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15 Grove Road
I did not get a building surveyor to take a look at the house before I bought it, and I suspect that if I had I would have been warned not to buy it. The main problem was the roof, though there were also cracks in the walls: hence most of the other houses in the terrace have been pebble dashed. But not number 15 and that was one of the reasons why I bought it.
The door to my bathroom wouldn't open or shut and the wall above it was showing severe signs of water ingress. From the back garden I could see the wall between the roof of my house and next door needed to be fixed.
I called a builder whose card I saw. He said he did that sort of work, came round but didn't send me an estimate. I don't know why.
So I used a service called Rated People http://www.ratedpeople.com/ and within a few minutes a roofer came round and gave me what I thought was a reasonable quote for the job. I could see photos of previous jobs he'd carried out on the web site and read the comments of satisfied customers.
It sounds like one of those bloody adverts, but it really happened.
Jonathan Brind