Damp Survey - dispute with company

jpowell79

I am looking for some advice on how next to proceed with disputing the services provided to us from a damp proof surveyor.

We took out a "full damp proof survey", supplied by Academy Remedial Surveyors for £220. We chose them because their website claims that they provide damp proof surveys and advice for Which? Magazine and Channel 4's house of Horrors show. (whether this claim is true or not, I have no idea)

Anyhow, the property is a 3 bedroom bungalow, and we requested a full damp survey, as we wanted a second-opinion on the damp survey that was carried out free-of-charge prior to purchasing the property.

We did this because we had heard that damp surveyors who offer free surveys, often tend to add-in additional unnecceessary work in order to recoup their free survey.

Anyway, the survey was booked with Academy Remedial, and the lady on the phone told me the survey should take approximate 1-2 hours.

This was my grandparents bungalow, so I was not their when the supposed survey was carried out. But when I spoke to my grandparents in the evening to ask what the surveyor had done, I was quite shocked at what they told me.

They told me the guy had been at the property no longer than 15 minutes, had not entered all of the rooms in the property, and had not even gone outside to inpsect the back wall of the property (which is the area of the property the first "free" survey had told us had damp issues).

They also told me that he brought no tools whatsover into the property, and simply touched a couple of walls with his hand, and took a few photos, and then he was off.

Not exactly what I was expecting for £220 and a "full damp survey".

Needless to say I was not impressed one bit.

I called Academy, and the lady told me that she couldn't deal with my enquiry, but would get someone to call me back. Nobody ever called me back.

When I tried to call back, it just went to voicemail.

So I contacted my credit card company (Aquacard) and explained to them what had happened.

After a detailed letter to them, I finally received a letter back telling me they couldn't help me, and that the company did not appear to have breached any contractual obligations.

So am £220 down, and still don't have any clue if the property truly has any damp problems.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

any help greatly appreciated.

pmduk

Do they profess to belong to any professional bodies. I'd be checking their claims about Channel 4 and which? also.

wealdroam

Have they provided a report?

jpowell79

they emailed me a report, but it was very much a generic, "cut-and-paste" template kind of report, where they have added a couple of photos of the walls the guy took a picture of, and make a few comments.

I'd guess that they spent no more than 5-10 minutes amedning the report to show our details.