Flat Nightmare!

[furious]

Hello all, I am a new member at my wits end with a disastrous property. I am considering how best to proceed legally but thought some advice or past experience from here may help. There are more details and evidence than described but I decided to go for the light version first, which is still quite substantial!

I purchased my flat in 2007 for a considerable sum, based on what appeared to be a "higher" standard of finish and quality to other developments in the area. How wrong I was.

It has transpired that the construction of my roof (I’m on the top floor) was fudged at the outset, which materialised in substantial noise on windy days, and with the right conditions (i.e. direction and wind speed) was so chronic it would be ear splitting (sounded like the roof was coming off) and caused my girlfriend and I many sleepless nights.

After a battle of 12-18 months, including the NHBC, the developer and the builder eventually admitted there was a problem, but blamed sub contractors (now out of business) and pleaded innocence they were unaware of the build being not to design. I have since discovered the work was inspected and signed off by these people and that they were aware of the situation; however I have not yet used this information.

Now two years on, I am still out of my property in a temporary flat (3 months and counting) and it has now transpired the roof issue is also a fire risk and contravenes building regulations due to there being no segregation between the top floor flats (i.e. fire or smoke would spread rapidly in the ceiling cavity). They are now desperately trying to take remedial action by offering everyone a token sum to move out to resolve this. My main issue is they are very slippery to deal with and I feel like they are getting away with something substantial that we should be adequately compensated for (they have commented with things like “we need to work together on this”, “its in everyone’s interest” and believe it or not “fires are unlikely anyway”!

The above issues are the big ones, interspaced with more snags than I can care to remember. The inconvenience and stress caused I believe should give me a civil case to pursue but I am not sure about the cost to me or how much effort / more stress it will give us. Does anyone have any advice and knowledge of the legal position for such serious problems with a new build?

Thank you in advance, any opinions and advice gratefully received.

[Tony]

You are absolutely right it is expensive perhaps around £50,000, plus all the additional stress. Although it sounds like you have a good case you will worry that you haven't and the builder won't pay up till the last minute - day before court appearance. It might take years to get to this stage! The people with direct experience of this on the forum will have signed gagging orders and won't be able to talk about it.

Tony