Hidden home faults double in five years

Reported incidents of hidden home faults have doubled in the last five years*, leaving homebuyers with a £650 million annual repair bill**.

A report from Direct Line Home Insurance reveals that 800,000 buyers per year (46 per cent)*** find faults in their home after moving in. More than a third of these buyers (40 per cent) were deliberately misled by the seller, with faults costing an average of £2,300 to repair.

Tricks employed to secure a quick sale include wallpapering over cracked walls (22 per cent), strategically positioning plants and furniture (22 per cent), spraying air fresheners to cover the smell of blocked drains (5 per cent), or using rugs to cover unstable or rotten flooring (18 per cent).

This means that buyers commonly find problems after signing on the dotted line, with those moving into faulty homes typically discovering plumbing problems (31 per cent), rising damp (24 per cent), unstable flooring (10 per cent) or subsidence (8 per cent).

Following a wave of related enquiries to its Family Legal Protection service, Direct Line has published advice on how to spot these potential property pitfalls. Within this advice it is also clarified that buyers have legal recourse to their survey provider and/or the previous owners of the property if they misled the buyer.

Andrew Lowe, Direct Line’s Head of Home Insurance, commented:

“It’s becoming much more common for sellers to hide faults from new buyers in order to secure a quick sale, with over 280,000**** buyers misled in the last year.

“If buyers find themselves in this situation they should immediately seek legal advice, as the previous owners are responsible for dealing with this problem if they were dishonest when questioned during the selling process.”

Top 10 undiscovered home faults

1. Faulty wiring (35 per cent)
2. Dodgy plumbing (31 per cent)
3. Broken boiler (26 per cent)
4. Damp (24 per cent)
5. Faulty roof (20 per cent)
6. Bathroom faults (12 per cent)
7. Low water pressure (12 per cent)
8. Unstable flooring (10 per cent)
9. Wood rot (9 per cent)
10. Subsidence (8 per cent)

Advice for buyers

1. Serious conditions such as subsidence, rising damp and wood rot should be picked up on a household survey. If you have one of these and later find these problems were not highlighted, you have legal recourse to have the survey provider cover the cost of fixing the problem
2. Look out for the telltale signs of subsidence, including ‘sticking’ doors (caused by structural distortion) and diagonal cracks in plasterwork and brick work typically wider than the thickness of a ten pence coin. It is commonly visible at the point where extensions join with the main part of the building
3. The majority of subsidence issues are caused by trees in the vicinity of the property soaking up water and making the ground unstable. Removal of the tree will halt most subsidence problems
4.  Don’t just check the appearance of the property, be thorough. Turn on hot taps to check the water pressure and make sure the boiler is working. Check drains around the property, making sure they are not overflowing or blocked
5. Visiting the property at night will give you an excuse to turn lights on and off as a test of the wiring
6. Ask the awkward questions – the seller is obliged to be honest with you about the state of the property (to the best of their knowledge). If you then find you have been misled, the seller will be legally obliged to deal with the problem
7. Listen out for noisy neighbours – this is one problem with the property that money can’t fix!
8. Trust your nose. Rising damp and wood rot will have a distinctive odour, or will be covered up by heavy spraying of air fresheners
9. Don’t rush – although the buying process is a frantic one, when you get the chance to view a property, take your time. A hasty viewing could cost you in the future
10. No property is perfect so don’t be put off by minor faults that are easily put right, but concentrate on spotting the critical faults which would land you with a large repair bill

For more information on Direct Line’s Family Legal Protection service, visit:
www.directline.com/home/flpwelcome

Notes to Editors

YouGov interviewed a UK representative sample of 2,148 UK Adults online between 18-21 May 2007. 1,366 of those sampled were homeowners

* In the last 12 months 46 per cent of homebuyers discovered faults in their properties after moving in, compared to 26 per cent five years previously

** Population UK 45,434,897 (ONS Census 2001). 64 per cent of population own their own home
45,434,897 X 0.64 = 29,078,334. Of these 32.6 per cent have purchased in the last five years = 9,479,536. 38 per cent found faults after buying (3,602,224), of which 40 per cent were purposefully deceived = 1,440,889. Divide this figure by five = 288,177 people landed with bills of £2,333.24.
288,177 X £2,333.24 = 672,386,103 – approx £650 million annual bill

*** Adult population of UK 45,434,897. 64 per cent are property owners = 29,078,334. Of these 6 per cent have purchased in the last 12 months = 1,744,700. Of these, 46 per cent found faults = 1,744,700 x 0.46 = 802,562 approx 800,000

**** Population UK 45,434,897 (ONS Census 2001). 64 per cent of population own their own home
45,434,897 X 0.64 = 29,078,334. Of these 32.6 per cent have purchased in the last five years = 9,479,536. 38 per cent found faults after buying (3,602,224), of which 40 per cent were purposefully deceived = 1,440,889. Divide this figure by five (five years) = 288,177 people – approx 280,000

For more information please contact:

RBS Insurance Press Office
Tel: 0208 285 3277