Hello,
I’m wondering if anyone can help with this…
We purchased a house a month ago. The house had a damp proofing course carried out 4 years ago when the previous owner moved in - the owners before her had organised and paid for it. When we were purchasing the house we tried to get hold of the certificate guaranteeing the damp proofing for 25 years, but it transpired that the vendor didn’t have it – the previous owners had never passed it to her and for whatever reason she didn’t feel it important to get hold of it(!)
So she (and we) called the damp proofing company who confirmed that the damp proofing had been carried out and agreed to transfer the guarantee over to us when we completed. My partner enquired about the certificate and they said we didn’t need it – all that needed to happen was for them to transfer the guarantee over to us. At the time this sounded weird but we were naïve first time buyers and didn’t question it enough.
I rang the company a few weeks ago to check that the guarantee had been transferred over to us (it has been), and it then transpired that we did in fact need the certificate, and that the guarantee was non existent without it. The damp proofing company have a copy of the certificate but it is apparently in the “archives” and they are making a huge deal about going to find it and making a copy for us.
I have rung a few times now and I think they’re just trying to fob us off. Surely it can’t be that difficult to find it? And as they have confirmed that they did the work and have transferred the guarantee into our name it seems bizarre that the guarantee is void?
There is no other way of us getting the certificate, as the vendor didn’t have a copy, and we have no idea where the previous owners might be now and even if we did I’m sure they wouldn’t still have the guarantee.
Can anyone offer any advice? Do the damp proofing company have any obligations? It sounds to me that they’re just trying to get out of the guarantee.
Thank you for reading
