Advice - requested S.E.R, never arrived, now invoiced

alictait

Ok here we go.

In Late June I contacted a local structural engineer to come and perform a report on my property for mortgage purposes ,as my current mortgage was due for renewal on the 5th of August. The earliest date that I could get him to attend was the 24th of July to which I agreed, due to having tried to get numerous surveyors to attend with no joy. I did however express the urgency of the matter and asking him if he had any cancellations to telephone me at short notice.

Unfortunately having had no phone call, the 24th of July came and the surveyor duly appeared at the allotted time. On completion of the report the surveyor gave me a verbal report saying that there was no problems and when asked when I should receive the report he said within two weeks. Again outlying the urgency of the matter he stated he would see what he could do about speeding up the issue.

So yup,

Two weeks later, no sign of report I give him a call, to be told that he had not managed to complete the report and that he would endeavour to complete ASAP. I informed him that it was now costing me money as my previous fixed term rate had expired and I was now on the standard variable rate of my existing lender which was approx £100 a month more. I did feel at this stage that I was being somewhat "fobbed off"

So Just less than another two weeks later with still no report, I called again to be told pretty much the same thing as before. A week later I called again to be told pretty much the same thing.

Meantime however having signed and returned the necessary documents for my new mortgage, they completed the mortgage - without a S.E.R. I decided at this point that I was unlikely to receive the S.E.R anyhow and left the matter at that.

So imagine my surprise when on the 14th of November I received an invoice from the surveyor requesting the remittance of the invoice that had been sent to me on the 7th of September (3 days after completion of my mortgage). This i never received !!!

I wrote to the surveyor stating that I never received the invoice and as such was clearly unwilling to pay the requested amount.

I have therefore just received a letter asking me to reconsider not paying the invoice as he assures me that it was sent and as the survey was not received returned to him, so he can only assume that I did receive it and he has no way of knowing as to wether or not I have utilised such. The letter also went on to state that he initially said that the report would take 4-6 weeks (total lie), he said that I contacted him on the 7th of August, and he told me to call at the end of the month where he could give me a more accurate timescale. (again lie).

Now the predicament is what do I do ?

I have never received the aforementioned report and even if I had surely 6 weeks is an unacceptable timescale to expect such to be delivered.

I have a letter from my solicitor stating that the mortgage was completed prior to the alleged date of completion of the S.E.R.

I haven't yet responded to the second letter, however it does aggrieved me that it can take him just a couple of days to lay down his wholly inaccurate statement of facts, but take six weeks to complete a S.E.R.

I am obviously very angry at the shoddy service that I received. I am also particularly worried about the potential damage to my near perfect credit status and as such has no idea as to the next step for me to take.

Anyone with any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. In particular if anyone knows any legalities regarding such it would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance

Alistair