Homebuyers Survey Missed Damp

Urrymonster

Hi all, sorry I am aware that this topic has been brought up before, however there are a couple of questions that are still nagging away.

We recently commissioned a homebuyers survey at the advice of the company doing the survey (e-surv...<gulp>) after originally requesting a full buildings survey.

The survey went fine and picked up the majority of things that we had already noticed, which included the possibility of damp in the walls. However, we returned to the house armed with an independent surveyor who immediately keyed onto the damp. He peeled back a corner of the carpet to find that the floors in the two downstairs rooms had severe damp.

Confused and disappointed (not really able to afford that level of work) I tried to ask the EA to re-negotiate a fee (already had offer accepted) that would take this repair into consideration. She insisted the sellers wouldn't, but I insisted that she asked for XXX off anyway.

So I returned home and thought about where it all went wrong and found myself thumbing through the survey. Not one mention or even concern was voiced about the floors containing damp, which was bizarre as they had mentioned the walls. In fact the floors section was rated a '2', only because of the possibility of woodworm in the wood flooring in the upstairs bedroom.

Luckily this happened the day that we were due to exchange and as such we have postponed that. I am waiting to hear if they will consider lowering their price to accommodate, however I am intrigued to see if there is scope for making a demand from the surveying company.

Thoughts?

panchenlama

you'll probably find that the small print in the survey will not give grounds for recompense. You could argue for a refund due to thier service being pants.

your best bet in my view would be to continue with what you are doing, get a quote for fix and ask for that amount off the price of the house.

poppasmurf_bewdley

I do suspect that many surveyors don't do half the things they're supposed to do with surveys.

We had a survey when buying a house which stated clearly "manholes covers raised and found to be clear". A week after we moved in we had a flood and the manhole outside the front door was found to be full to the brim with solid sh*t due to a broken drain. The photos we took used to be a real talking point at parties.

We got the full compensation for all our costs from the estate agent concerned.

Urrymonster

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I do suspect that many surveyors don't do half the things they're supposed to do with surveys.

We had a survey when buying a house which stated clearly "manholes covers raised and found to be clear". A week after we moved in we had a flood and the manhole outside the front door was found to be full to the brim with solid sh*t due to a broken drain. The photos we took used to be a real talking point at parties.

We got the full compensation for all our costs from the estate agent concerned.

By full compensation, did you get the cost of the survey or the cost of the repairs?

Leif

panchenlama wrote: »

your best bet in my view would be to continue with what you are doing, get a quote for fix and ask for that amount off the price of the house.

That is exactly what a friend did, and he got I think £5K off the accepted price. And given that prices are stable or falling, it is a buyer's market.

Urrymonster

panchenlama wrote: »

you'll probably find that the small print in the survey will not give grounds for recompense. You could argue for a refund due to thier service being pants.

your best bet in my view would be to continue with what you are doing, get a quote for fix and ask for that amount off the price of the house.

This is what we have tried and are waiting to hear back, EA was adamant they wouldn't accept though...

poppasmurf_bewdley

Urrymonster wrote: »

By full compensation, did you get the cost of the survey or the cost of the repairs?

It was done by the local estate agent in our village, who re-imbursed the cost of the survey and our excess on the house insurance which we had to pay for the drain repair, which I think was £100.

He admitted he didn't have a leg to stand on when we showed him the photos.