Legal Advice for improper home building

[ThisIsAnOutrage]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Older houses, pre 1980's, tend to be better built because what it took to become a carpenter in those days was so much more in depth, these days we wack out journeymen with a couple of years in trade school, half the time they can barely hang a door straight, that said older houses will usually need new furnaces, plumbing and electrical work, the good thing is you know that before you walk in the front door and can factor it in to the price up front.

I would never buy new, I just work on the assumption that all houses will have issues and the warranty on any new house is basically useful for little more than wiping your arse

This is so true. Back when, I bought a house built in the 50s. It's built like a tank, but needs updating.


The only part that was not done well was a hasty effort to refinish the basement. While the drywalling is okay, nothing is really plumb, level, square or aligned. Same thing with a friend of mine who just built a place in Germany. There's not a 90 degree angle in it.


They just don't make em like they used to.

[PaperBagger'14]

Ok here we go, get ready for a bit of a roller coaster here:

My house has an attached garage with a small deck overtop of it, this will be important later. It was built by Cedarglen homes in 2008 and located in Auburn Bay.

So while building the entertainment unit i posted in the makers thread, I noticed my garage ceiling had some minor water staining on the ceiling close to the overhead door. I couldn't do much because it was -20 at that time so I thought I would check back when it warmed up. Fast forward a few days, I checked back on the stain and, yup, there was definetly a leak.

I called a contractor who is a family friend to come look at it and assess the damages. He guided me over the phone to check the deck and the wood on it, which I found the wooden side pony walls were completely rotted through and it was his assumption that the wood walls (part of which was directly touching the floor of the deck, improper install) was causing the leak.

He came over a few days later and opened the ceiling cavity in the garage and discovered there was a main support beam there that had black stains from the water pooled on it. The beam had also sagged 5/8" over 20'. He recommended a beam replacement plus fixing the rotted wood on the deck and the roof flashing. His quick estimate was $10 000 but later ended up being $15000.

It was at this point I contacted my insurance (Travelers). IF YOU HAVE TRAVELERS INSURANCE, ABORT ABORT ABORT, THEY WERE COMPLETELY AWFUL THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS. They denied my claim almost instantly because they said this had been a long standing issue and that wasn't covered. My claim was that the stain appeared suddenly to me due to ice damming on the deck and that is covered in my policy. Travelers wouldn't even send someone out to assess the damages (looking at you, Obi from Travelers, #######) just told me to, in fancy words, fornicate myself.

This is when I got a lawyer involved, who after reviewing my policy said I have a strong case based on resulting perils to at least get the beam replaced and the underlying drywall repaired. Fantastic news. When my lawyer contacted Travelers, they changed their tune right quick and are sending out an assessor next week.

Since then I've had 3 other contractors look at the damage and all have determined that the beam is fine, it just needs reinforcing, plus deck repairs and roof flashing. Their quotes are coming in at the $4000 range. This price makes it not worthwhile to go through insurance for me.

I'm waiting on a few more quotes but repairs should be starting soon ish, there won't be a legal battle, and #### Travelers insurance. Seriously, how I was treated was absolutely pathetic on their end and I cant say enough bad things about em. If you're with them, honest to God get out, they are passively hostile to their clients. Terrible company.

All in all, a $4000 bill is manageable, but $15000 would have put a serious strain on my wife and I.

Thanks to those who reached out to me in PMs, it helped me when times were rough and its appreciated greatly!

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Who did the inspections for you to determine what repairs were needed? I'd like someone to have a look at something in my place, just for my peace of mind to tell me if they're seeing anything I should be getting out in front of (I had a minor leak issue last year that the original home builder addressed, so I'd like a third party to assess if their fix is holding up and if it'll be good long-term).

[PaperBagger'14]

I used our family friend, MDR restoration (really good so far), a friend of a friend (whom I wasn't impressed with and wouldn't recommend) and Servpro who was ok to deal with. If you would like I can PM you the family friends info

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

I'm curious about this idea that "homes built in the last 20 years are garbage" bit. Is there any true support to this, or just antidotal evidence? With updated building codes, I have a hard time truly believing that things are much worse today than 20+ years ago.

There is some truth to it, mainly due to lack of good trades being available during busy building markets or bad building codes during certain periods.
But that is cyclical and you can have the same issue in any decade; so it's not as simple as older is better.
More a matter of knowing what was happening at each comparable age you're looking at.

For Vancouver as an example we had a bad period in the late 80's and 90s where exterior face sealed stucco was being used and led to our leaky condo crises.
In 2000 the building code was changed to use rain screen technology that is significantly better than this for our rainy climate.

You'd be much better buying a 2004 build than a 1995 build due to this, especially if a condo.

There's also things like asbestos used heavily pre 1996 which is major killer.
So lots of home buyers would prefer to buy newer vs risks like that.
Then there is knob & tube wiring, low ceilings and plenty of other considerations with buying older homes.

like most things, it's a matter of preference and education about what you're buying. There can be pros and cons for both older or newer.