Call Out Charges - Surveyor

odysseus_2

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is in the right place so please move if need be...

I had a surveyor come round today to have a look at a flat roof on our extension. We wanted to find out if a wall under the roof was supporting or not. The surveyors office said they'd email me their terms and conditions and I was to sign them and give them to the surveyor when he arrived.

I didn't get the chance to see the T&Cs as I was getting the kids from school. The surveyor turned up soon after I got home, he spent about 10 mins looking about, took some measurements and left. I told him I'd have to print out the forms when I was back at work tomorrow.

Now I've just looked at them and they want to charge £100 call out fee plus £90 for the first hour. Do I need to pay even if I don't want to see the surveyors report?

Surely they shouldn't attend until they've had their docs signed? esp with fees like that.

martinsurrey

odysseus wrote: »

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is in the right place so please move if need be...

I had a surveyor come round today to have a look at a flat roof on our extension. We wanted to find out if a wall under the roof was supporting or not. The surveyors office said they'd email me their terms and conditions and I was to sign them and give them to the surveyor when he arrived.

I didn't get the chance to see the T&Cs as I was getting the kids from school. The surveyor turned up soon after I got home, he spent about 10 mins looking about, took some measurements and left. I told him I'd have to print out the forms when I was back at work tomorrow.

Now I've just looked at them and they want to charge £100 call out fee plus £90 for the first hour. Do I need to pay even if I don't want to see the surveyors report?

Surely they shouldn't attend until they've had their docs signed? esp with fees like that.

surely you shouldn't have let him do his work until you'd read the terms you were agreeing to by letting him do his work?

I believe they have implied consent, not much you can do about it now.

hollydays

Did you not expect there to be a charge?
Did you not think to ask what it was?

shaun_from_Africa

Even though you didn't get to see the T&C's before the surveyor turned up, providing that they had been sent to your e-mail and were available to you, then yes, I would say that you are required to pay.


By allowing the surveyor to do the work that you asked them to do, an implied contract has been formed even if you haven't actually signed the forms.
Even though you might not want a copy of the report, the work has been carried out at your request and that work needs paying for.

odysseus_2

fair enough, bit silly of me not to ask. The conversation's I'd had with them over the phone led me to believe that payment was due upon purchasing the report.

!!!!!!

agrinnall

odysseus wrote: »

The conversation's I'd had with them over the phone led me to believe that payment was due upon purchasing the report.

!!!!!!

That would hardly be a sensible business model, given that they would have done all the work at the point the report is available for purchase.

bod1467

What exactly do the T&Cs say?

Do they say payment is due on purchase of the report? Or do they say payment is due on completion of the survey?

(Details are important).

odysseus_2

It says "Payment is due prior to despatch of report" nothing about paying for the visit.

Is the bulk of the work not writing the report? rather than the actual survey which took all of 10 mins.

Chucky1234

odysseus wrote: »

It says "Payment is due prior to despatch of report" nothing about paying for the visit.

Is the bulk of the work not writing the report? rather than the actual survey which took all of 10 mins.

It would all be factored in to the cost of a job. They will have already incurred admin fees to arrange an appointment, costs for the surveyor to travel to you, along with all expenses to due with the car such as maintenance etc and also the surveyors wages.

Depending on how far you are, they could have travelled 30 minutes each way, meaning you've had an hour of their time at the very minimum.

You can't expect them to work for free surely? As previously said they have emailed you their T&C's so they were available to you, whether you had chance to read them or not is not their problem unfortunately.

Did you not ask the price when you made the original appointment? I personally wouldn't agree to a service if I didn't know how much it was going to cost.

martinthebandit

The 'bulk of the work' is actually the surveyor getting the training, qualifications and experience to enable him to do the job.

odysseus_2

They had a job down the road so they popped in, conversations with their office have been very informal. At one point it was suggested that the surveyor would remember our property and might even be able to tell us from memory if the wall could be taken out safely. The same firm did our homebuyers survey when we moved in recently. I can't really withhold payment on those grounds though just wanted to make sure about it.