Homebuyers Report error - advice please

maliachammy

Hello all,

As a FTB I have used this site (reading as you can see far more than posting) to help sift through the unknown. We are doing quite well, it looks like the purchase will go through in the next couple of weeks so me and my wife could be celebrating christmas in our first house :j

I wondered if I could get advice and opinions on something that has infuriated me somewhat with it all recently though.

We instructed a local surveyors, which I found on an internet search, reputable firm RICS etc, to do a Homebuyers Report on the property. Firstly they took an absolute age and kept fobbing me off 'I promise it will be the next report to be written up' taking two weeks to be sent to us. I eventually set my better half on them and she got it emailed that day and posted out the following day (probably says a lot about my assertiveness).

The survey was very positive, no damp or structural problems but in one section it stated 'the foul drainage connects to a private system which is believed to be a sealed cesspool'. This came as a bit of a shock and surprise as the house is an ex-council semi in a relatively busy estate, not in the midlle of nowhere as private drainage usually is. The questioning between our solicitor and the seller's sol took a good couple of weeks until our seller stated it was on mains drainage to the best of his knowledge.

Which brings us to a couple of days ago when I set my better half off this time to get answers from the surveyors, who sent her an email back saying that they hadn't erased a previous report's details from that section of ours. So the statement about the cesspool had nothing to do with our house.

They have tried to fob us off by raising a cheque for £50 but as we can't really trust what the report says anymore I think we should have a full refund at the least. Not to mention the stress it has caused us while there has been the doubt about it, we were even considering whether to continue with the purchase at one point. And i'm sure our seller must have been wondering what on earth was being claimed about his house.

Has anyone experienced anything like this with surveyors and do you know where we stand?

Sorry for the long post, but the positive is yay house for christmas!!:T

mr.broderick

They're generally copied and pasted those reports so these mistakes can happen. Doesnt surprise me in the least that this has happened to you. Id want more than £50 for the heartache caused.

maliachammy

That's exactly what they said about the copy and paste. I couldn't believe how unprofessional it was. We will be making a complaint in the hopes of a full refund.

maliachammy

We put in a full complaint to them and they have now said they will give us £150, which is half of what we paid for the survey :mad:
They still haven't clarified whether this was the only mistake on the report.
I am starting to wonder what we will get if we take is further through the RICS complaints system (next step is a complaint to another surveyors, i wonder how unbiased they will be) and as we are set to move next week time is becoming sparse for us and this is a nuisance we don't need.
Has anyone had previous experience of putting in complaints with RICS surveyors?

r.mac_2

maliachammy wrote:

We put in a full complaint to them and they have now said they will give us £150, which is half of what we paid for the survey :mad:
They still haven't clarified whether this was the only mistake on the report.
I am starting to wonder what we will get if we take is further through the RICS complaints system (next step is a complaint to another surveyors, i wonder how unbiased they will be) and as we are set to move next week time is becoming sparse for us and this is a nuisance we don't need.
Has anyone had previous experience of putting in complaints with RICS surveyors?

Hi there,

I am sorry to hear that you have had problems. RICS do handle complaints about members - usually through the ombudsman scheme, which is to ensure fairness and impartiality. It requires you to have exhausted all other complaint proceedures first. If the issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction then you should contact RICS.

I would suggest calling and speaking to an RICS staff member and asking their advice. they are usually very helpful. Note that if you are in Scotland or N Ireland there are regional offices which will deal with your issues. That way they can talk you through the procedure and give you a 'name' to address your letters to etc.

Good luck