Who is liable? Load bearing demolished accidentally

[Millypip91]

Hi there,

I am having a DIY disaster. We bought a 1930's semi in September. It's a 3 bed with a partially converted loft - loft was boarded and plastered, has electric and windows but was not officially converted with stairs etc. We had all our surveys done before buying and all was well.

We moved in and decided to make a bigger kitchen diner and get the wall between kitchen and dining room knocked through. We did our research and after a few quotes went for a reputable local building company who has their own structural engineers. We were assured by them that the wall was a stud wall and not load bearing so no building regs were required. Long story short they knocked down the wall and a crack appeared almost immediately in the newly decorated bedroom. We also noticed some worsening of hairline cracks in our recently re plastered bedroom ceiling. The builder thought it was just stress fractures and suggested that the ceiling was badly plastered before (by other tradesmen) so recommended plaster boarding and re-doing them. I had a bad gut feeling about this so instead I got a structural engineer to come out and assess the cracks. Unfortunately he informed us that the loft which was partially converted didn't meet building regs and all the previous owner had done was take the supporting beams out without putting extra supports in making the house structurally unsafe. Sadly this was not picked up in any of the surveys we had done. He also said that because of the lack of support in the loft the wall that was knocked down in the kitchen effectively was load bearing even though it appeared not to be. The builders didn't actually go in the loft so they didn't know about this but arguably they still knocked the wall down and told us it was fine so surely some of the blame lies with them. The previous owner did not declare any structural changes to the property so we already may have a case against her but I am wondering if I can pursue anything with the builders? Since it happened they did immediately come and put some beans back in the loft and temporary poles where the wall was up to secure everything but they are still trying to charge us a lot of extras for fixing the damage and I kind of expected that they would give us quite a hefty discount considering that they did knock it down. My other half doesn't seem to want to pursue anything against the builders and is trying to kind of keep them on side whilst they are still doing work and accessing our property but I am getting a bit peed off that they're not really being held accountable. Would love any advice x

I don’t think the actual builders could be expected to spot this sort of issue. Did the building company say their structural engineers check every job before it starts and/or include this in your quote? Their fees aren’t cheap, even for simple jobs, so they’d be charging more than competitors if this was their standard offer.

What does your homebuyers survey say about the loft conversion? Does it recommend checking certification or seeking further advice in any way?

We had a full structural survey, by an SE, which missed a major defect. We got nearly all our repair costs back because we could prove at the time of inspection a) the defect existed and b) was visible (with photos our surveyor had taken but not put in his report). We didn’t pursue action against our RCIS surveyor as he’d directed us to seek advice from an SE. Surveyors aren’t experts in everything but they’re meant to tell you to seek advice if it’s beyond their skill set.