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Structural Survey missed problem with roof

12 replies

LadyShort · 24/03/2021 14:33

I'm just after some advice for my son. Him and his girlfriend moved into their house in August 2018. They had a full structural survey done. They have problems with a roof leak and a roofer has been out a couple of times to rectify this but with no success.

This week the builder came out to replace some tiles. The roofers started trying to remove tiles and found that the tiles had been put on the battens, with no roofing felt underneath, gaps had been filled with expanding foam. The roofer said if they had gone through another winter then the roof would likely have collapsed because the struts and battens are rotten.

Upshot is that they are now having to pay for a complete new roof!

I'm sure this should have been picked up in the survey, the report does state that they "have not made any exploratory holes so cannot confirm that all hidden parts are free from defects", but surely if a surveyor saw expanding foam in the roof, they would investigate further, or should have pointed it out in the survey, so that my son could have asked for further investigations to be done (which obviously he would have paid for)?

If not I suppose it's an expensive lesson learned, but is there any action they can take against the surveyor, otherwise what is the point in spending ££s on a structural survey when they can just absolve themselves of any blame?

Would really appreciate some advice!

OP posts:
enjoyingscience · 24/03/2021 14:53

I had a similar experience. Survey wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. I put in a formal complaint but didn’t get anywhere, perhaps I perused it badly, but had a newborn and didn’t have the headspace for it to be honest! In our case the flashing was missing and leaks had caused significant damage.

LittleOverwhelmed · 24/03/2021 15:30

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

Andthenanothercupoftea · 24/03/2021 19:26

I had a similar experience - the tiles on part of the roof weren't suitable for the pitch which led lots of leaks the first set of wet weather we had. The builder spotted it straight away when they came out to look. The whole thing had to be replaced at the cost of £5kish (quite a small area).

We managed to get £2.5k back from the surveyors by writing a few strongly worded letters, including a write up from the builder. We also had a friend of a friend help with the wording. We ended up threatening court action to report them to RICS (who we'd actually spoken to and were no use, but never mind..). However I understand we were relatively lucky with the outcome.

It might be worth speaking to RICS or another surveyor to see if they feel they took reasonable measures. For example if they weren't able to look in the loft or the expanding foam was covered etc there might be little come back.

LadyShort · 25/03/2021 11:13

Thank you so much for your input, I have forwarded on to him!

OP posts:
pinkearedcow · 25/03/2021 11:22

OP I would get your son to get a second opinion on the roof - remember it is in the roofer's interest to say you he needs a new roof. How did your son find the roofer? If via check a trade or something like that I would be very wary.

I don't know about the expanding foam part (maybe that was used to fix leaky spots), but lots of older roofs have no roofing felt. How old is the roof?

pinkearedcow · 25/03/2021 11:24

Also, yes go back to the surveyor!

LadyShort · 25/03/2021 11:34

He trusts the roofer, he has done work for other members of his girlfriend's family, and to be fair the roofer has gone above and beyond to make sure it's done this week. He showed my son what the problem was before they even went any further.

There is no felt, just tiles nailed to battens, then inside the loft they've sprayed with expanding foam. According to neighbours who only moved in 7 years ago, the roof was replaced in last 7 years as they noticed it being done.

OP posts:
pinkearedcow · 25/03/2021 18:11

Oh that sounds not good.

sarahc336 · 25/03/2021 19:56

Don't forget a lot can change to a house in 2 years though, isn't it possible the roof was ok in 2008? X

sarahc336 · 25/03/2021 20:23

Also on older houses if this is the case with your sons house it is actually quite common not to have felt under the tiles, the felt is mainly to stop wind not water. I wonder if your son needs to get a second quote. We have a 1940s house and our roof has no felt but we've had it checked and told it's actually really common x

sarahc336 · 25/03/2021 20:24

Sorry op ignore me just seen that you said the roof was done 7 years ago. X

GenderApostate19 · 26/03/2021 09:01

Is the spray foam covering the inside of the roof? If so then it’s insulation, which is notorious for causing rot as it stops the ventilation.

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