can estate agent be found responsible

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

googler wrote: »

There's a limit to the expertise and scope of EA and surveyors' work, though. And you didn't pay the EA who sold the house to you - the seller did.

For instance - the instructions for my fridge-freezer state that there should be a certain clearance above and to the rear for air circulation. If you moved into a house where the FF (included in the sale) was boxed in, would you expect the EA or surveyor to have checked that?

Building regulations for loft extensions specify, for instance - head heights of stairways, joist sizes, other matters regarding ventilation. If you found any of these to be lacking, would you have expected the EA or surveyor to have checked them all individually?

I wouldn't talk about "EA or surveyor" like that as it implies there's some similarity and perpetuates people's confusion. You might as well say "next door's milkman or surveyor".

While checking things like this is what the buyer pays the surveyor for and there can be legitimate disputes over the scope of the checks, the EA checks nothing and isn't paid by the buyer. It's no part of their role. The estate agent has literally no more responsibility to you as a buyer in matters like this than does the milkman of your next door neighbour, or the CEO of Marks and Spencer. It's nothing to do with them at all.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

AdrianC wrote: »

Either way, one thing's for certain - that kind of chunk of timber won't catch light on a whim. Either it was installed ridiculously close to the stove - which would have been blindingly obvious to even a layman - or that woodburner must have been chucking out SERIOUS heat to the point where, if the stove really is that oversized for the room, the OP and his family must've been huddled in a corner sweating. It will certainly have been charring and probably smoking for quite a while before actually igniting.

He does say it caught fire overnight. I can only imagine that for some reason they kept the fire burning overnight so didn't notice the heat build up; I'd have thought that generally if you let the fire die down normally before going to bed the heat in the beam is only going to lessen from that point and it won't burst into flames later. It would entail some serious stoking up of a woodburner; and again would be something I assume the previous owners never did - most people wouldn't, on account of the fire risk.

AdrianC

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

He does say it caught fire overnight. I can only imagine that for some reason they kept the fire burning overnight so didn't notice the heat build up; I'd have thought that generally if you let the fire die down normally before going to bed the heat in the beam is only going to lessen from that point and it won't burst into flames later. It would entail some serious stoking up of a woodburner; and again would be something I assume the previous owners never did - most people wouldn't, on account of the fire risk.

If the wood is smouldering away, then it can ignite much later - but there would be plenty of noticable charring and probably smoke before that point.

googler

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

I wouldn't talk about "EA or surveyor" like that as it implies there's some similarity and perpetuates people's confusion.

Merely quoting the 2nd para of the OP's post #23, phrasing it exactly as they did.