Survey wrong

anna.bloom

We bought a house in November that had damp, asbestos, wall tie corrosion, lead piping and a leaking roof.

Our Home Buyers survey did not pick up on any of it. We had a second survey by a chartered surveyor which confirmed the surveyor missed these very important issues.

We complained to the Ombudsman and they have agreed these things were missed out, and should have been reported. And even though it has cost us £20,000 to put these issues right, they have awarded us only £700 and asked the surveyor to apologise.

It took us months to get a decision and hours and hours of preperation getting them the information they needed.

We are going to fight against this provisional conclusion. So the actual ombudsman review the case, at the moment it was just a case officer.

Has anyone else any experience of this?

I am shocked, by how little they have awarded us.

iamcornholio

Why didn't you sue the surveyor. You would have recovered your losses

In fact, why not sue him now that you have the weight of an Ombudsman's decision

ormus

a home buyers report is not a proper full building survey.
you have no chance of getting 20k back off them.
the second survey you had done, should have been done before you signed the buying contracts.

David_Aldred

Hi Anna,
The standard of care owed to you by the surveyor is the same no matter what type of survey is undertaken and that is to undertake their survey with reasonable care and skill from a person in their profession. A claim for professional negligence could be made if you feel you have reasonable grounds to show that the surveyor was indeed negligent. Of note the surveyor should have professional indemnity insurance to cover a claim of professional negligence by them and statistically the majority of cases are settled by the surveyor's insurers before the matter comes to court. May I suggest you read The Law Of Surveys And Valuations by John Murdoch & Paul Murrells which may be of assistance regarding where you stand, in addition to taking appropriate legal advice. Hope this helps, kindest regards David Aldred Independent damp and timber surveyor

anna.bloom

Thank you every one for your advice.

i have spoken to several lawyers, but no one seems interested in following it on a no win no fee basis.

I cant sue them myself i have to get a solicitor involved i assume?

Or go to small claims court, but £5,000 is the maximum I believe.

The reason the OMbudsman went against us is because we had a bank valuation which picked up on these issues but still valued the house at 175k which is waht we paid.

But our surveyor told us to discount this survey, that banks cover their backs and err on the side of caution. I have email evidence of this!

but still legally, the ombudsman said, we paid 175, so we have not lost out, as the other surveyor identified these problems and still valued it at 175.

But we took out the survey, to see what work woudl be involved not for valuation purposes.

It has cost £40k to renovate instead of £20k which is what we thought,. It has taken five months and we have a small baby, it has been a nightmare and the project way beyond our means financially and emotionally. I am not a builder and it was too big a project for us to take on.

I cannot believe that a surveyor can get away with this! dont have a survey is what i think.