Vice cahe

[Tony F Dordogne]

Hi folks

We've found ourselves in a difficult position.  We finalised the purchase of our house at the end of January having originally seen it last September and having paid the deposit as required.  When we finally saw it empty we both noticed problems with the wall paper in the bedrooms but didn't really think too much of it.

At the ends of April, during torrential rain, we found the cause of the problem, the house leaked, water in under the foundations because of the way the back of the house had been piled high with earth and the way in which a lean to had been built, the average across the back of the house being 35cm above foundation level with no drainage.

We have legal protection insurance with our assurance company and they think that we have a case of 'vice cache' because the owners failed to disclose a material fact, viz that the house (as it was before we got the mini pel in) leaked - well, they wouldn't, would they!

So, we're putting a file together - lots of photographs from last year, the general mess we found with the plumbing when we moved in, not a sealed joint in sight, toilet leaking for ages, sink backing up, mould on the walls, hole in the ceiling under the tiles, botched work being covered with wall to wall lambris - to send off to the assurance company.

Does anybody have any experience of this sort of case where a vice cahe was invoked? We have advice from both our Notaire and the assurance company that although the house was bought 'as seen' the vice cache would over-rule it.

We love the house, surroundings, everything but we wouldn't have bought it if we had known about the problems we were facing.  That said, we're getting on with the remedial work though it's delaying some of the ohter work that we wanted to do.

Any comments would be most welcome.

 

[Teamedup]

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/vosquestions/F11007.xhtm

Vice caché

Contenu : Il y a vice caché si vous pouvez établir que le défaut était inconnu au moment de l'achat et qu'il altère ou amoindrit le produit pour le prix payé.  

Exemples de vices cachés : défaut de conception d'un moteur, caractère inondable d'un sous-sol à usage d'habitation, plusieurs pannes successives affectant la même pièce... 

 

 

 

That is just the first paragraph, but looks like that should cover it, good luck.

[Tony F Dordogne]

Hi

Thanks for that, I've got a similar thing in translation - I really want to know whether anybody has had to deal with one of these and how difficult it is/can be/is it worth it.

But the web site you pointed me towards looks good for all sorts of things we may need to know about in the future.