Couple’s anger after buying £290,000 home that started ‘falling apart just DAYS later’
Mum Clare Murtough says her three young sons are lucky to be alive after the ceiling collapsed while they were watching TV
A COUPLE who bought a £290,000 house they say was greenlit by surveyors have been left fuming after a ceiling caved in within days of moving in.
Clare Murtough, 38, claims her three young sons are lucky to be alive after the collapse which occured while they were watching TV.
It’s just one of a host complaints Clare has with the property.
She says cracks in walls have been disguised by doubled layers of wallpaper, visible holes in the roof have allowed rain to come in and joists are rotting in the attic.
She claims she was also forced to remove an upstairs ceiling after moving into the property in Swindon, Wilts with her partner Jose.
Despite moving in six weeks ago she claims the problems have left the family sleeping on mattresses in the lounge beside bags of clothing.
Clare insists no issues were highlighted by Countrywide, who carried out the survey when the mortgage was issued.
She said: "My kids would have been killed if they were upstairs when the ceiling fell through.
"I tried to pick up a bit of the rubble and if that had landed on them it would have crushed their skull."
The family say they have so far shelled out £4,000 in repairs, with the roof and many wooden beams yet to be replaced.
Clare added: "When we opened the loft we noticed four holes of daylight coming through.
"Then, when we stripped the wallpaper off, there were two-inch cracks in the wall.
“Everything had just been covered make-up-wise.
"They had put two layers of wallpaper on one place where there were large cracks.
"All the joists in the loft were rotten, and since then, we've had someone to look at the triangle rafters, and they're all rotten as well.
"I'd been to the house three or four times, and I'd queried two-inch cracks either side of the bay window, but they said that if it was a problem, they would have flagged it up."
A Countrywide spokesperson said: "At Countrywide Surveyors we always recommend to house buyers that a survey report is undertaken to ascertain the condition of the property.
"We were instructed by Miss Murtough and Mr Mantinan to prepare a valuation report in connection with the lender’s assessment of the mortgage, which does not cover the condition of the property.
"We are sorry to hear of the unfortunate situation that Miss Murtough and Mr Mantinan have found with their new home and as a RICS regulated company have provided a detailed response to their enquiry in line with our complaints procedure, which explains that Countrywide Surveyors bears no liability in relation to the property."
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