£43,000 for a new roof? Post Reply

[melynch]

My husband and I have just been representing ourselves at a Tribunal against our landlord over whether or not we need to replace our roof - which he says we do but we say we don't.

Last year, a Chartered Surveyors, called TCL Chartered Surveyors, carried out a survey on our property and produced something called a Planned Preventative Maintenance Schedule. They estimated that our new roof would cost approximately £43,000! The actual cost from the company who have won the tender is about £18,700. That means that TCL Chartered Surveyors gave us an estimate which was nearly £25,000 over. We didn't find out about the lower quote for months even though it had been sent to our Landlord so we spent months worrying where we were going to find such money! When we challenged the Surveyor about this at the Tribunal, he said the point of the schedule is to help people budget - but costing something at over double the actual price is hardly going to help us budget - unless we want to buy two roofs. It just terrified us.

Has anyone else had Surveyors wildly over-estimate costs to a similar extent over costs this high? I am thinking of reporting them to an industry monitoring body. Any thoughts appreciated.

[GABS]

If you are renting and do not own the property you don't have to replace anything unless you are the one who damaged it ! Is anything else written in your renting contract?

[IrenaP]

Yes it's not clear if you are renting or if are you a leaseholder. Can we assume you are a leaseholder? FYI I have been getting estimates for a new roof to a large Victorian terrace property with large extension. Quotes are coming back in the region of £30 including vat. The reason is it's not just the roof but the insulation etc that needs to meet modern standards.

[Herculesmum]

£43k is very overpriced unless you have a large block. Budget is about £12k for a standard house with a 10 year warranty.
For that cost you should have been served a section 20 notice. Were you?

[melynch]

Thanks, all.

We are leaseholders but it's only an Edwardian maisonette. The process was done through Section 20 'consultation' (my arse, consultation, it's a procedure the landlord has to follow legally but nothing we said was considered which is why we ended up at a tribunal).

The tender that will likely get the job came in at £18,700 putting the Surveyor's estimate out by nearly £30,000. Very poor work from them.

And our landlord sat on the tender's quote for three months before informing us, through his solicitor, that that was an actual quote as opposed to £43,000. You can imagine how worried we were with the first cost hanging over us.

It turns out they all work closely together too - the landlord, surveyor and roofer and solicitor. So we've been feeling quite bullied by it all.

[MonkeySee]

Can you get ask ti see a detailed quote and the get a few few independent quotes and compare like for like. It really sounds like they are trying to fleece you and having ended up in tribunal are now back peddling. You shouldn't have to go with their company though and if they have prior history I'm sure the tribunal would agree

[Scottov]

I'm not sure what the problem is, and what you are arguing for?

whether you are liable for the roof will be set out in your leasehold agreement, so are you complaining about the costs of the PPM?

your surveyors may not be quantity surveyors, and even if they were, are going to be using standard tables for estimating work. unlikely to be much to see there as there is no loss, you've gone to market and gotten a quote.

if you are arguing whether the work needs doing at all, I very much doubt the tribunal will insert its expertise over that of the surveyors and rule that it does not.

[IrenaP]

I agree - they should be showing you three comparable quotes. £18700 sounds pretty good, especially if that's including VAT, although I don't know how big your building is. It's certainly lower than what we have seen, and those are coming from reputable roofing contractors.

[Herculesmum]

I agree £18,700 isn't massively unreasonable so now that it has been revealed that is the cost as opposed to what was quoted in the survey, I'd suggest you save yourself the stress of continuing at tribunal.

We have a Share of Freehold apartment where one apartment has remained a leaseholder. From her perspective she has zero visibility about how much goes into keeping the building in good condition and maintained and in line with all of the legal requirements that exist around health & safety, fire safety, insurance, leaseholder communication etc. We manage the building maintenance ourselves together with all of the required reporting and actually its a lot of hard work which we dont charge for at all.

We always try to make sure any maintenance is done competitively but quotes can come in that vary widely and the cheapest quote isn't always the one you want to pursue because actually you don't have faith in the supplier and their warranty.

It may be that your freeholder was taking the mickey, or maybe they just got a surveyor that wildly overestimated the requirements. Given its come in at a fairly reasonable cost, I'd personally let it go and be thankful you aren't the one having to arrange it.

Alternatively if you really have lost faith in your freeholder, then you can apply for Right to Manage which gives you complete control over the management of the building.

[melynch]

Hi all and thanks again for your efforts to help.

My issue with TCL Chartered Surveyors is that they produced a list of estimated quotes that gave the roof estimate at about £43,000 - for an Edwardian maisonette! The roofing company subsequently quoted £18,000 - which is very reasonable. TCL's quote, they told us, is intended to help us budget - but it is not helpful at all to provide a quote that is £25,000 too much - unless I was buying two roofs. We paid for the service from TCL - and feel that have been professionally negligent in producing figures so wildly inaccurate. There is a loss there - that a paid service has done no more than scare the crap out of us - because for months we had a bill hanging over us for replacing the roof at £43,000. It also calls into question the feasibility of anything else TCL put in their report or PPM. TCL also know the roofer who provided the quote for £18,000 very well, making it even more weird that they couldn't get their figures right - or even close to right. TCL also know our freeholder - who doesn't like us at all and complains constantly about the noise our three small children make - he lives below us.

Anyway, we've had the Tribunal session so are waiting for the verdict.

[Herculesmum]

It does all sound a bit sus, but at least now the tribunal will decide and you can move forward.

Hopefully if they rule for you it will also put your freeholder off acting in a similar manner in future although who knows.

It would be great to hear how you get on so please do post a update.