My home in Brisbane seems to be sinking, Recommendations please !!

Lsolidussnake on 31/03/2014 - 21:30

Hi Guys,

Ive had my house which I purchased about 1.3 years ago, Recently I have noticed cracking around most cornice in the house and a small wall which leads downstairs have dropped about 2cms. Unfortunately the Building and Pest inspector didn't notice anything at the time, otherwise I wouldn't have purchased the place.

I've had a re stumping/house leveling person inspect the place and he reckons that the brick and slab haven't been attached properly, or "Done it on a budget" and that all I can do is to monitor it as fixing it is going to be in excess of 40k. I have noticed a lot of my neighbors places the water all runs to my house and must be getting away under the slab causing the brick to sink down.

From the outside it doesn't look like anything is wrong in the brickwork
Is putting some sort of drainage going to help as its coming up storm season.

I wondering what my best options are:
Repair the cornice and walls. (Sell)
Trying to claim it on my insurance as storm damage
Suing the Building and Pest inspector for not picking up on it.

Any help much appreciated,
Cheers.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • airzone on 31/03/2014 - 21:58
    +2

    Well, Brisbane is a bit of a hole…

    But check out the contract you had with the building inspector… There is probably some indemnifying clause in there…

    How old is the place? Over 7 years old?

  • Lequ83 on 31/03/2014 - 22:43
    +1

    Unfortunately often building inspection reports aren't worth the paper they are written on. Getting into a legal battle over this with the building inspectors insurance company is just going to cost you a lot of time and money and your chances of a favourable outcome are very slim.

    Get an engineer to look at it and they should be able to advise whether you need to do something to stabilise it or if you can leave it and patch it up and then maybe sell if it's worrying you. They should also be able to advise as to whether drainage will assist. I've had a similar experience with a corner of a house I own sinking and it wasn't as bad as I was imagining.

  • solidussnake on 01/04/2014 - 20:02

    Well the place was built in the late 80's, but still in good condition.

    Probably best I get a structural engineer first and see what should be done! Thanks Fellas :)

  • modsec802 on 02/04/2014 - 22:30

    Happened to my parent's house on the Gold Coast because it was built over old sand dunes. Ending up costing about $50,000 in re-pinning the foundations. Couldn't avoid it as the cracks in the wall starting getting 30cm apart…

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