Buying a new built house

Dotsy04

Just wondering if anybody could recommend a snagger/surveyor for a new build. North Dublin/Ashbourne/Ratoath area. Would really appreciate PM. Thanks

tradesman

Sullivk,

Your floor should not be settling so much that the foreman is being so wary about it that he doesn't want to sell you the property for another 1 - 2 months. If the filling beneath the concrete subfloor has been filled & compacted correctly there should be no or virtually no settling. None that should present an issue anyway. Start to keep a record of all conversations etc from here on in & try to get everything discussed through email so you have a record of everything.
Looks like this issue needs to be investigated further by the developers if it is occurring in other houses as well.

Gumbo

sullivk wrote: »

There seems to be an issue with our new build. The foreman says they noticed the concrete flooring in the kitchen/dining room had dipped by a few mm. Likely due to settling of the soil underneath the house.

They have rectified the issue but the foreman has said he is not happy to sell the house until after the new year (it was due for completion end of Nov). He wants to give it more time to settle so he can ensure there are no further issues with the floor.

He said it has come to light in a couple of other houses in the development.
Has anyone had this happen with their property? It's making me a bit nervous. Will a structural surveyor be able to assess these issues prior to purchase?

It's. I thing you need to worry about at this stage. It's a developer problem that needs to be rectified prior to hand over.

2 things may have happened.
Incorrectly compaction of the sun floor fill material and these regs changed in March 2016 (SR21 Annex E / IS888). The sub floor material is now a structural item and the full is graded into T1-T4 types depending on depth.

Or

The ground conditions changed after a sudden downpour or shift in the water table due to the surrounding construction.

In any case, I think the developer may have to removed the floor and fill material and start again if the problem continues or gets worse.

As tradesman above says, save all correspondence between you and the developer now and have them ready at a moments. Price should you need to pull out or and issues arise after to move in.

sullivk

Thank you both Tradesman and kceire for your responses. It's not sounding too good, is it?
It was the estate agent who my husband was speaking to about it.

My husband was told it was likely that the sub floor was not compacted enough, hence the settling and dipping.
I'd prefer to cut the estate agent out of the middle and just communicate directly with the foreman. Not really sure what we should do now, will play it by ear for the next couple of weeks.

We have buyers for my house waiting too, it's all hassle and stress

mickdw

For a subfloor to settle as described in such a short time scale, I can only see the area beneath being filled with something approaching Wet Bog.
I'd be inclined to think either you are being told complete lies and the delay is something completely different or the floor really has sunk and they are utter cowboys building you a heap of dung.

sullivk

mickdw wrote:

For a subfloor to settle as described in such a short time scale, I can only see the area beneath being filled with something approaching Wet Bog. I'd be inclined to think either you are being told complete lies and the delay is something completely different or the floor really has sunk and they are utter cowboys building you a heap of dung.

I really appreciate your reply, even if it's not what i want to hear!! Our house has been near completion a few months now.

It is one of the last to be completed in the current phase, and because it was yet to sell (the 4 beds seem to be slower to sell) they actually moved onto the next phase in the estate without fully finishing the interior of ours. I'm not even sure how long it's been since the initial concrete floor was poured.

I'm going to try get a contact email for the foreman and contact him directly.

tradesman

I too had thought you could were being told some ("untruths") Lol. but if I was trying to fob you off I think I would not be using such a drastic scenario as bad word spreads quickly & would impact on future sales. If the floors are giving trouble then the only way to find out is to dig out one of the floors to see whats happening.

sullivk

tradesman wrote:

I too had thought you could were being told some ("untruths") Lol. but if I was trying to fob you off I think I would not be using such a drastic scenario as bad word spreads quickly & would impact on future sales. If the floors are giving trouble then the only way to find out is to dig out one of the floors to see whats happening.

I'd love if it were untrue, alas I was being nosey and did drive around there last week (before I knew there were issues) and they had the big concrete lorry out front and we're in and out of the side entrance with wheelbarrows full so I suspect there is indeed a problem!

tradesman

Sullivk,

As soon as you can get back onto the site & meet the foreman to get an explanation of what was happening. Remember, THIS IS YOUR HOUSE! or 99% certain its your house. No point being in the dark about YOUR HOUSE. that you are paying your HARD EARNED MONEY for. Again, ask him will he confirm it in writing - say you want your other half to see it or some excuse. If you do not get any joy then go higher up the ladder. My advice go to the top rung! Still no joy, get onto your solicitor. You have to stand firm on this

sullivk

tradesman wrote:

