Mould in our New Build

[doublecheeseburgermediumfries]

Hello,

We completed on our new build on the 27th and hadn't been to the house up until yesterday.

When we went in all seemed fine and everything looked how it was left - empty! Boyfriend went to the toilet and noticed wet marks on the wall and a greenish colour along the skirting board.

I used our upstairs toilet and noticed when it flushed gunk drop down in the water! So we flushed again to see if anything would drop again but the toilet would not flush. I don't know if they are connected?

We rang the site manager straight away to let him know and when he asked us to turn off the stopcock (sp?) and asked about the heating which we said it had been left on the temp suggested and the vents above the window were open as were all the doors ajar as suggested!

I did a full sweep of the house and found green mould on the skirting boards in the small bedroom and in the airing cupboard upstairs, in the kitchen where the gap for our fridge is (makes me question what's behind our kitchen units 😩) and in the cupboard where our fuse box is. The cupboard was probably the worst as it was all around the plug sockets!

It was all against the wall that joins to the house next door which is currently unoccupied and unfinished so we're not sure if it's actually next door with the problem or if it's our house😫

Has anyone experienced this before? Is it an easy fix? The developer has been supportive and are going to sort it as soon as they can but god knows when due to the current situation😕

It's our first house, we've lived in a rented flat for years so we're both a bit 🤯.

TIA

This sounds bad. Look into your NHBC cover.

No that doesn’t sound at all normal and that potentially there’s a leak somewhere. Make sure you photograph everything clearly before you attempt to clean it. Check things like water pressure if you turn in more than one tap for example. Do you have a hot water tank or a combi boiler? In our new house the shower drain wasn’t actually connected so the ceiling below collapsed a few weeks after moving in but there was no mould anywhere.

@Inforthelonghaul we have both a hot water tank and a combi boiler. We aren't touching anything/haven't been back since reporting.

The way we see it is that although it's our house, we haven't lived in it yet so shouldn't be ours to touch/fix. The developer is really apologetic and is going to sort it all. We are still within the window of them calling every other day to see how we are getting on so I assume they will take full ownership of fixing it.

I'm just glad we decided to have a pop round on Saturday because if we hadn't I worry what it would be like in a few more weeks/months 😫

You have a combi and a hw cylinder? I'm not quite sure how this is possible unless you have two boilers installed? As a heating engineer, I very rarely come across this type of setup, unless you have an annex, which requires a separate water feed. I would get them to go through everything with you once things get a little brighter in the country. The other things that you should watch out for is if it was a display home, as you can guarantee that everything was put up very quickly, so there may be windows that aren't sealed correctly, vents that are incorrectly installed, plastering has possibly not been given time to dry before being painted. I could go on, but it is a very good idea to go in with a tradesperson that you trust and get them to check the basics for you.

I'd be saying to the developer that you want to instruct an independent plumber/other trades person so conduct a survey of the situation, at the expense of the developer, before any remedial works are agreed to. You may not have moved in but you do want to protect your property, can you trust the developer?