Typical responses from building contractors.
What should you do about their many excuses?
When, in a recently handed-over new-build development, the owners make a claim to the building contractor based on a snagging list, or even serve a formal demand on it, two things can happen:
1) At first, the contractor or developer may send staff to carry out certain repairs, although these repairs are rather unorthodox patch-ups, provisional rather than permanent, which do not address the origin of the damage but only its surface, and which will undoubtedly not prevent the damage from reappearing.
2) On the other hand, the contractor may refuse to repair the damage for these reasons:
a) Stating that the legal time limit has already passed for it to be liable for them.
b) Stating that the damage is not its responsibility and is due to misuse by the homeowners’ association or to lack of maintenance.
Faced with these unsatisfactory responses from the contractor/developer, you should seek advice from a specialist firm because:
1) Patch-up repairs by the contractor must not be tolerated. A comprehensive repair must be carried out that addresses the cause of the damage. If there is damp on a wall, for example, it is not enough to clean it up and paint it. The wall will have to be properly waterproofed so that the damp does not come back.
2) Regarding an outright refusal, you should know that:
a)Some damage that the developer claims is time-barred, because it regards it as poor finishes (claimable within the 1-year guarantee period provided for in the second paragraph of article 17.1.b of the LOE), is in fact habitability damage (claimable within the 3-year guarantee period, under article 17.1.b of the LOE).
b)It is very unlikely that the damage is caused by lack of maintenance (if the development has only just been handed over) or by misuse, if it is genuinely a construction defect.
We therefore insist that, if the developer refuses to repair or accept liability for these defects, the best course of action is to consult a specialist firm so that they can be assessed by an expert and properly claimed, and those responsible are finally held to account. DPcon Reclamación Daños constructivos.
Any questions?