THE ground floor in a new £57,500 house started to subside shortly after the buyers moved in the Circuit Civil Court has been told.
Judge Harvey Kenny yesterday awarded Joseph and Deirdre McKeever, of the Nurseries Forest Road, Swords, Co Dublin £27,400 damages and expenses against Carmen Builders Ltd Stoneybatter, Dublin.
Mr McKeever discovered the subsidence after removing kitchen cupboards to deal with a gas leak. When they would not fit back properly, he found all of the floors in the house had subsided by up to 1.25 inches.
He said he had contacted solicitors O Scanaill and Co and following an exchange of letters and discussions, Carmen Builders said it would put a concrete skimming on the floors to bring them up to the skirting boards again.
He told his counsel, Mr Micheal O Scanaill, that on professional advice he had rejected this and insisted on the floors being scooped out. This was carried out.
Mr McKeever said the building company paid his expenses for living elsewhere while the work was done. He said it had undertaken to have the carpets professionally lifted and the furniture professionally stored.
He said that on monitoring the work he found his furniture had been "just horsed upstairs" into other rooms. Carpets had been left lying on the stairs and the house was in a "disgusting mess. Windows had been left open to force dry the new concrete floors and the carpets had shrunk.
Mr McKeever said his wife was very distressed, more than he was.
Judge Kenny said the couple should have been in bliss on moving into their new home. Instead they found that a lot of work was needed to put their house right.
"It was a very traumatic experience. Having builders in the house at any time is stressful. The builders accepted there were defects and the only issue remaining is compensation," he said.
He said the couple had experienced difficulties from July 1992 until today and they were entitled to general damages of £20,000 with £7,444 special damages to cover engineering, architectural and other expenses.
Following a brief adjournment to allow discussions about a payment to facilitate a stay pending an appeal, Judge Kenny was told a stay would not be necessary.
Another claim against the builders by Mr and Mrs Brown, next door neighbours of the McKeevers, had earlier been settled for an undisclosed amount. Their action was struck out with no further order.