Can a flawed survey on your house be overturned? Help hugely appreciated.

hankowsky

Hi there,

we're in the process of selling our house.

Our buyers are with Santander - the eSurve surveyor sent by Santander basically shut down his survey upon learning that we had a leakage 2 years ago which we claimed for with our insurance.

Despite proofing that....
a) that all remedial work was done
b) the house does not lie on a flood plain
c) the house has no current damp
... his report concluded that the house has a history of flooding and is uninsurable.

Both conclusions are factually inaccurate and can be proven wrong.
The house has no history of flooding; the house insurance itself has registered the indicent correctly as a blocked drain.
Our housing insurance has even reduced last year and we are obtaining a letter from them confirming that they will continue to insure the house.

However Santander has declined our buyers their mortgage (in their case: a mortgage extension, I believe) on the basis of this report.

Putting all anger aside, is there anything we can do about this?

We are providing as much additional information and proof but it sadly feels futile.

All answers and tips are hugely appreciated... I'd be keen to understand what our options of appeal are and how we get 'into' the decision-making process at Santander.

Many thanks to everyone responding and helping,
hankowsky

maninthestreet

As you didn't pay for the survey, you have no contract with the surveyor. You cannot 'get into' the decision making st Santander in relation to your buyer's mortage application, as you are not the person applying for their mortage, nor are you their IFA.

Dave_Ham

Situation is that the honesty here as hurt you.

You have absolutely no recourse and nor will your buyer. Esurv are bad enough on their own, but with a double header with Santander they are a shocking combo.

You need an alternative solution.

Hopefully your buyer had the newish Santander product where they get a free valuation and therefore it has not cost them a penny.

They need to get a new mortgage approved in order to buy your property. Given they got through the Santander inquisition, they should get a deal elsewhere on relatively similar terms...

You may have to incentivise them to do this ie pay for any new valuation if needed....?

You genuinely need to give up on challenging it as they will not do this, and if they did certainly not anywhere close to quickly (assuming you have an ongoing purchase to protect)

I am sorry you have suffered this, spend your time and efforts working on a solution and talking to your buyers directly - this is the point where Estate Agents will show their colours and do what is best for them financially...!

hankowsky

Thanks Dave. Indeed, I have learnt that our buyers went with Santander mainly because of the free survey.

Fortunately, they are so keen on our (beautiful) property that they are willing to go elsewhere. And yes, we have offered a 'modest' incentivisation...

Here's to hope.

Thanks again for the precise reprise of our situation but also your words of encouragment.

Cheers,
hankowsky

Dave_Ham

Further to my last post, Santander are not alone at using esurv.

Their broker will need to check and some lenders use them for a % of their work depending upon many variables.

They need to check upfront or are wasting their time..

Good luck

gwernybwch

I feel for you. I - like many others on the board - have been far from happy with our dealings with e-surv.

Dave_Ham wrote: »

You have absolutely no recourse and nor will your buyer. Esurv are bad enough on their own, but with a double header with Santander they are a shocking combo.

You need an alternative solution.

As a side point, I'm no expert on the law of tort, but hasn't the OP suffered a detriment due to the actions of e-surv? Wouldn't the Surveyor be professional liable for their actions?

Although it probably isn't worth the effort of trying to progress it.

Agree with you that alternative solutions is the best way.

holly_hobby

There is no contract (tort) between the OP, buyer or esurv - it is the lender whom has the contract with the surveyor (as they instructed him/her) - and it would be hard to prove that the current survey is to their detriment (notwithstanding the lost business element), if it were the other way round, i.e fab survey on a property that is liability, then yes the lender would have grounds to sue the surveyor for negligence. In relation to the seller, well this may be a civil action that could be brought re - unjust prejudice in respect of unsubstantiated/inaccurate assumption and comments of the surveyor, and the direct negative impact on the saleability/value and/ormarketing of the property - esp for applicants seeking a mortgage ... but this is really just an educated guess .... as I'm not a Solicitor (and don't think O level law counts .... so advice from a relevant practioner would be reqd if pursuance was considered.

If Esurv wont revisit their commnets, despite supporting evidence to the contrary - then there is little you can do, other than try and encourage the buyer to it referred to a snr uw - honestly though they very rarely contradict a professional colleague for obv reasons (although its not been completely unknown in my experience).

Another route could be to have an personally instructed survey done with an independent local and experienced surveyor to see what their report comes up with . A good idea would be (if the buyer instructs with or without any contribution) is to seek one whom is also on the panel of a good majority of major lenders, which means that there is score for a choice of lenders, whom may allow its submission in replacement of their own instruction of survey, with a possible admin fee, but saving a further survey fee (if of course the report comes in as reqd !). In doing this, at least you/your buyer will know before submitting mge apps what the general evaluation of the property is .... i.e if the 2nd survey also comes up with the same issues, you know you will have a potential problem for anyone requiring a mge to purchase (re the contractual requirement of blds ins under mge t&cs).

There is also the issue that this will be the buyers 2nd mge app - which will reveal Santanders pverious credit search, now they can be honest and say that they didn't proceed with Santander as the app fell down on survey ( which may make alarm bells ring), or they could use another excuse for not proceeding such as withdrawal of product or something similar ...

DH/Kings et al... will give guidance on nationwide groups of surveyors whom are on the panel for several lenders (or local to area if the guys are in that location) (NB - Colleys (originally owned by Halifax now part of the Lloyds Group), from my own previous packaging and advising days are to be avoided as they were always beyond cautious both on valuation and evaluation, of which e-surv seem to have gathered a similar reputation !).

Hope this helps a little ... I of course wish you and your buyers well ... !!

Holly x

phoebe1989seb

gwernybwch wrote: »

I feel for you. I - like many others on the board - have been far from happy with our dealings with e-surv.

.

Us too......they carried out the Homebuyers Report for our buyers last year and whilst their *findings* didn't cause our buyers to pull out/downgrade their offer, we feel we had a lucky escape as the surveyor (who spent in excess of three hours at our house, yet didn't even bother to access the attic) found all manner of issues that didn't actually exist.....such as old asbestos water cylinder (actually brand new modern non-asbestos type), woodworm infestation (actually three old, treated holes!!!) etc etc......

Hope it all works out ok for you OP.......

CBR600F_2

Can you renegotiate your offer based on the findings in the valuation then? I assumed the original accpeted offer was binding.

Thrugelmir

CBR600F wrote: »

Can you renegotiate your offer based on the findings in the valuation then? I assumed the original accpeted offer was binding.

OP is the seller not the buyer.

Gentoo365

It seems to me that you can prove that there is an error in the survey (e.g. the house is insurable).

As has said above you are not the right person to raise the issue. I imagine that you can supply insurance details and other documentation to either the estate agent or your solicitor, and ask them to pass it on to the purchaser to forward to the mortgage company.

That is of course if the buyer is still interested and not concerned in anyway.

Also, on a legal point you do not have to have a contract with someone for them to have liability. The question is whether the surveyor has a 'duty of care' towards you. I don't think they do, as they do not publish their results, just supply them to the lender, and if required, the buyer.