Ever been told your house or property has damp? It’s a pretty common problem, so it’s highly likely that, if you’ve lived in a property of age, you may have rising damp, just like me.
I bought my house fully knowing that it had damp, but actually I was unaware of how much or how bad it was, and to be frank, a few surveys later, I’m still unsure. Here’s why.
The initial midrange £550 survey I had carried out before I bought the house found: “high levels of damp in the hallway.”
This worried me a bit at first, but after getting a quote from an independent damp-proofer for £575 to treat the damp, I decided it wasn’t a deal-breaker.
Now that I’m in the house though, and have stripped wallpaper off some of the walls, I’ve found more damp myself. Now, I’m no expert, but I can tell when a wall feels damp, and a wall in my living room certainly does.
In fact, I’ve enlisted a couple more damp experts who have since told me that I have damp in my kitchen, and in two places in my living room, none of which were picked up in the initial homebuyer’s survey I paid £550 for...and of course, all of which are ramping up the cost of fixing the problem.
Trust the experts?
I’m a bit surprised to say the least, especially by the mixed messages I’m getting from every damp “expert” I approach. So who do I believe?
With each “expert” using a different damp tester and no strict guidelines or regulation over the industry, it’s making it difficult to know who to trust or believe, especially when the quotes vary by a few hundred pounds.
For now, I’m ignoring the damp problem until I’ve at least dealt with one other issue. And that’s the fact that this “additional damp” wasn’t picked up in the homebuyer’s survey I paid for, before I committed to buying the house. After all, what’s the point of having them if they don’t pick up on such problems?
Taking matters into my own hands
Curious as to what leg I have to stand on when it comes to disputing the survey’s findings, I’m going to take the issue a step further and challenge the surveyors report, and will let you know the outcome.
Does any of this sound familiar? Have you had surveys let you down? Or experienced similar problems? Tell us here.
