Extensive woodworm in bathroom, upstairs was suppose to have been fine and was checked before we moved in. Fuming

[CrapBag]

We moved into our house in September. The survey picked up on woodworm in the loft before we moved in and the EA arranged for a specialist company to check it.

Loft was bad, stairs were fine and apparently the first floor was fine but they have only checked one bit of one bedroom.

We are in the process of getting a new bathroom and my plumber has just been down to show me a floorboard that has crumbled apart in his hand and is riddled with woodworm. It is in the first inch of the joists and the first 2 floorboards from the wall that was under the bath. The plumber said he wouldn't even want to fit the bath because he is concerned about in the weight on these boards. It is also a combination of an not properly sealed bath leaking as well.

I have phoned the company who done the survey and treated the loft and I am waiting for them to phone me back. We have had all new carpets put down upstairs as as far as we were reassured, there was no problem in the first floor.

I am so livid. We had to pay for half the cost of the treatment before we moved in as the vendor needed every penny due to debts. Now it looks like we are going to have to pay for more treatment and taking up our new carpets to get this properly checked.

I am so annoyed with the EA as well as she kept fobbing me off and talking over me when I expressed concerns about the woodworm. She said its more likely to be found under the stairs than in the upstairs floorboards. She said it was checked but "obviously they can't be expected to take flooring up". In hind site I should have insisted that this is exactly what they would have to do so I am also annoyed at myself. It was our first proper purchase so we basically listened to what we were told.

Now I'm dreading what we will find in the kitchen. We were told the back in the vinyl was from an old plumbing leak and the specialist surveyor seems to have accepted this. Now I am not so sure!

black in the kitchen vinyl.

Sadly, buying an oldish home does tend to lead to this type of discovery. But check your survey and especially whoever did the woodworm survey - they may be liable for not spotting the infestation or not giving appropriate advice.

Have a look back through your documents relating to the treatment work you paid for before you moved into the property to see if there is a guarantee.

Also, contact your home insurance provider as it might be something you can claim for on your buildings insurance.

If a specialist company undertook a survey for you then they should be covered by professional indemnity insurance that covers them if they make a mistake or error. I would be asking them what they intend to do about it.

I have a 30 year guarantee for work that was done. Which was the treatment in the loft. I'm not sure if there can be any comeback when they didnt check all the floors, therefore they wouldn't have seen it. I am still waiting for them to phone back. Where the plumber has found it has only been seen because the bath has been taken out. If it hadn't, I'm not sure it would have been found.

Good point about the insurance. If I don't get a satisfactory response from the company who were supposed to have checked this then I'll ring the insurance company although I imagine that will affect my premium.

Luckily the plumber can sort out the floorboards and joists for us after its been treated. But the bathroom can't resume until this is sorted! Thankfully we have a downstairs shower room that we use anyway.