We moved into new house last August. Edwardian semi. had full structural done. No issues or suggested maintenance raised relating to outside walls. Three people - surveyor, damp company and our builder - went round entire house with damp meter after small patch if rising damp found downstairs - slate dpc failing, v standard, got it fixed, fine. Whole of upstairs given all clear.
After the first few storms huge damp patches started appearing on one bedroom wall. Panic, call builder. He says penetrating damp caused by storm. He - as surveyor did - declares outside to look fine from ground. Nothing we could have done. Equally he's not surprised as he's seeing so many similar cases. Our side wall is v unsheltered and gets full brunt of sw wind. Rain is literally being driven in.
He says we need to repoint anything that looks remotely dodgy when inspected closely, and, most importantly, paint entire outside with some brick waterproofing thing. This is going to cost us about 4k, incl. scaffolding. This is not including the cost of redecorating inside. Not questioning builder, we've known him for years and I'd trust him with my life.
Anyway, we call insurance. Tell all. Fine, fine. Should be covered, except for waterproofing bit (they only pay to return it to original state) we'll send round an assessor. Assessor says there's no evidence that it's storm damage. He classes it as routine maintenance and says we can't claim either outside repair or inside redecorating.
Pleas and explanations about survey showing no issues, damp readings before storms clearly showing it has lasted 100 years of normal weather with no probs fell on deaf ears.
Wtf? What can I do?? It's now going to cost us a LOT more as in the past week the same problem has spread along the whole outside wall and is affecting all 3 upstairs rooms. Can we appeal? Anyone else got similar experience?
Sorry for length. Didn't want to drip feed.