Incompetent survey - next steps?

simon_no3

Evening all,

I purchased my home 12 months ago but due to family commitments we are having to move.

The prospective purchasers recently had a homebuyer survey carried out on the property which identified that the house was constructed of concrete blocks (apparently 3ft by 1 ft in diameter) with only the chimney breasts being brick built.

According to my estate agents, this has thrown a real spanner in the works, mortgage lenders get iffy about this and we will have to drop the asking price by anything up to 30%

I would never have purchased the property if I had known this, my own homebuyers survey made no mention of concrete construction, instead reporting that the house was a 'traditional construction of the time (1950's) with a cavity brick outside'.

Given this is a pretty big foul up on their part (I would have thought that the construction of a building is pretty basic stuff in any report?), is there any way I can seek compensation / assistance?

Any help would be gratefully received, thanks - simon

giddypenguin

It may be worth going back to your surveyor, and asking them if this is true - they are liable to you and may be able to offer you more information?

Running_Horse

Did you have a survey or a report?

simon_no3

it was a homebuyers report - sorry if this mislead in any way.

Thanks guys

pararct

Your homebuyers report will have been mainly for mortgage lenders valuation purposes. You need to tie down what was meant by 'Traditional construction'. By the sounds of it your report makes no mention of brick built anyway.

Couple of things could be going on here.

The estate agent is telling the truth but I have never heard of such a tale (maybe a builder or other experienced interest can comment?). Yes mortgage lenders can get iffy on timber frame constructions and wooden houses but this sounds like a first.

The estate agent thinks your property is on at the wrong price and this is his diplomatic way of trying to correct that.

Do you have a rightmove link? There are some peeps here that will run the figures on like for like local sales and tell you if your expectations are too great?