Is a surveyor allowed to do this?

ariadne0515

I'm a long-time lurker who's finally got something to say/ask!


DH and I accepted an offer on our house and the survey was done at the end of last week. Surveyor got the keys from the EA and was unaccompanied while s/he was there.


Whilst cleaning today DH has noticed lots of little holes in the plaster and skirting board in the bay window. I've had a further look round tonight and there are more holes in the chimney breast and external wall in another room.


Whilst I presume this is part of checking for damp with some kind of probe, are surveyors allowed to cause damage to plaster, wallpaper, and skirting boards like that? I'm peed off as we decorated that bay window as part of getting the house ready for sale!


I think they also tried to check the floor in the hallway as by the door there is matting which is now rucked up instead of sitting flat under the carpet cover strip thing where it joins the carpet.

phill99

It shows he's doing his job properly.

You may wish to find out his details and get it him to do the survey on the property you are buying.

makeitstop

What's a DH.?

phill99

Dear Husband

makeitstop

phill99 wrote: »

Dear Husband

I see, ta.

googler

But ... aren't you moving out? And if your buyers find fault with this, all they can do is blame their own surveyor?

ariadne0515

phill99 wrote: »

It shows he's doing his job properly.

Well, you learn something new everyday. I thought they weren't supposed to do things like that without the vendor's permission - just a bit of a surprise to find my recently painted wall full of holes.

ariadne0515

googler wrote: »

But ... aren't you moving out? And if your buyers find fault with this, all they can do is blame their own surveyor?

Hopefully we are moving out - it's just we moved in without any holes in the walls so didn't expect to be leaving any behind.

Building_Surveyor

What size holes are we talking about here... Fist size holes, or screw size holes that can easily be filled with 3quid worth of polyfiller?

theartfullodger

Or holes made by something measuring damp levels - couple of little pricks,...

Or was it the kids eh??

ariadne0515

The holes are like a needle has been pushed in. I know I'm probably coming over as making a mountain out of a molehill (or a blackhole out of a pinprick) but I was just really surprised as it hadn't happened when we had our survey done on the same house (and it feels like they've destroyed all my hard work).


They can easily be filled with polyfilla, but then you'd have to repaint. They buyers might want to do that but then they might not have wanted to.


Oh and if it was the kids I'd have to ask why the surveyor brought their kids with them as we don't have any! (Hence the stress about imperfect walls!)