Bought new house but shower and toilet are broken.

booyaka said:
Contact your solicitor.

I bought my first house - got the keys, and the loft was still jammed with loads of junk and crap. I contacted my solicitor and the sellers sent round her dad/brother to empty it all out. took them a full day to do so - no chance I was clearing her rubbish out.
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Similiar happened to me but I did it myself as the first day I had great pleasure in ripping up all carpets, fixtures, flooring etc as I was totally renovating
 
alexthecheese said:
Well you've jumped a bit further than you should have there. We did sign documents to state that all fixings would be left, and we got their fridge and freezer also, cos we asked for it and included it in the itinerary.

Your point doesn't even relate to me not checking the toilets work, even.

I'd be keen to understand if there is a legal requirement to have working toilets in the purchasing of a new house, though.
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I guess I was just lucky, I tried a few of the taps etc, saw water in the toilets but I didn't check the shower. I merely asked the seller if it all worked as it should, which was probably naive.

I know of people who have got sellers to turn their heating on, flushed toilets, looked under all carpets and mats etc.

In your situation however, I suspect there is little legal recourse you could take unfortunately. But ask your solicitor.
 
You bought it. Your issue. Any problems should have been raised beforehand.

I mean seriously, you've just bought a HOUSE and you're quibbling over the price of fixing a TOILET. When I bought my house it had been empty for some time as the lady living there had gone into care. When i turned the kitchen tap on the ceramic cartridge sheared in the open position. I then had to run around attempting to turn the water off and had to dismantle the kitchen to change the taps. It's caveat emptor.
 
You buy a house as is, it's not an appliance you can't take it back for refund or if you think it's faulty!

Pretty sure you don't have a leg to stand on, legally. You should have raised these issues with the vendor before you exchanged contracts. Gotten a survey if need be.
 
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Trouble is, most replies seem to be based entirely on opinion, including mine, with the use CAPITALS to stress their POINT. As if it makes it MORE ridiculous that YOU made an ERROR.

So, yeah, check with your solicitor. :)
 
MaxP779 said:
OcUK lawyers where do i stand?

I heard something along the lines of 5 working days to notify the previous owners of any faults (already done that through my lawyer), do they foot the bill for the repairs? None of it was mentioned in the home report, everything else is fine though its just the shower and toilet.
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hom****** report is a waste of cash. they dont even move furniture (to find mould) and dont even bother to look in locked rooms.

at the end of the day there is (IIRC) zero you can do. you dont buy a house expecting everything to be as new.

the only bit where you might be able to claim is if they specifically said the items were in working order.

tough luck i guess.
 
The seller doesn't have to point these things out, it your job to make sure everything you getting works. I know in the flat I just sold the toilet was cracked and leaks. The buyer never asked, nor did the surveyor or solicitor. Not my job to point it out to them. If they had asked I would have to tell them but they didn’t.
 
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Considering you have now exchanged keys & money, I suspect that there is very little recourse. If the sellers refused to repair them, you'd have to chase them through small claims courts and it's likely not worth the bother for the minimal cost of repairing those two items.

When I purchased my house, I discovered a few weeks later that the downstairs toilet leaked and the pipework above the boiler was also leaking into the boiler, and caused it to rust from the inside out.
 
Hom******

Lol, you're right. If you take the hom out of it, it leaves a certain competitor's name. Funny though.
 
Lesson learnt i guess!

I've just bought my first house last year and pretty much, its sold as seen. I was advised that you need buildings insurance in place from the point of exchange as at that point you're committed to buy regardless of what happens to house.

Unless you'd brought it up previously and it had been agreed to be fixed then as said, your house, your problem.
 
Bought my current house and the shower in the en suite worked but didn't get hot. I had tried it before but not to see if hot water came out. Queried it with the seller after day 1 who said it worked fine before. Not much i could do so paid to get it fixed.

We also found there was a minor (tiny) gas leak. Only cost £40 to fix that although was a pain as had to have gas off for a few days with a new born baby. Shower fix was £120.

It was slightly annoying as i'm pretty sure she was lying but what can you do. Just spent thousands of pounds on a house i'm not gonna get too upset about a couple of hundred quid. Certainly as I knew there were a few things not working properly in the old house which I hadn't bothered to fix.

There will always be some things wrong when moving into a new house that need to be sorted out - i think it's part and parcel really. This example is a bit extreme though as you would expect a toilet to operate at some level.
 
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When you sell a house you fill out a form (in England at least) which lists the state of the house, along with things like what you will be leaving (say, cooker, carpets etc) and what you will be taking away. It asks you if you are aware of any faults. If you have lied, you are in breach of contract.

However...

That's it. The only way to recover any costs if the seller lied is by taking the seller to court, which will cost vastly more than any money you are likely to recover. And that assumes that they pay any award. It cost £1500 to fix the faults in my house when i bought it, and my own lawyer told me it was futile to try to recover the money. Correctly. The law is clear - just worthless.
 
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