Cavity wall claims have been a hard-fought new area of law. Cavity walls were initially presented as a method of tackling wind-driven rain for penetrating the solid brick walls of homes located on the west and southwest coasts. However, the government backed a retrospective installation grant to the general public for cavity insulation to be placed within older properties, unlike the plans for newly built homes, the method of installing insulation into properties was completely different. In particular, the insulation is a full fill of the cavity, whereas in a newly built home the cavity is only insulated on the inner wall and the insulation is away from the outer wall leaving a gap. This gap stops fluid from transferring from the outer wall to in the insulation and so penetrating the inner wall. So you can see this is where the problems start to arise, and some of the issues can be catastrophic.
Liverpool-based Pilkington Shaw successfully argued that the claimant’s property was not suitable to receive insulation and that it should never have been installed.
The judge at Cardiff County Court awarded damages of over £6,000, plus interest.
Though cavity wall litigation has been dubbed the ‘new whiplash’ by some, Mr Pilkington said these issues showed they were not.
For one thing, there was a “finite number” of cases. Though insulation was still being installed, the solicitor said it was not “in anything like the numbers it was when government incentives were available”.
Further, he said: “In a cavity wall case, it is possible to demonstrate objectively that the installation should not have been carried out or is defective and that damage has occurred as a result, by using a RICS registered surveying expert.
Source: https://www.litigationfutures.com/news/firm-claims-first-victory-in-contested-cavity-wall-insulation-case
If your property has seen a negative effect because of the installation of cavity wall insulation you can submit an enquiry here and we will arrange a no-obligation home visit to assess your case.
