New build 10 year ‘Decenal’ property insurance Spain

the same builder correcting the problem and if you are really unhappy about the original builder ‘having a go’ at correcting a serious structural defect, it is important to stress this lack of confidence to the insurers, which in turn will help to highlight the fact that this is their, rather than the builder’s responsibility.

Will the courts need to be involved?

Unfortunately the process of getting any parties to admit to responsibility can be drawn out and sometimes fruitless, such that a court decision may be needed to force one or more parties to pay up. The good news is that there are some specialist lawyers with experience in such cases, and the good ones won’t advise you to proceed unless you have a decent case. Of course all court actions carry some risk and ultimately the decision to proceed will be down to the owner, for this reason is it often the larger claims that merit court action. In some cases for minor issues, it may be worth simply getting a decent builder in to put things right. A Building Surveyor’s report is advisable so as to clearly establish what the defects are and how they might be corrected including costings. This is sometimes backed up with an Architect’s second opinion, though it should be noted that in Spain not all Architects will have the defects knowledge of a building surveyor and hence should not be solely relied upon for initial diagnosis.

When entering into a claim, it often soon becomes