Problems with a mediterranean style house built in 1988.

In 1999 Matt and his family were looking to trade-up to a contemporary house. They liked the look of a Mediterranean style home built in 1988. Matt was cautious and commissioned a pre-purchase inspection. The report noted that some maintenance was needed to the cladding and decks but gave the impression that this was no more than could be expected of an eleven-year-old house. The report rated the house as “overall good” and this gave the couple the confidence to buy.

Looking back Matt now realises there were a number of pointers to the house being affected by water – signs of previous repairs, stained carpet, cracking in the cladding around the windows.  At the time Matt took these cracks as minor cosmetic problems.

The house as purchased in 1999

In July 2001 a small section of the exterior wall was damaged. Matt stripped away linings as a first step to repairing the problem. This revealed a rotten bottom plate where the driveway had been laid against the cladding. Of greater concern though, was water dripping down the building paper.

A BRANZ accredited advisor was called-in. His report was very bad news.

There were serious problems with:

• Window flashings.
• Weathertightness of balustrades and parapet walls.
• A break-down of cladding joints.
• Waterproofing of enclosed and cantilevered decks – there was none.

Clearly the house had been leaking since it was constructed. Attempts had been made by previous owners to fix the worst affected walls, including the use of a special paint to cover cladding cracks.

The only slightly positive news in the advisor’s report was that boric treated framing had been used. This had slowed the rot. Nevertheless, the decay in the decks was thought to be so bad that they were considered dangerous.

Because the house was more than ten-years-old it was not covered by the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service and Matt and his wife were faced with sorting out the repairs for themselves.

Cantilevered deck joists exposed

Sadly, as the work progressed, it was found that much of the framing and all the exterior cladding had to be replaced. The extent of the damage was so bad that bulldozing the house was seriously considered.  Matt and his family had to live in rented accommodation for 8 months while the repair work was undertaken.

And it wasn’t just the structure of the house that required work. Around 5 cubic metres of soil had to be removed from around the foundations to get finished ground levels to Building Code requirements. 

The final price of the remedial and upgrading work went from the initial estimate of $100,000 to almost $300,000.  They were completely “cleaned out” financially.  To recoup some of the cost, the family sold the restored house. Theoretically, they could have mounted a legal claim against the original inspection company. In practice, the likelihood of getting anything back was not worth gambling the significant legal fees.

The bathroom under repair

The house has cost Matt dearly.  It will take almost a working lifetime for him to recover financially.  He was prudent in getting a pre-inspection report, but the report turned out to be inadequate because the inspector did not have expertise in weathertightness issues. Matt was also let down by shoddy workmanship and poor council inspections and approvals.  Had Matt been more fortunate in engaging a weathertightness-experienced professional, he may have been able to avoid a costly mistake.

The completed house

More information

Before engaging a building inspector for a pre-purchase inspection report carry out your own investigations - it might help you to rule out a property before getting too far into the purchase process.  A free checklist is available at www.consumer.org.nz.