Buying a house but theres a leak stain

Dunford

Hi guys,

I am lookign at buying an apartment. There is however a wee leak stain and a small bit of paint peeling on the ceiling in the untility (balcony off the kitchen).

How can I find out if it is an old leak from upstairs´ utility room, that has been fixed, or if it´s an ongoing thing.

I understand that you can rent hand held gadgets to test for moisture content, so i´ll try source on of these, but this could be difficult as things like this are difficult to come by here in Spain.

Thanks.

antiskeptic

Dunford wrote: »

Hi guys,

I am lookign at buying an apartment. There is however a wee leak stain and a small bit of paint peeling on the ceiling in the untility (balcony off the kitchen).

How can I find out if it is an old leak from upstairs´ utility room, that has been fixed, or if it´s an ongoing thing.

I understand that you can rent hand held gadgets to test for moisture content, so i´ll try source on of these, but this could be difficult as things like this are difficult to come by here in Spain.

Thanks.

Duct tape a square of cling film over the worst area of the stain - it doesn't have to cover the whole stained area. If the stain is live, the area will be wet and moisture will condense on the plastic in drops. If the stain is dead/historical then nowt will condense as the stain has dried out.

This doesn't cover a situation where the stain is live but the apartment above isn't being occupied all the time and so there's time for the stain to dry out between soakings.

Cerco

I would not consider buying an apartment or other property without having it surveyed by a competent surveyor. It is too big an investment imho to take a chance.