Constant Maintenance on House crippling me

[milly123]

Does anyone else have this problem.

We moved to a detached house on 1/4 acre in rural area only 4 years and am really starting to despair at the amount of maintenance on it. Since moving in we've had to endure the following:

replace a burst oil tank
replace warped alluminium windows with new PVC
dig up tarmac to investigate blockages in sewerage system
dig new percolation system and new soakpit
various leakages inside the house, radiators, sinks etc.

and to top it all off, discovered water leaking into attic last night is going to result in new roof needed.

The house is only 17 years old. My parents live in a housing estate in a 30 year old house and don't seem to have any issues like this. Is this what one is to expect when moving into a detached house - wish someone had told me beforehand !

 

[Caveat]

Is this what one is to expect when moving into a detached house - wish someone had told me beforehand !

No, sounds like you have been very unlucky and that the house was built by chancers. Your problems are nothing to do with the house being detached. Our (detached) house is 25+ years old and no problems. Well, very few.

Hope everything works out - it sounds like there isn't much left to go wrong though.

 

[shnaek]

Sounds to me like you've been very unlucky alright. These are the costs that no one mentions when it comes to a choice about renting or buying. A renter just calls out the landlord when things go wrong.

 

[Mpsox]

were any of these not spotted in the surveyors report before you bought the house?

 

[salaried]

My thoughts exactly. My first phone call would be to the surveyor and hopefully you have the original report.

 

[Betsy Og]

My thoughts exactly. My first phone call would be to the surveyor and hopefully you have the original report.

to what end though?, are you going to sue him?, I doubt you'd get much joy from the seller. Hard to know if you'd get much out of the engineer either as you'd have to prove negligence on his behalf (unless it was reasonable for him to pick up those problems- and since the court wont expect him to have had x ray vision - chances are that may not succeed either).

Chalk it down to bad luck I'd say. I've a rural detatched that we built and, so far, no problems of note (they did join the kitchen and down pipe together which backed it up so I put then in separate lines myself - problem solved). Fingers crossed, touch wood etc.


Insurance any good to cover the costs?