How to act against structural damage
When cracks appear in a house, alarm should be raised, especially if they are staircase-like or diagonal in shape and if they are visible in pillars and walls of the lower floors, because they may be structural damage;
You should know that according to the Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación, structural safety is a basic requirement of the building, (the most important) in particular in its article 3, section b.1, establishes the obligation that a building must have in order to guarantee its structural safety, so that no damage occurs in the building, or parts of it, that have their origin in or affect the foundations, supports, beams, slabs, load-bearing walls or other structural elements, and that directly compromise the mechanical resistance and stability of the building;
The best way to do this is to have the property assessed by a building damage surveyor; This expert-architect will determine the seriousness and importance of the damage, as well as the most appropriate repair proposal and the cost of such repair or compensation;
On the other hand, cracks may or may not be stabilised, so it is best to monitor their evolution; In order to see if cracks are still growing and moving, cracks should be monitored and the evolution of the cracks should be monitored; In very severe cases, propping or eviction may even be recommended;
The solution to such defects is usually the repair of elements, injection of resins under the foundation to stabilise it, or the insertion of micropiles;
In any case, as should be determined by a specialist expert, you should not ignore this damage and stop claiming for structural damage to your property, as you may not only be precluding your right to compensation but also endangering the integrity of your home and that of its occupants;
Types of Structural Damage
Structural damage is damage originating in or affecting the foundations, supports, beams, floors, load-bearing walls or other structural elements, which directly compromises the mechanical strength and stability of the building; According to the LOE there is a guarantee period of 10 years to claim this type of damage; Specifically, article 17.1 a) of the LOE, establishes the liability of the possible responsible parties for a period of ten years, for material damage caused to the building due to defects or faults affecting the foundations, supports, beams, slabs, load-bearing walls or other structural elements, and which directly compromise the strength and stability of the building;
Structural damage to dwellings
In single-family houses, the occurrence of cracks must be particularly monitored; If they are self-promotions, check whether a geotechnical study was commissioned, what it said about the terrain and what type of foundations it recommended, as its recommendations may not have been followed faithfully;
If the dwelling is semi-detached or semi-detached, the inspection should be extended to adjoining dwellings, as they may share a foundation and the problem may affect both dwellings;
Such damage may be due to an inadequate foundation, a design defect, a problem with the water table, or differential settlement;
All our experts are specialists in building pathologies, with experience to ratify and defend their report in the Courts, not in vain most of our experts are also judicial experts, that is to say, in addition to working in our company, as party experts, they are part of lists of the Courts where they are called to be objective experts in other procedures, having proven experience in court; Please contact us;
Structural damage to buildings
If cracks appear not only in your home but also in the rest of the building, and they are widespread in all dwellings and common areas, it is probably due to a design defect or foundation failure;
As a general rule, the most affected dwellings tend to be on the ground and top floors; However, depending on the construction defect, it can be more or less generalised in all the dwellings of the community;
If your community of owners has this type of damage, it would be best to communicate this problem to the president of the community and / or property manager, and that by mutual agreement measures are taken;
Contacting an expert specialising in structural defects who will visit the property, and after the appropriate checks and monitoring the evolution of the damage, assess the measures to be taken, the origin of the damage, the repair proposal and its economic quantification; Subsequently, and in the light of the data provided by the report, a claim against those responsible will be considered, depending on the responsibility for the origin of the structural damage, in order to bring the appropriate actions;
We can help you with all the steps to be taken; We can also find in both buildings and dwellingsdamage to habitability and damage to finishes.
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