As soon as you can get back onto the site & meet the foreman to get an explanation of what was happening. Remember, THIS IS YOUR HOUSE! or 99% certain its your house. No point being in the dark about YOUR HOUSE. that you are paying your HARD EARNED MONEY for. Again, ask him will he confirm it in writing - say you want your other half to see it or some excuse. If you do not get any joy then go higher up the ladder. My advice go to the top rung! Still no joy, get onto your solicitor. You have to stand firm on this

Will do tradesman, thanks for all the advice and apologies for taking over the thread with my problems! I'll insist on communicating with the foreman from here on, I've contacted the developer who said they will forward on foreman's email on Tuesday. We only live 100 yards down the road so paying a visit (or twenty!) to site won't be difficult either.
Cheers

mickdw

To be honest if the floor issue is a fact, I'd be very wary of the house.
I would want to be having it looked at now by an Engineer on your behalf. If they are not happy about this, see about getting out of the contract.
Imagine if floor has moved and they have just screeded it back level without addressing the issue.
I cannot say this strongly enough. If a sub floor is sinking over the few weeks of construction, it's absolutely a botched construction.
I'm a Civil Engineer and would have experience in this area. One recent example I worked on was a school corridor. 1963 build and the floor has gone about 20 mm. On taking it all out, we found about 20mm Screed. 70 mm concrete and just a scattering of stone under with 2m of wet peat under.
That is an absolute definition of dodgy work and took 50 years of school hall traffic to drop 20 mm. If your floor is moving over the few weeks, you have to imagine something very strange that certainly needs investigation from your side immediately as you don't need a cover up.

sullivk

mickdw wrote:

To be honest if the floor issue is a fact, I'd be very wary of the house. I would want to be having it looked at now by an Engineer on your behalf. If they are not happy about this, see about getting out of the contract. Imagine if floor has moved and they have just screeded it back level without addressing the issue. I cannot say this strongly enough. If a sub floor is sinking over the few weeks of construction, it's absolutely a botched construction. I'm a Civil Engineer and would have experience in this area. One recent example I worked on was a school corridor. 1963 build and the floor has gone about 20 mm. On taking it all out, we found about 20mm Screed. 70 mm concrete and just a scattering of stone under with 2m of wet peat under. That is an absolute definition of dodgy work and took 50 years of school hall traffic to drop 20 mm. If your floor is moving over the few weeks, you have to imagine something very strange that certainly needs investigation from your side immediately as you don't need a cover up.

Thanks Mick. I'm going to nail the foreman down this coming week and try get the full story. I'm raging that he asked the estate agent to phone us with this very important issue.
Luckily we have only paid initial booking deposit, no contracts signed yet so all is refundable.

OfflerCrocGod

What development is this?

iwillhtfu

Whatever the issue may be Sullivk it sounds like a bodged repair.

It's probably not something you want to hear but I'd be inclined to walk away from the entire purchase.

If you're dead set on a house in this particular housing estate you could met with the foreman and express your concerns and that you're not happy with the repair work. Then see if there's another course of action you might take. You mention another phase of houses so perhaps look at purchasing another.

also keep in mind the purchasers on your own house. It may be an issue if they walk away from the sale also particularly if it was difficult to sell in the first place.

Also keep in mind pyrite could be the issue here particularly if it has happened to several other houses. Do a bit of research and if there are people already living in the development knock on doors.

Good Luck

sullivk

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

What development is this?

Not sure if I'm allowed say here ?

riclad

my friend bought new house 10 years ago,
side of house was paved ,
when it rains , theres always a pool of water ,2x2 ft ,
near side door .
eg the outside paving is not completely flat .

the house itself is fine ,
person who bought it is in the real estate business .

mickdw

riclad wrote: »

my friend bought new house 10 years ago,
side of house was paved ,
when it rains , theres always a pool of water ,2x2 ft ,
near side door .
eg the outside paving is not completely flat .

the house itself is fine ,
person who bought it is in the real estate business .

This has little to do with the issue at hand. A dip in external paving could be considered an annoyance.
A subsiding internal floor is a major structural defect.

sullivk

I managed to get talking to a lady today who is living in one of the houses on the same street. She said there is a compacting issue within the sub floor but she had an engineer out who said it is "more cosmetic" and doesn't affect the foundations.

She said she's not overly worried and the builder has assured her that the issue will be rectified... however, it doesn't sit right with me at all. If your floor is sinking, that's not really normal! And if this is indeed the case I'm assuming that the only true repair is to dig up subfloor and do it again from scratch, correctly ??

