What to do if you’ve bought a house with dry rot
If you have bought a house with dry rot, this can be very expensive to rectify. If the seller of the home knew that there was dry rot present and deliberately misled you on the problem or lied about it, this could be considered property misrepresentation and you might be able to make a claim.
It’s important to seek expert legal advice immediately to see if you might be eligible to make a claim, as this will depend on the individual circumstances involved with your property purchase and an experienced solicitor will be able to investigate things on your behalf.
In order for a claim to be successful, it will need to be proven that the seller knew about the dry rot and failed to disclose this or tried to hide the issue. In some cases, it could be that the seller has previously called in a specialist to look at the dry rot issue, before deliberately not disclosing it to the potential seller. Or perhaps a previous survey on the property has flagged this problem and the seller hasn’t had works carried out to resolve it. There may be a paperwork trail to back this up which can be used as evidence.
It can be a complex area, so it’s important to have specialist legal support to give your property misrepresentation dry rot claim the best chance of success.
Can you sue a surveyor for not finding dry rot?
If you had a full structural survey carried out on the property before purchase but the surveyor failed to spot the dry rot that you discovered once the sale had gone through, you may be able to bring a claim for surveyor negligence. It will depend on the circumstances of the survey and whether it is deemed reasonable for the surveyor not to have discovered the dry rot during the survey they were instructed to carry out.
Whether the seller or the surveyor are potentially liable, the likelihood is that if you are successful in your claim, you will be awarded damages that take into account the difference in the value of your property now that the dry rot issue has come to light. There may also be other damages associated with various expenses and costs.
This is why it’s essential to seek expert legal advice as soon as possible so that we can investigate the situation and see if you are eligible to make a claim against the seller or your surveyor. Get in touch with our specialist team today by calling 0161 696 6178.