Do you give your solicitor the survey?

lossofbargain

our buyer has handed his report to his solicitor. What do they usually do. The report identified damp on one wall and the vendor knows we have a 20 year G'tee in place. I guess the solicitor will ask for it. But what do solicitors normally do with Surveys?

Richard_Webster

Buyers' solicitors look through survey reports to see what the surveyor says the solicitor should check - typically Building Regs for any work and when gas installations and electrics last tested, but sometimes they will tell us something about the property we wouldn't otherwise know about - e.g the gate in the back fence that leads to a neighbour's garden.

Sellers' solicitors would only get a buyer's survey report if their seller client wanted comments on the matters in it, which is not common.

scooter_chick

Yes, as a buyer I gave the survey to my solicitor, and asked her to ensure she checked up on a number of legal issues that were raised. Nothing structural, but more about permissions, access rights etc.

I'd had a full structural survey, and the surveyor helpfully listed all the potential legal issues in one section, so it was fairly easy.

Hailstorm

I received two copies of my survey report and the letter stated that one was for myself and the other for my solicitor. One of the sections in the survey was a list of things my solicitor needed to check.

Richard_Webster

Mostly of course the surveyor asks us to check about when the electrics were last checked. Buyer gets all keen and both the surveyor and I know that in most cases they have never been checked (unless the property had been let).

Similar with gas, although people are more likely to have their boiler serviced regularly.

Boundary liabilities is another one. In a lot of cases there is no useful information available at all, and in others where there are "T" marks on plans, actually enforcing the liability of a neighbour may not actually be possible, or if it is, will be disproportionately expensive and stressful in comparison to the benefits that might be gained.

However, it is still possible for the surveyor to spot things and raise issues that would not be apparent to a solicitor who has not seen the property and those are the ones that have to be followed up.

scooter_chick

Richard_Webster wrote: »

However, it is still possible for the surveyor to spot things and raise issues that would not be apparent to a solicitor who has not seen the property and those are the ones that have to be followed up.

Yes - as an example - in mine the boiler discharges across the land of the neighbouring property; the surveyor spotted this & advised me to check with my solicitor whether or not this required an easement. I'm sure there's lots of things like that which can only be spotted by someone actually visiting the property.