Insurance supplied bad builders where do we stand?

A question about : Insurance supplied bad builders where do we stand?

I recently posted an article about how my house floor had started to rot which we though was wet rot and how i thought my insurance company should be liable, they supplied the builders we had no say in this matter and they came from another town, the advised us on another damp proof course at an extra costs (ombudsman says whilst in our property they are employees or such of insurance and any advise given is that of insurance) anyway we thought the damp proof course had failed and the floor was rotting as a result which has now turned out not to be the case.

we had a damp specialist come to assess the situation who upon falling through the floor said it was the worst case of dry rot he has seen in his life, the total floor downstairs in the living room, hallway and dining room covered in the stuff he estimates at a standard growth rate of 1-2 metres per year this has been growing between 4-8 years (building work was completed less than 4 years ago) He said insurance don't usually cover dry rot but upon him opening a few things up and me showing him pictures of the renovation work we had taken whils tthe job was being done we uncovered a few things.

firstly no joists seem to have been treat at the ends where they have been embedded into the wall, the floor void has ben used as the builders dumping ground and is full of leftover wood, kingspan insulation (which is has under all of the floor) and due to it having what looks like around 150mm kingspan on the top under the boards aswell as all the rubbish and left over stuff below this means air was unable to circulate properly which I have now learnt can create a perfect breeding ground for dry rot.

It also appears that the floor void may not have been cleaned and steralised as required as there is everything you can think of down there including the builders empty bottles from lunch time etc. The damp specialist said that if he were doing the work he would do a risk analysis for condensation with that level of insulation and did I know if they had added in any more ventilation as with all that down there if would be hard to get the cross breeze that is required under the floor (he can't see this himlsef yet as all walls are covered in dry rot and he has not removed the full floor just stuck cameras down there)

I said i'm not too sure but i have some pictures i took which the building work was being completed, i wanted some before and after shots and to document how the work was going to look back on. Whilst looking over these pictures he said your living room flor they have installed seems quite low, when i asked why he thought that and i couldn't tell a difference he said well for a start those airbricks you see there (picture when the new floor was full laid but no plaster/skirting etc) should be under the floor and when they plaster the walls after that/tank them out they will either be blocked or totally covered, if any of the brick is under the floorboards it will be covered by a joist and kingspan and will not be able to do it's job.

We took of the skirting, hacked away a bit of plaster/plasterboard and yup there they are covered in crap and blocked up totally hidden away. He also said there should be a honeycombe wall in the middle between the living and dining room to promote a cross breeze with this level of rubbish and insulation it should be done. it hadn't and the old wall was left in place.

he does think the damp proof course has failed in certain places but not al over, all in all it seems they have done a very sloppy job. I'm am hoping the insurance are going to cover this but he said they don't usually cover dry rot but he would expect them to pay to as those tradesman have done an awful job, he also said he would consider legal action because after the house is repaired it will be harder to sell as you have to disclose this and people are very wary of the term dry rot although he said dry rot is actually rare and needs very specific humidty and dampness to occur and once work is done and all jobs done properly it can't just come back if conditions are not correct for it to do so and proper maintenance plus an insurance backs guarantee should put a lot of peoples mind at ease.

any help much appreciated.

Best answers:

• Have you made an Official Complaint to your Insurers at the time of the claim?
• Yes this happened (me falling through the floor) at 8.30 pm last week and i informed the builders first thing in the morning.
  They sent a surveyor/loss adjuster who said he didn't know exactly what was causing the problem and we should wait until early this week to get the go ahead for full investigation and this could be done by our builder and not to remove the floor until then. we havent but there was a large hole in the front for the dap specialist to look into and we have a hatch under the stairs which allowed him to have a look, this revealed the issues found so far, and the skirting board i removed whilst he was there was to show him they had blocked the air bricks, we have left everything in place as it was for them to give us the go ahead and we assume they will want to send their own surveyor too to witness the damage caused by the previous builders.
  They said this could come on monday/tuesday but i'm just asking where someone thinks i would stand, they said they don't cover dry rot or wet rot as it is a maintenance issue, they can't say we don't maintain our home I Paid a lot of money in extras for damp proof to be installed etc. Even when their surveyor came round he said this is a beautiful home you've got it really nice (i said thanks but i haven't now my floors just collapsed) he said he couldn't find any external faults but offered one thing he would change to help any damp and that was an extended down pipe to move water even further from the property when it rains, the reason for this was as he pointed out the cheeky ***** next door had bad guttered, at some point they had bodged up where their downpipe was and put a piece in going into ours so the downpipe was taking 2 lots of water but his damp meter didn't show anything damp on the walls where this was and he said it's just a suggestion.
• sorry i informed the insurance company first thing in the morning not the builders. we have been unable to get in touch with the original builders but they are still trading.
• Firstly did you log a formal complaint with the insurers?
  Contractors will only guarantee their work for 12 months (with the companies we use anyway).
  If the damp proof course has failed, that isn't something your insurers can deal with, as this part was a separate contract between yourself and the builders in question.
  It will be hard to get insurers to pay for the dry rot issue. The assessor you got out said that it could have been ongoing for anywhere from 4 - 8 years, so there is no evidence this was caused by the contractors who did the works.
  If there is faulty workmanship here, the builders / insurers will pay to rectify the issues that were faulty.
• Yes we have now only dealt with the insurance.
  The dampcourse was a seperate contract between us and the builder but we have been told that liability could lie with the insurers as this was work recommended by the builders they supplied and they are effectively acting on behalf of them or this is what the ombudsman said.
  In reply to the dry rot the company said between 4 and 8 years BUT this job was done (total rip out for flood damage and replace all floors etc) 5 years approx ago so it can't have been there before this and must have started after. Also the insulation and blocking up of air bricks (dumping crap in the sub floor) can create the perfect environment for dry rot to thrive, this would be very hard to happen in a well ventilated area which should have had a condensation risk assessment done before Instaling the kingspan.
  If a mechanic failed to repair your brakes and you crashed would you accept that they were only liable to fix the brakes or the total damage?