Does anyone know how Vice Cache works. WE sold our house two years ago this coming March. Today we received a registered letter from the new owner staring that 7 months after they had completed on the sale they discovered that the roof had a leak. They mentioned ’ Vice Cachet’ and enclosed DEVIS dated one year ago for over €1100 for repairing a bit of the roof and staring that we are liable for the cost of this.
We put on the new roof ( therefore have no artisan to fall back on) and did not encounter any problems before we left. I am confused by this. I have attempted to research Vice Cachet and am finding that we may be responsible for the costs. We did not sell the house knowing the was any leak in the roof. We lived in it throughout the winter months with no problems.
Any advice or personal experience in this matter would be of assistance…I am now worried that the people who bought the house can keep coming back with problems that we cannot prove were not there whilst we owned the house.
Thanks .for reading
Thanks for all responses. I will see if they will allow us to send another roofer round to quote for the work. The most worrying thing is that they state they discovered the leak in February last year and have done nothing until now. I hope they don’t want to claim for any damage done since the discovery.
Helen is absolutely right. If you have structural work carried out, or do it yourself, you are responsible for providing the 10 year guarantee to your buyer. You then claim in turn against the roofer, if applicable.
Your notaire should have explained this clause on completion of the sale. It is the clause in the deed of sale referring to "assurance dommages ouvrages", which is a type of insurance you should take out when getting any structural work done to protect you against such an eventuality. In reality very few people do take it out as a) it is very expensive and b) it does not insure you for any work you do yourself. In the absence of such insurance, you effectively become the insurer.
To avoid legal action, you may be able to resolve the issue by contacting the roofer concerned, to see if he will repair the leak.
This happened to me and we ended up going through a court mediator - yes you are liable I'm afraid under the garantie deccenal for 10 years after the work was completed
Lol, who knows…seems to me that one can claim whatever one wants under this ’ law’ quite distressing when you think you have done everything to a good standard .
Quite interesting......
We bought a house a year ago, the day we moved in a rat ran across the lounge. This led me to a thorough search and found mice nests under the kitchen units, under the bath (sealed in) and evidence of mice in two cupboards in separate rooms. Not to mention loads of evidence in the garage & barns.....
Just prior to the agreement to buy I challenged the then owner about two marks on small polystyrene ceiling tiles in one of the rooms, as it was under a bathroom i asked if there had been a leak, he said no, no idea what the marks were. Now I find out that above the tiles more rodents have got in!
Does the 'la garantie de vices cachés mean i can get the previous owner to meet the costs of extermination ?
I think you mean 'la garantie de vices cachés'. It means that the buyer should know about any fault at the time of the completion of the sale. If you did not know of a leak and they were in that long before it started then there is far too much room for benefit of doubt. Unless it was completely dry from the time you completed until they found the leak then they are trying it on. However, if you redid the roof yourselves then you may be in a bit of a spot and will have to fight it out.