Kerrigans Estate Agency News.

Living: Is the damp really rising?

After viewing more than 20 properties, Denise Dawes felt she had finally found her dream Cotswolds cottage - until she was told she would need to spend more than £7,000 to fix a damp patch.

Dawes, 51, was buying a £120,000 Victorian cottage that had been completely renovated by the previous owners, so she had not been expecting large-scale works.

"The mortgage company asked me to get a damp survey done by a member of the British Wood Preserving and Damp-Proofing Association (BWPDA)," she says. "This chap showed me all the red lights flashing on his damp meter. I was horrified as we really wanted this cottage, so I decided to seek a second opinion."

The vendors had had damp-proofing done, and a different surveyor confirmed that channels were already in place and that moisture being detected was caused by condensation and the recent plaster drying out.

Dawes's house purchase is going through, but thousands of buyers each year are not so lucky. Damp - and the fear of it - plagues the housing market. Vendors are persuaded to drop their price, buyers back out, and homeowners fork out for expensive works. Despite the prevalence of the problem, however, consumers are still being ripped off.

Damp undeniably causes real damage. Chris Mahony, of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), says: "Damp can lead to rot in timbers, corrosion of metal fixings and mould growth. What is important is for the surveyor to correctly identify the cause. Rising dampness occurs much less frequently than one might think."

Other common causes include condensation, plumbing leaks, the localised failure of the damp-proof course and water penetration caused by blocked gutters.

"Small localised areas are unlikely to affect the integrity of the building, but if dampness has started to cause timbers to rot, prompt remedial action will be needed," says Mahony.

Even a full structural survey has its limits, however; Mahony warns that patches of damp may be lurking behind furniture or covered by paint.

So how do you know if you have a genuine damp problem? Surveyors often advise buyers to get specialist companies in to conduct damp surveys, but many firms offer "free" surveys and then recoup the cost by recommending extensive works.

Trevor Kent, a former president of the National Association of Estate Agents, says: "Surveyors are reducing their exposure by saying that houses must be checked by independent so-called specialists to absolve themselves of responsibility. But the surveyors are the trained experts. The woodworm and damp people often have no training at all."

Kent cites one client advised by his surveyor to get a specialist damp report. The buyer asked three firms for their opinion; each one found damp in a different wall.

Another common problem is that guarantees offered for damp work "are not worth the paper they're written on", says Anthony Kerrigan, of Kerrigan's Property Services in Doncaster. "I don't think we have ever had a situation where a surveyor has found damp and we've been able to claim on a guarantee. They've either gone out of business or claim the problems are related to an area they didn't treat."

Although guarantees offered by members of the BWPDA, the leading trade body, are backed by insurance if the company goes out of business, only 10% of firms operating in this area are members. In any case, even BWPDA companies may employ their surveyors on a commission basis, meaning that they have an incentive to "find" work.

Chris Coggins, director of the BWPDA, says the body encourages members to charge for their professional services. "The so-called free survey was introduced as a marketing ploy and has not served the industry or the public well.

"We would take disciplinary action against a member found to be fraudulently recommending work, knowing it was unnecessary." But, he says, "there may be more than one way to deal with the problem".

Paul Taylor of UK Damp-Proofing and Timber Treatment spent years installing chemical damp-proof courses before realising, he says, that he could offer customers simpler and more cost-effective solutions.

"Much of this work is unnecessary as rising damp is often assumed to be the problem, when it may instead be condensation or penetrating damp, which can usually be remedied at a fraction of the cost of chemical works."

Steve Playle, a Surrey trading standards officer, advises: "Don't assume the companies with the biggest ads are necessarily the best. The bigger companies tend to subcontract which means they have less control over the work. If you think you've been ripped off, notify trading standards. If we have a few complaints about the same company we will investigate."

Date: Feb 04
Source: The Times