Help/Advice needed please.

[philius]

Hi,

We moved into a new build bovis home 3 years ago tomorrow. We had numerous points on our snagging/defects list which were "rectified" 18 months or so ago.

One of these points was that the bath had not been installed properly and therefore the sealent around the bath had split. Somebody from Bovis came and fixed this problem - or so I thought! This morning I went downstairs to find a trickle of water coming through the lounge ceiling. I called out an emergency plumber and was told that the leak was coming from the seal around the bath which had split again. The plumber fixed the problem and presented me with a rather hefty bill - what I would like to know is.... are Bovis responsible for this bill (even though I'm outside the defects period) as it was their sub-standard work (TWICE!!) which caused it.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Phil

[Tony]

Interesting case - you should not have to pay this. You have the protection of common law - I'll get you something to quote later. Off the top of my head it relates to 'reasonable care' when initially doing the job

[philius]

Cheers Tony

[Tony]

What I actually meant was duty of care - Duty of care - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Supply of Goods and Services act as well as the Sale of Goods Act do not apply to new build. However, see what the BBC say with regard to Common Law.

Duty of care

When it comes to the work carried out, the act doesn't, in fact, give you any more rights than you have in common law, but it does lay them out clearly. It states that a tradesman or professional has a 'duty of care' towards you and your property; that any price or standard you agree must be honoured, and that, if not agreed in advance, the work must be done to a reasonable standard, at a reasonable cost.

[philius]

Thanks Tony.

We've finally had a reply from Bovis, no surprises really.....

Wording from Bovis Homes:

We would advise that the sealant has cracked due to shrinkage and movement of the walls and is not down to poor workmanship. As Bovis do not address shrinkage, we would respectfully inform you that this would be classified as household maintenance at this time in your warranty.

Any thoughts / advice?

Cheers

Phil

[Tony]

Hi Phil,

I could have predicted that. The sealant used should be able tolerate a reasonable amount of shrinkage. Is there any evidence of shrinkage elsewhere in the bathroom, is the bath secure i.e. does it wobble if you stand in it? Reasonable is generally considered to be the width of a 50p coin.

You could pursue this through a small claims court - Making a Small Claim | Consumer Information

You'll be staking the cost of making a claim though.

Tony