Survey with factual inaccuracies

loveka

We had our buyer drop out on the day of exchange. She cited that there was too much work to do from the survey results.

The last line of the survey is "if you are willing to do all the work I see no reason why you should not buy this house".

Some of the work he said needs doing is factually inaccurate. E.g. says the bathroom taps and plugs don't work - he clearly just couldn't work out how to use them. He said the shower screen had been fitted wrong and would result in water pouring onto the floor. Clearly he had missed the pull down seal. He said the boiler was 10 years old. It's brand new.

Other things are subjective. Says he can't check for damp behind kitchen units so they need to be ripped out to check! Says kitchen units are damaged and ' just usable'. They are solid wood bespoke and not damaged in my opinion. Says decor is 'tired' throughout- we decorated every room. Says radiators are scruffy looking as they are painted.

I know in all likelihood she has dropped out because of the recommendation to rip out the kitchen to see if there is damp (there isn't any as far as we know as we had a damp survey). But the other things a that are just untrue must have had an impact too. Is there anything we can do?

Ithaca

Only real option is to communicate what youve told us back through your estate agent (that's what they are paid for) to your prospective buyer and see if you can convince them. Presumably your buyer will have had their own viewing(s) so would know whether the taps work or the kitchen cupboards are fit for purpose?

Some of the points seem highly subjective and outside the normal scope of a survey (not sure why the surveyor is commenting on the decor, that should be obvious from any viewing)!

glasgowdan

Who hired the survey? You need to pursue n official complaint against the surveyor and get a new report drawn up to replace the one you've got.

davidmcn

glasgowdan wrote: »

Who hired the survey? You need to pursue n official complaint against the surveyor and get a new report drawn up to replace the one you've got.

It's the buyer's survey - so entirely the buyer's business who they instruct, whether to believe the surveyor, and whether to complain. As suggested all the OP can do is try to persuade the buyer that the survey may be misleading.

lincroft1710

glasgowdan wrote: »

Who hired the survey? You need to pursue n official complaint against the surveyor and get a new report drawn up to replace the one you've got.

The surveyor would have been instructed by the buyer, OP has no contract with them so cannot make a complaint.

kinger101

Even if those bathroom jobs were real, it would be less than £100 to fix. Boiler being old is largely irrelevant. Mine's about 20 yrs old and the guy who serviced it last says it's a reliable model on which only the ignition and fan tend to fail - both still available. Some new boilers are absolute crap.

I suspect the buyer would get cold feet on anything but a new build.

Bossypants

If she only dropped out on the day of exchange, I suspect the survey is merely an excuse, and she would have found another one if it hadn't been available. People who genuinely drop out because the survey has flagged something they don't want to have to deal with typically do so shortly after they get it, not at exchange, which generally happens many weeks or even months later.

ReadingTim

You didn't pay for the survey, so you have no right of recourse. Best you can do is via the agent suggest that if then surveyor made basic factual errors caused by a lack of knowledge or simple laziness, then their opinion on the more complicated stuff such as damp and the subjective stuff such as decor etc should be treated as suspect.

However, the timing suggests the buyer got cold feet and the survey was merely a limp excuse to cover the fact that they've basically bottled it. Suggest you move on and find a less wishy-washy buyer.

JP1978

One thing to ponder though - will the same surveyor be tasked by a further prospective buyer and produce the same results - it could put people off and as some of the report is factually wrong, it does need addressing.

sparky130a

Of course there's something you can do.

Re- market and ignore this time waster.

loveka

JP1978 wrote: »

One thing to ponder though - will the same surveyor be tasked by a further prospective buyer and produce the same results - it could put people off and as some of the report is factually wrong, it does need addressing.

Yes, that was what I was thinking too. To read it you would think the house is a total dump!

I know people view, but they tend not to open cupboard doors or turn taps on. She could have the impression that the kitchen cupboards are falling apart inside.

Another thing that worries me is that the surveyor states as a fact that the sun room will be very cold in winter (it is built on the end of the kitchen) and how this will in turn make the kitchen cold. He says work is needed to rectify this. Again, this isn't the case- it's really warm in there. I don't know whether to point this out at viewings?