Anyhow, I will chat with Foreman tomorrow but I think we'll probably abandon this house for another (hopefully unaffected) one in the estate. I'm too pregnant to be stressed out with this unnecessary crap!!

mickdw

Walk away tbh. Compacting issue. Sounds like it was thrown together.
who is certifying these things?

mollybird

Got our keys finally on fri afternoon. Talk about a weight being lifted off our sholders. My husband and I are beyond thrilled to be finally in. Just waiting on all big furniture to be delivered now over the next while. Can't wait to have our first sleep over on fri

Utah

mollybird wrote: »

Got our keys finally on fri afternoon. Talk about a weight being lifted off our sholders. My husband and I are beyond thrilled to be finally in. Just waiting on all big furniture to be delivered now over the next while. Can't wait to have our first sleep over on fri

Congratulations! I'm envious, we're still about 3 weeks away!!
Enjoy your first weekend

tradesman

congratulations mollybird & hubby! Hope everything goes well for you. Enjoy your new home

OfflerCrocGod

sullivk wrote: »

Not sure if I'm allowed say here ?

Don't see why not, if you can backup everything you've said then I don't see the issue.

sullivk

mollybird wrote:

Got our keys finally on fri afternoon. Talk about a weight being lifted off our sholders. My husband and I are beyond thrilled to be finally in. Just waiting on all big furniture to be delivered now over the next while. Can't wait to have our first sleep over on fri

Congratulations!! Enjoy your new home together

athtrasna

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

Don't see why not, if you can backup everything you've said then I don't see the issue.

Mod note

Please don't. Chinese whispers will have it as definitely pyrite and falling down, very quickly. Boards don't have the funds to be sued by the developer so please do not post the name of the development.

janus83

hi, just a quick query someone might know the answer to here!
On the Property Price Register does anyone know why brand new houses in a development might be going for varying prices? E.g. from site plan for any new development you can see which number of house (address) is 3 bed semi or 4 bed detach etc and estate agents or Daft have the asking price.
I've seen on a few new developments lately that houses have gone for less than what they were advertised at. I know the figure is VAT exclusive on the PPR for a new house so I've tried factoring that in and it explains a few of them. Also I assume certain ones at the very start of a development or phase 1 as opposed to phase 2 could have been slightly cheaper.
Are people bidding way lower than asking maybe?
Also if it's a round number like 100,000 how does that turn into a number like 99354.15 on PPR?! (That's a made up figure BTW just to try explain what I mean!)
bit confused!

Gumbo

janus83 wrote: »

hi, just a quick query someone might know the answer to here!
On the Property Price Register does anyone know why brand new houses in a development might be going for varying prices? E.g. from site plan for any new development you can see which number of house (address) is 3 bed semi or 4 bed detach etc and estate agents or Daft have the asking price.
I've seen on a few new developments lately that houses have gone for less than what they were advertised at. I know the figure is VAT exclusive on the PPR for a new house so I've tried factoring that in and it explains a few of them. Also I assume certain ones at the very start of a development or phase 1 as opposed to phase 2 could have been slightly cheaper.
Are people bidding way lower than asking maybe?
Also if it's a round number like 100,000 how does that turn into a number like 99354.15 on PPR?! (That's a made up figure BTW just to try explain what I mean!)
bit confused!

Because brand new houses get entered onto the PPR minus the VAT. Second hand homes get entered with VAT inclusive.

Arbie

janus83 wrote: »

hi, just a quick query someone might know the answer to here!
On the Property Price Register does anyone know why brand new houses in a development might be going for varying prices? E.g. from site plan for any new development you can see which number of house (address) is 3 bed semi or 4 bed detach etc and estate agents or Daft have the asking price.
I've seen on a few new developments lately that houses have gone for less than what they were advertised at. I know the figure is VAT exclusive on the PPR for a new house so I've tried factoring that in and it explains a few of them. Also I assume certain ones at the very start of a development or phase 1 as opposed to phase 2 could have been slightly cheaper.
Are people bidding way lower than asking maybe?
Also if it's a round number like 100,000 how does that turn into a number like 99354.15 on PPR?! (That's a made up figure BTW just to try explain what I mean!)
bit confused!

VAT of 13.5% is the main reason (e.g. a new build listed on PPR for €100,000 actually costs €113,500). Some houses have changes made also or have extras that may not be obvious or visible. I know people who were charged more for larger garden, extra car park space, side gate, etc.

I wonder does some social housing also go for less?

PhoenixParker

Also don't under estimate price increases between phases. Our house was up for sale this time last year, we closed in July, the phase that sold in September was €65k more expensive albeit with a bigger garden.

dori_dormer

Prices that influenced our estate were flooring and kitchens. We also got our driveway extended. You could also upgrade wardrobes etc. And get staira and attic floored. All would be added extras on ppr. We closed in August and the price of the houses has gone up 25k 2 weeks ago.