing the product.

dcorcaigh

Thanks for your replies.

The damage was done a few days before the day of the really bad storm, it’s a new house so i would have thought that it was reasonable to be able withstand high winds, its winter so high winds is to be expected. also we don’t live in a very exposed part of the country. I would have understood if the damage happened during the day of the really bad storm, that day just made it worse.

I don’t want to cause hassle with the builder as were very happy with him during the build but on the other hand we don’t want to fork out money for something that shouldn’t have happened. I know it’s hard to prove that it was caused by bad workmanship but taking into account that the damage happened before the day of the very bad storm is the consensus still I shouldn’t chase the builder?

sydthebeat

dcorcaigh wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

The damage was done a few days before the day of the really bad storm, it’s a new house so i would have thought that it was reasonable to be able withstand high winds, its winter so high winds is to be expected. also we don’t live in a very exposed part of the country. I would have understood if the damage happened during the day of the really bad storm, that day just made it worse.

I don’t want to cause hassle with the builder as were very happy with him during the build but on the other hand we don’t want to fork out money for something that shouldn’t have happened. I know it’s hard to prove that it was caused by bad workmanship but taking into account that the damage happened before the day of the very bad storm is the consensus still I shouldn’t chase the builder?

i could be smart and say that if you had have signed a proper with the builder in which a defects liability period of 12 months was included, youd still have retained money and have the builder in a bit of a bind.

but that being said, unless you can prove that what he did was defective then personally i think its pointless chasing him.
he may be a nice guy and come look at it and give you a decent price to fix up, but i wouldn't expect him to admit any kind of liability or fault for the damage.
The storms that we just had were probably 1 in 30 or 50 year events... also it was the wettest February since records began.

ddoolan

For what it is worth, the initial storm a few days before the really bad one knocked a few big trees near us. So it was still quite an event.
The subsequent storm knocked more and loosened the roots of others so that they had to be knocked. As Syd says, house insurance. Unfortunately, I suspect it would cost a fortune to try and prove it was the builders fault with the evidence of the storm damage all around.

whupdedo

If the house was up 5 years would you be questioning the work the builder has done ? We haven't got a wind like that in a long time, houses that were built in last 5 years would have been built to much the same specs are yours, and plenty new houses have had storm damage, sorry to say your probably barking up the wrong tree trying to get the builder to cough up

happywithlife

I've a relatively new build that got damaged too
Would never have dreamt of blaming the builder. Damage was caused solely by freakishly extreme weather events. That's what house insurance is for.
The only reason I'd consider chasing the builder is if the insurance company refused to pay out on grounds that the building work was unsatisfactory to begin with. Which is unlikely.

kkelliher

happywithlife wrote: »

I've a relatively new build that got damaged too
Would never have dreamt of blaming the builder. Damage was caused solely by freakishly extreme weather events. That's what house insurance is for.
The only reason I'd consider chasing the builder is if the insurance company refused to pay out on grounds that the building work was unsatisfactory to begin with. Which is unlikely.

+1 a storm is a storm and some of the best built buildings can still be damaged no matter how old or new. You need to know the exact cause before you blame anything

fealeranger

sydthebeat wrote: »

Are you going to pay money to a surveyor to try to prove, in a court case, that the builder was somehow negligent in discharging his duties? or are you going to pay an engineer to prove, in a court case, that the workmanship was somehow defective?
Did you pay for some professional to inspect the builders work during construction?
who is going to prove that the damage wasnt caused by some flying piece of debris hitting your house?

see what im getting at??

home insurance covers these incidents and excess's are something you choose when purchasing the product.

Sorry to go off topic for a moment but I am very interested as to how all this would play out if it happened under the new regulations. I can see this very answered being given as nobody will be held responsible as before with old regulation. You will have to investigate it, get reports done and get all the legal technical stuff done so I wonder what the new regulations will do to improve this situation? Nothing? I am very interested in views on this. Back on topic, I just finished our house last May and the storm did no damage to it and I am only 2km from from coast line and completly exposed to the storms we got. Surly the work carried out in this instance much be questioned as it is under 12 months old. What will happen in 10-20 years if the same storms hit again?