Is it ok to give vendor a copy of survey?

drdpj

+1 to what DRP said. You paid for it, it's yours.

princeofpounds

The are some very odd contracts out there if the surveyor is saying you can't show the survey or pass it onto someone else, it's your survey and you've paid for it.

+1 to what DRP said. You paid for it, it's yours.

Sigh... you guys probably think you own your itunes music too...

As I stated above, it is normal practice for the surveyor to retain all copyright and intellectual property. It is your copy of the report, it is most certainly not your survey.

If you don't believe me, it took about 2 minutes to find this pretty representative set of T&Cs from a RICS surveyor.

Pay particular attention to the last paragraph of section 1.2, which expressly prohibits distribution, and section 1.6, which retains the intellectual property of the report.

http://www.shepherd.co.uk/terms-conditions/single-survey-mvr.pdf

Now, in reality a surveyor is unlikely to be especially aggressive in terms of pursuing this, but contractually it's pretty clear cut.

drdpj

No, I own a license to listen to it on 5 devices I think...

Okay, in the interests of pedantry, you paid to receive the copy of the report, and the information contained therein is for your use - not the vendor's . Ergo, if they want the full information, they can instruct and pay the surveyor for their own copy.

:beer:

bigadaj

princeofpounds wrote: »

Sigh... you guys probably think you own your itunes music too...

As I stated above, it is normal practice for the surveyor to retain all copyright and intellectual property. It is your copy of the report, it is most certainly not your survey.

If you don't believe me, it took about 2 minutes to find this pretty representative set of T&Cs from a RICS surveyor.

Pay particular attention to the last paragraph of section 1.2, which expressly prohibits distribution, and section 1.6, which retains the intellectual property of the report.

http://www.shepherd.co.uk/terms-conditions/single-survey-mvr.pdf

Now, in reality a surveyor is unlikely to be especially aggressive in terms of pursuing this, but contractually it's pretty clear cut.

That link is a contract that is generated by the surveyor for the seller, not the purchaser. It points out the limits of liability with this arrangement and the potential conflict of interest to the purchaser in accepting the report when it has been repeated by the seller.

This report doesn't prevent distribution between all interested parties in ten transaction. Also if you are the client then they couldn't stop distribution, just limit their liability to their client unless with their express permission and probable additional payment.

The reference to intellectual property would refer to the report format and the approach they have taken in preparing the report, effectively to stop plagiarism and mis quoting or selective quoting out of context. This also stops such things as unauthorised amendments to any documentation produced either by their client or a third party.

As you say the surveyor is unlikely to pursue any issues you've noted, but they would also be on extremely dodgy legal ground if they tried to interfere against their clients interests in the clients use of their report.

Lord_Baltimore

I wouldn't give the whole report nor would I photocopy any parts of it for the vendor. I paid for it; it's mine.

I would however tell them that the survey confirms my own observations that the roof timbers and chimney stack need to be checked and that a renegotiation of price is in order.

This way it's your assessment that is being discussed not the surveyors' report and the surveyor does not own the copyright or intellectual property of your opinion..