Building Damages
Since 1991 the Fund has received more than 3.500 claims on building defects. Somewhere in the vicinity of two thirds of these have been acknowledged, after which the Fund subsidises up to 95% coverage of the building owner's expenses for the cost of repairs. Only damages related to the construction phase (presence of deficiencies) are covered.
How the building scheme has been organised, has great effect on the amount of building damages. The Building Defects Fund has acknowledged a relatively high number of building damages, in cases where the builder and the party who is responsible for maintenance (usually the owner) are not the same, and where the owner was not involved in the planning, design and erection of the building. This has been the case for a number of privately owned co-operative housing associations, where a contractor controlled the housing scheme, and then sold the entire estate to the newly formed co-operative housing association. In contradiction to this, the Fund has acknowledged relatively few building damages in subsidised housing estates and in municipally owned residences for youth and the elderly, erected as a contract enterprise.
The Fund covers up to 95% of the joint expenditures for damage repairs that are claimed at the latest 20 years after hand over have taken place. Coverage is reduced according to the usual terms of compensation: for example expected life-span reductions, when construction costs have been economised, or if the repair work also comprises a general building improvement etc.
After acknowledgement of a building damage, the Fund makes liability claims to the responsible builder, seller, consultants, contractors and suppliers as far as possible. In this way the building repair expenses that rest on the Fund and the building owner are minimised. It is the Fund's view, that it has a preventive effect on all participants involved in subsidised building, that they know they are liable for damage claims.
About 70% of all provisional damage coverage made by The Danish Building Defects Fund has happened in connection to construction problems as a result of lack of sufficient planning. Repair costs for these types of damages have, since 1992, amounted to 375 million DKK in current prices. If the expenses paid for by building owners, responsible scheme consultants, contractors and suppliers are added to this, it is estimated that the total cost of repairing these types of damages since 1992 amount to about 1 billion DKK in current prices. As mentioned earlier these types of major damages are now very rare.
About 20% of The Building Defects Fund's provisional defects coverage has involved damages to roofs (brick and fiber cement (eternit) slates as well as rot in the wooden supporting structure) and as such the mentioned types of damages are the second-largest group of defects. Since 1992 repair of such damages has amounted to 160 million DKK in current prices. The damages are primarily material damages to burnt clay roofing tiles, fiber cement (eternit) plates and under-roofing or covering made of light roofing felt materials, in buildings that are eight to ten years or older. In 2001-2002 an increasing number of defects have been claimed concerning material damages to roofing that is eight to ten years or older. It is noteworthy that no damages on burnt clay roofing tiles or fiber cement (eternit) slate roofing have been acknowledged on buildings, whose construction was completed after 1994-1995. Because light under-roofing is more difficult to put up correctly, and because it is more prone to damages by sunlight, the building owner should calculate on an under-roofing life span, which is considerably shorter than the classic solution whereby the under roofing - if any - used to be solid and made of wooden planks with roofing paper. The newer fiber cement (eternit) roofs also have a considerable shorter life span than the old asbestos-containing fiber cement roofing.