Water damage due to bathroom renovation

Hello everyone,

Help.... can someone give us some advice?

Last year, we hired a company to renovate the bathroom in our house. It was a complete renovation.
Half a year after moving in, we discovered water damage in the adjacent bedroom, already with mold infestation.
The company that renovated the bathroom commissioned an external company for an assessment and leak detection. It quickly became apparent that the walk-in shower was not properly sealed or the shower drain was not correctly installed.
Since then, the company has been carrying out the corrective work – tearing out the shower/heating etc., drying, rebuilding... that was the plan at least.

However, the company is not fulfilling its work to remedy the damage. The shower and heating have been dismantled, but for weeks (since September) the company has refused to carry out construction drying, even though this was clearly stated by the external company in the report. We were given a dehumidifier – that would be sufficient. After this dehumidifier had been in our bathroom for a long time, the new shower/drain channel was supposed to be reinstalled the day before yesterday. The craftsman who came to us opened the old channel and then found that the entire masonry underneath is still soaking wet. He admitted that such a reconstruction of the shower is definitely not possible. The responsible construction manager was supposed to contact us again later. But that has not happened to this day. Also, there has been no response to our many calls and emails. Now we are stuck without a bathroom, with water damage, and the responsible company is no longer reachable or is stalling us...

Does anyone have experience with this? What legal options do we have?

Thank you very much for reading this long text!

Best regards

Hello everyone, Help.... can someone give us some advice? Last year we hired a company to renovate the bathroom in our house. It was a complete renovation. Six months after moving in, we discovered water damage in the adjacent bedroom, already with mold infestation. The company that renovated the bathroom commissioned an external company for an expert report and leak detection. It quickly became clear that the walk-in shower was not properly sealed and/or the shower drain was not installed correctly. Since then, the company has been responsible for the repair work – tearing out the shower/heating etc., drying, rebuilding... at least that was the plan. However, the company is not fulfilling its work to remedy the damage. The shower and heating have indeed been dismantled again, but for weeks (since September) the company has refused to carry out building drying, even though this was clearly stated by the external company in the report. We were given a dehumidifier – which supposedly would be sufficient. After this dehumidifier had been in our bathroom for a long time, the new shower/drain channel was supposed to be reinstalled the day before yesterday. The craftsman who came opened the old channel and then found that the entire masonry underneath is still soaking wet. He admitted that rebuilding the shower was definitely not possible in this condition. The responsible site manager was supposed to get back to us later. But that has not happened to this day. Our many calls and emails have also gone unanswered. Now we are stuck without a bathroom, with water damage, and the company responsible is no longer reachable or keeps putting us off... Does anyone know about this? What legal options do we have? Many thanks for reading the long text! Best regards

You will probably not get around a lawyer. A written follow-up repair appointment must be scheduled (I am a layperson, so cautiously speaking), if this has not already been done. Then you can "probably" take action after the given deadlines have passed and have another company commissioned. The costs would then be charged to the original company. However, these probably have to be enforced through legal action...

Formal complaint about defects via a lawyer must be sent so that things can proceed with you. ([Luftentfeuchter entfeuchtet die Luft, keine Wände.] There is a procedure to dry out walls again… why they didn’t do that???)