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Dodgy DIY dupes buyers - 30 November 2007

Posted by Paul Collins No comments

Time to wince if you’re anything like me, and like a large proportion of the population, according to the latest study on home repairs. Apparently, many of us bodge quick DIY repairs to sell houses without paying for the professionals to do it, and then some people are even trying to pass off their mess as someone else’s fault!

Research from a leading home insurer has shown that over the past four years more than four million homebuyers in the UK have been misled by patchy DIY performed on properties in order for the sale to go through without any problems.

Those buyers have then discovered the true condition of their new property in the weeks and months following their purchase, and are forced to carry out remedial work.

At the same time, five and a half million people over the same period have said that they have undertaken DIY repairs in order to make their property ready for sale on the open market, but a third of these admit that the work was done in a bid to hide damage and more serious work that needed doing.

As we undoubtedly are a nation obsessed with DIY, as well as with buying and selling property, this is hardly surprising, but there is the more serious side when you think about the length of time that people spend living in houses that are clearly in need of some professional attention.

The most worrying thing about this is the fact that almost one in five people tell prospective buyers that work they have done themselves has been carried out by professionals. No doubt this doesn’t apply when people point out bad workmanship, nor do they admit to having to employ tradesmen to repair the mess they have made.

So just remember, when you next go to see a house you’d like to buy, don’t automatically think that the newly-painted walls are just because people have spruced the place up for sale – if it looks strange, there might be a deeper reason.


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