vendor reno

[RedApple]

Hi All,

I bought a property late last year in Sydney with a lovely renovated bathroom. Just last week my PM discovered that there was a leak through the walls and the plumber verified that there is no signs of waterproof membrane visible under the tiles. This leakage is serious and requires the whole bathroom to be ripped up and re-tiled with waterproof membrane to prevent termites and structural damage.

The sales agent just told me today that the prev owner did the bathroom themselve and since it's sold they don't want anything to do with it anymore.

When i purchased, building & pest inspection was done along with thermo test and no odd moisture was found so the leakage must have been gradual since, not too long ago or the reno is quite recent. Given the membrane is tucked under the tiles, it's unlikely the building inspector would have been able to notice it if no leaks & high moisture was present ?

I've been quoted $7k-$9k to get the bathroom redone with waterproof membrane(a requirement of the aust building standard according to the tilers.)
It feels that the house was very misrepresented when i purchased

I paid market price at the time.

If the prev owner was not a qualified person to work with wet areas, did a shabby job and onsell, does the buyer have any right to make a claim in this case ?

Thanks

 

[Aaron_C]

Most likely caveat emptor.

 

[marg4000]

Vendor would probably claim that the house was fine when he sold it to you 7-8 months ago. Probably impossible to disprove.
Marg

 

[vaughan]

The sales agent just told me today that the prev owner did the bathroom themselve and since it's sold they don't want anything to do with it anymore.

You might be able to get the previous owner for doing a reno >$12,000 and not having an owner/builder license and not getting the building insurance that would have covered you for exactly this event.

But most likely, it's your problem now.

 

[mflying]

hi,

You may be able to avoid problem with Megaseal.

or

try this

http://www.notilesremoved.com.au/?gclid=CKia-9DBo7gCFaw8pgodGm0A-A

i spoke to guy on a phone (he was tiler) and he was very good (half of price of megaseal)

 

[travelbug]

You might be able to get the previous owner for doing a reno >$12,000 and not having an owner/builder license and not getting the building insurance that would have covered you for exactly this event.

But most likely, it's your problem now.

It wouldn't cost anywhere near $12K to do a bathroom yourself. Especially the way they did it.
That's the problem with buying newly renovated properties. You really need to check that it was done properly (not easy I agree). With all these reno shows everyone thinks they can reno a bathroom in 2 days.

I've seen some photos of bahroom renos (even on here) and cringe. People think waterproofing is throwing a little grey stuff on the floor.

 

[Jamie M]

With all these reno shows everyone thinks they can reno a bathroom in 2 days.

lol - according to the show I watched the other day you'd also be able to build a deck within those two days.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[wobbycarly]

lol - according to the show I watched the other day you'd also be able to build a deck within those two days.

Cheers

Jamie

2 days? You're taking your time!

http://www.evolvecomposites.com.au/...-deck-with-handi-block&catid=3:news&Itemid=52

 

[Emo21]

Hi All,

I bought a property late last year in Sydney with a lovely renovated bathroom. Just last week my PM discovered that there was a leak through the walls and the plumber verified that there is no signs of waterproof membrane visible under the tiles. This leakage is serious and requires the whole bathroom to be ripped up and re-tiled with waterproof membrane to prevent termites and structural damage.

The sales agent just told me today that the prev owner did the bathroom themselve and since it's sold they don't want anything to do with it anymore.

When i purchased, building & pest inspection was done along with thermo test and no odd moisture was found so the leakage must have been gradual since, not too long ago or the reno is quite recent. Given the membrane is tucked under the tiles, it's unlikely the building inspector would have been able to notice it if no leaks & high moisture was present ?

I've been quoted $7k-$9k to get the bathroom redone with waterproof membrane(a requirement of the aust building standard according to the tilers.)
It feels that the house was very misrepresented when i purchased

I paid market price at the time.

If the prev owner was not a qualified person to work with wet areas, did a shabby job and onsell, does the buyer have any right to make a claim in this case ?

Thanks

Not sure what the laws are in vic but if the same as WA regarding owner/builders you can check his building license to see what the estimated cost of the reno was and if over $20k he should have had builders indemnity insurance for 7 yrs after the completion of the reno. when he sold the property the settlement agent should have requested the insurance cert after doing a property search and seeing a building application on the property.

 

[RedApple]

Hi everyone & thank you for your replies,

I managed to locate the previous owner & they were great people. Told me they got the job done by a qualified builder and actually dug up his contacts for me (unlike that ***** of a sales agent who nastily told me that these owners did the bathroom themselves, and just don't want anything to do with the house anymore, then turn around and told me to use his agent's property management service instead of my current fantastic PM )

Spoke to the builder and he said waterproof was put in and he's going to look into this issue for me but unfortunately landed in hospital due to an illness last weekend. Told me today that he'll call and speak with me again at the end of this week after he leaves the hospital. So fingers crossed.

Anyway, dad & i drove all the way to sydney on saturday to check the issue ourselves. He cut a hole in the wall behind the shower where there's water coming out and discovered that the cold water pipe\valve is actually leaking, and is also the culprit behind this mess. Think we've found the problem and will just ask the builder to arrange for it to be fixed. My dad doesn't think we need to tear up and re-do the whole bathroom as doing so won't fix the cause behind the leakage in the first place.

Strange thing is the leakage seems to be intermittent, seems sort of due to weather changes making the pipe shrinks & expands resulting in water leaking through wonder if anyone has experienced this ??? and what's the best fix for it ?