Rising Damp after house purchase made based on clean bill of health from Engineer

narayananthony

Hi All,

First off - my apologies if this is in the wrong forum, please move as necessary!

My Girlfriend purchased an old (maybe 70-80 years old?) red-brick terraced house about 14 months ago. At the time she hired a professional Engineer to do a full Survey of the house and received a full report which highlighted no issues whatsoever. The phrase the guy used was "you could hang your hat on that house"

Now, I'm no expert, but the place is freezing, there is no ventilation vents anywhere that I can see and then theres the damp.... There is rising damp in the plasterboard walls. We can see that with the rain of the last few weeks that it has expanded on one wall outwards and upwards by approximately 8mm in around 6 weeks. The damp is in numerous rooms and at its worst is around 2 meters in height and a meter in width.

The damp appeared pretty much straight after the house was bought as it was immediately painted by a professional painter. The engineer was immediately brought back, who pretty much threw his hands in the air and said there was nothing he can do.

What I want to know is - is there any way, through the legal system, to go after this Engineer and his company to pay for the repairs to the damp. Surely to be a practising engineer they would need insurance to cover an event like this? Assuming the answer to this is a yes, is time of the essence? i.e. is the engineer report only valid for a particular length of time for example? remember that the damp was noted, and reported to the engineer almost immediately, I guess there has been a bit of a case of burying the head in the sand since.

I appreciate that legal advice probably cannot be offered here - but if my question around whether practising engineers have insurance to cover these things could be answered that would be great, as well as the timebound nature of any potential claim.

Thanks in advance

Gumbo

Was the Damp visible at the time of the inspection?
These inspections are generally visual only and they done open up any walls or ground etc

Insulation and vents would be irrelevant as they may not have been required at the time of construction and the BER on display at sale time would have highlight those issues to the purchaser (your GF).

Metric Tensor

Hi OP,

If it expanded so rapidly after wet weather have you investigated the possibility of a blocked drain / flow path in/under the floor?

2m high is quite unusual - any chance you could post a picture?

(edit - just to say that I originally read that as built in the 70s/80s. I see now it was build in the 40s/50s - that height of rising damp might not be as rare in those cases although still something that needs to be investigated!!)

RORY O CONNOR

Competent surveyours /engineers would have a damp meter to check for this problem, In an older houses it is to be exepected as there is unlikely to be a DPC so damp is likely.

Leyla123

I am sorry if I should not ask this question in here but if DPC is missing from a flat is the owners or management company responsibility to fix this issue?

RORY O CONNOR

Leyla123 wrote: »

I am sorry if I should not ask this question in here but if DPC is missing from a flat is the owners or management company responsibility to fix this issue?

If the building is old there may not be a DPC owing to the fact they did not put them in in the old days so its not the responsibility of the owner or management company.

Leyla123

RORY O CONNOR wrote: »

If the building is old there may not be a DPC owing to the fact they did not put them in in the old days so its not the responsibility of the owner or management company.

Hi Rory, the building was built in 2007

RORY O CONNOR

Well there should be a DPC as par tof the built. Bu tif not IO don't see how you can make an owner put one in for you

Youngblood.III

As for dampness...I live in a 2003 house, with the bad weather, water came through the walls in 4 different places. I put if down to the sustained high winds blowing rain into places it normally wouldn't go.

Leyla123

RORY O CONNOR wrote: »

Well there should be a DPC as par tof the built. Bu tif not IO don't see how you can make an owner put one in for you

You see I own the apartment and want the management company to fix it and pay for the floor which is damaged due to water getting in to my apartment.

Youngblood.III

As for dampness...I live in a 2003 house, with the bad weather, water came through the walls in 4 different places. I put if down to the sustained high winds blowing rain into places it normally wouldn't go.

Leyla123

Youngblood.III wrote: »

As for dampness...I live in a 2003 house, with the bad weather, water came through the walls in 4 different places. I put if down to the sustained high winds blowing rain into places it normally wouldn't go.

I have dampness only around the doors. Front and back and only raising dampness.

Calahonda52

Leyla123 wrote: »

I have dampness only around the doors. Front and back and only raising dampness.

You also have your own thread on your problem here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057527749

The issue that the OP has in this thread is different so maybe your replies could get moved

Calahonda52

narayananthony wrote: »

At the time she hired a professional Engineer to do a full Survey of the house and received a full report which highlighted no issues whatsoever.

You need to understand the nature of these surveys which are non invasive so if the house was freshly painted up before sale then its a bit much to expect a visual inspection to find this sort of stuff

RKQ

narayananthony wrote: »

At the time she hired a professional Engineer to do a full Survey of the house and received a full report which highlighted no issues whatsoever.

Define "full survey"? For instance a Valuation Survey for bank or lender might take a few minutes, be based on visual inspection & cost €150 euro. IMO a freshly painted property is always suspicious. The Engineer should have been more interested in damp in a freshly painted property.

A detailed survey might take a few hours, be based on visual inspection with a moisture meter and cost €350 plus - it would highlight the need for further investigation if required. See CIOB / RICS for details.

A full structural survey would be valid for 6 years as with all services. But this is not a legal forum so I can not advise as I am not a Solicitor.

Without photos its very difficult to comment on damp patch. It should be noted that condensation is often confused with damp. Especially in badly ventilated older properties.

Badly installed retro-fitted insulation could cause wind driven damp penetration across the cavity wall. Solid walls are notorious for damp in 70-80 year old Dublin houses. Leaking chimney flashing etc could also cause damp patches.