Hidden defect in the house you bought: who pays, and what now?

Whether a defect is the seller's problem depends on four questions. Answer them for your own situation and you know where you stand.

1. Was the defect already there at transfer? A leak that starts a year later is yours. If the cause is older, that counts. You have to make that plausible, which is why a report on the cause matters so much.
2. Could you not see it at the viewing? A fresh damp patch behind a cupboard you could not see. A crack anyone can see, or a roof the agent mentioned, counts differently.
3. Does it hinder normal living? A home must have the qualities needed for normal use (article 7:17(2) Dutch Civil Code). A leaking roof hinders that. A dated window frame does not.
4. Does the deed not exclude it? Older homes often have an age clause in the deed. It can exclude a defect that comes with the age of the house. More on that below.

This is the lookup table. Find your defect, see when it is usually the seller's and when it is not, and which professional can record and repair it.

Use the table as a starting point. The court always looks at everything together: the age, the price, what the questionnaire said and what you could have seen.

The law does not use the words hidden defect. It says the home must meet what you could expect under the sale, and in any case what is needed for normal living (article 7:17 Dutch Civil Code). Lawyers call a home that falls short non-conforming.

What usually does not count: wear that comes with age, something you could have seen at the viewing, something the seller disclosed, and wishes you did not put in the sale. A twenty-year-old boiler that gives up is bad luck, not a defect, if it still worked at transfer.

With an older home the deed often says the seller cannot vouch for defects related to age. Such a clause is not a free pass. It covers what you can expect from a home of that age, not everything.

Two rulings show the difference. In Limburg (2025) a 62-year-old house had a leaking sewer. The court ruled against the buyers: with the age clause they knew old sewers may need replacing, and it was not established that the sewer already leaked at the sale.

In Zeeland-West-Brabant (2023) the deed also had an age clause and the agent had said the roof could creak in the wind. Still the buyer won. The roof banged 66 times in one week above the noise limit, and the cause was the way the roof panels had been laid. That has nothing to do with age.

As a buyer you must look around reasonably, and the seller must tell what he knows. The seller's duty to disclose comes first: if he kept quiet about something he knew, he cannot argue that you should have found it.

The questionnaire at the sale weighs heavily. If the seller filled in that there were no leaks, you may rely on that. In the dormer case (2025) that was exactly why the buyer did not have to investigate further.

No building survey? You keep your rights. But if you saw something that raises questions, such as a damp patch or a sagging floor, you are expected to ask or have it checked. What a surveyor would have seen may then count against you.

There are two clocks. The first runs from discovery: you report the defect within a reasonable time (article 7:23(1) Dutch Civil Code). No fixed number of weeks applies, except when you bought from a business: then within two months is always in time.

May you have an expert look first? Yes. The court finds it reasonable that you first want to know the cause, as long as that investigation moves quickly. In the dormer case the buyer reported more than ten months after the first survey, and that was still in time because the seller suffered no harm from it.

The second clock starts at the report: two years later your claim is time-barred (article 7:23(2)). A letter in which you clearly reserve your right to repair or compensation restarts that period. In Rotterdam (2025) this went wrong: liability claimed in March 2023, summons only in April 2025, time-barred.

If the seller knew and kept quiet, you can also rely on mistake (article 6:228 Dutch Civil Code). For that you have three years after discovery (article 3:52).

You have to show that the home did not meet what you could expect, and that the defect was already there at transfer. That second point often decides the case, and a report made before the repair is where you make the difference.

In The Hague (2025) a buyer lost over a leaking extension because the statements about the defect dated from after their own work on that extension. Nobody could see any more what it looked like at transfer. The lesson: record first, then demolish or repair.

This is what the buyers who won had in common: they recorded the defect before anything changed, and there was a reasoned report or a quote naming the cause.

1. Take dated photos and videos, and write down when you first noticed the defect.
2. Do not demolish or repair anything yet, except what is needed to prevent worse, such as a tarp over the roof. Record that too.
3. Have a professional describe the defect: the cause, since when it is likely there, how it should be repaired and what that costs. In the banging roof case the court worked from the roofing company's quote.
4. Report it to the seller in writing, with the photos and the report. Email works, a registered letter is stronger proof.
5. Give the seller a reasonable period to respond or have it repaired. If he does not respond, you can have it repaired yourself and claim the costs from him.

Keep it businesslike and short. This is a draft, adjust it to your situation:

Dear [seller's name], on [transfer date] I bought the home at [address] from you. On [date] I discovered that [description of defect]. According to [company name] the cause is [cause], and it was already there at transfer. This hinders normal use of the home. I hereby notify you under article 7:23 Dutch Civil Code and reserve all rights, including repair and reimbursement of costs. Please let me know within fourteen days how you want to resolve this. I enclose the photos and the report.

Every case stands on its own, but together they show what matters. All five read in full in the open data of the Dutch judiciary.

With a leak nearly everything turns on one question: was it already leaking, or did it start later? A leak that appears with the first heavy rain after transfer points to an old cause. A leak after a storm a year later does not.

Have the cause found before anything is sealed over. Traces of earlier repairs, such as fresh sealant or a new piece of ceiling, are often the strongest proof that the seller knew. A roofer or plumber can describe what he sees and how old it is.

A roof that bangs loudly in heat or cold is usually caused by roof panels fixed too tightly, so they cannot expand. That is a construction fault, not wear, and an age clause usually does not help the seller then.

What counts is how often and how loud. In the 2023 case it was measured for a week, and the court compared the peaks with the noise limits of the Activities Decree because there is no separate standard for a banging roof. So have it measured and have a roofer describe how the panels were laid.

For your report to the seller you need a description of the cause and a quote for the repair. Post it as a job on JouwPro with the photos, and ask in the description for a quote that names the cause, the repair method and what can be reused. Professionals nearby bid, and you choose who does it.