Bay family stuck with dud house

A FAMILY’s delight to move into their new Arboretum house last year soon turned into a grave case of buyer’s remorse when they discovered the house is in fact ‘falling apart from the ground up’.

At the end of 2012, Marthinus and Natasha van Rooyen decided to buy a residential property, which was believed to have been repossessed by Firstrand Bank Limited three decades ago.

Original documents drawn up in 1983 from the Richards Bay Town Engineer’s Department, states the house was designed, built and owned by the same individual known as RT Jones.

‘Two years ago, we went to see the house at 8pm when the tenant was finally available and the house seemed in descent condition,’ said Natasha.

‘But when we moved in, in April, the place stank – the carpets were rotten and there was extensive water damage to the walls previously covered by furniture.’

The carpeting and flooring materials were removed to display cracks ranging in width from 2mm to 20mm and lengths running from 2m up to 5m.

A private civil engineer was subsequently called in to evaluate the seriousness of the situation.

‘When he drove up the driveway he exclaimed, ‘what have you bought?’ said Natasha.

‘He showed us a crack that goes right through the entire house, splitting it in two.’

To prove the accuracy of the initial assessment to Firstrand Bank, the Van Rooyens paid R6 500 for a Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) to establish the house’s subsurface conditions.

DMV Consultants Richards Bay reported their findings in a statement.

‘Substantial cracks in the surface beds in all rooms where the carpeting has been removed were observed and appear to travel right through the respective surface beds.’

Firstrand Bank’s attorneys Ramdass and Associates said their ‘clients strenuously denies’ allegations that they were aware of the property’s defects at the time it was sold and refuse to re-transfer the house.

‘We have been paying the bond, utility bills and other costly fees for a house that’s falling apart,’ said Natasha.

‘All I’m asking is to get the money back we spent on a dangerous property that should never have been put on sale.’

In a box:

Know you rights before purchasing a second-hand home.

· Refuse to sign sale agreements containing a ‘voetstoots clause’, which means that the purchaser is buying ‘as is’, unless the agreement is also made conditional on a ‘satisfactory’ pre-sale home inspection report.

· Insist on a professional home inspection before buying a house.

· The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) gives consumers the right to be fully informed regarding the goods that they are purchasing.

But it excludes private sellers from accountability so purchasing a property privately puts the buyer at additional risk.

Estate agents, however, do have accountability under the CPA.

· Buyers have the option to remove or insert any clause they like into the offer agreement.