Question re liability under occupational rent

Nickster said:
Hi all,

Quick question: I'm currently paying occupational rent while waiting for the transfer of a property I purchased. With all the rain in CT recently, we've noticed what looks like rising damp.

The OTP includes a voetstoots clause, but there was no disclosure of any damp issues, and since transfer hasn’t taken place yet, doesn’t the risk still lie with the current owner?

Has anyone dealt with something similar before? I’m getting a damp expert out tomorrow to take a look, but the seller is
a difficult old boomer...
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We bought a house beginning of December, the transfer hasn't gone through yet either. In February a part of the roof cladding fell down after a storm and the current owners had to fix it.
 
Damp is really hard to deal with and be aware of. We sold our house a few years ago, and several months later the buys came along and accused us of damp in the boundary wall, damp in the house wall that we'd covered up, and a rotting roof truss due to a water leak we'd concealed, supposedly.

We provided evidence of ongoing maintenance and regular repainting; with painted walls, exterior damp is inevitable. Boundary walls you cannot keep damp-free because you can't have a damp-proof course in the wall brickwork. The "covered up" wall had shown cracked paint when they'd viewed the house (twice). Only after we'd accepted the offer did we strip the plaster there, re-plaster the section, and repaint the wall. They saw the wall was a slightly different shade. We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do. As for the roof truss, it was just the end, and caused by water coming through a hole in the gutter, pointed out by a potential buyer (after the eventual buyers saw the house!). We just patched the gutter hole.
 
Nickster said:
Yes I did and the seller is supposed to maintain the property in the same state from date of signing the otp to date of transfer.
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Then all the seller would need to do is repaint those bits to bring it to the same superficial condition it was in when you viewed. And maybe put a fan heater on it for a few hours to dry it out.

If that's all you want you might as well do it yourself.

The underlying damp issue did not begin after you viewed, or signed. If it's really rising damp then it began some decades ago when the DPC broke down.
 
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Tomtomtom said:
Then all the seller would need to do is repaint those bits to bring it to the same superficial condition it was in when you viewed. And maybe put a fan heater on it for a few hours to dry it out.

If that's all you want you might as well do it yourself.

The underlying damp issue did not begin after you viewed, or signed. If it's really rising damp then it began some decades ago when the DPC broke down.
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There is interesting case law on this topic and one case specifically where the seller was liable despite the voetstoots and disclosing the damp in the OTP. The extent of the repairs in this case was roughly 500k. So, I think you are oversimplifying the clause. Also not saying this will be my situation. Waiting to see what the extent of damage/ repair costs will be before I make a decision. If the repairs are not significant enough to warrant seeing a lawyer i.e., the juice is not worth the squeeze, I will attend to it myself since the owner is a boomer and difficult.
 
send a photo of this new damp... crop out what you want, just show the problem you've found, it makes life a lot easier.

a litigator will cost you R2,000 just to say hello, guess who wins? them not you, always.
 
Nickster said:
There is interesting case law on this topic and one case specifically where the seller was liable despite the voetstoots and disclosing the damp in the OTP.
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Others have pointed out in the thread that things are different if the damp was disclosed.

You said this is in Cape Town, is it the southern suburbs and is the house > 50 years old by any chance?
 
STORMERSFAN said:
There should o f been a disclosure form filled put from the seller at time of sale wrt latent defects...present owner is responsible until transfer takes place..Put your complaint in writing before transfer.if it's close to transfer maybe trying asking the attorneys if it's possible to delay transfer until sorted(not sure if this is possible)
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Not only is that the wrong word, you also spelled it wrong

:laugh:
 
Does it seem like the owner tried to fix the dampness problem?
 
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