Charlie discovered the mortar in the walls of his new house was defective and worried about the long-term structural integrity of his home.
What happened
Charlie lived in a large estate of newly built homes. The houses were nearly all identical in size and construction.
One day, Charlie noticed that his neighbour’s house was covered in scaffolding. So he asked his neighbour what was happening.
The neighbour explained there was extensive damage to the mortar around the bricks because the mix of mortar was wrong. The neighbour’s said their insurer had agreed to replace it.
Charlie contacted his insurer to replace the mortar on his home too, but it said no. Charlie thought his insurer was being unreasonable, so he complained. Unhappy with the insurer’s final response, he contacted us to make a complaint.
What we said
We looked into the information provided both by Charlie and the insurer. The insurer agreed that the mortar on Charlie’s home was the same as the mortar on his neighbour's. This meant that Charlie’s mortar was defective too, in line with warranty terms.
However, Charlie’s neighbour’s house was more exposed to the wind, and this had caused damage to the mortar. Charlie’s house was sheltered, and although the mortar was defective, there was no damage. And there was no evidence to suggest that Charlie’s mortar would be damaged in the future.
We explained to Charlie that his warranty covered any damage caused by a defect. As there wasn’t any damage to Charlie’s house, he didn’t have a valid claim.
We were satisfied that the insurer had acted fairly, so we didn’t uphold Charlie’s complaint. We also explained that if there was damage within the warranty period, the warranty would apply.