Structural engineer drawings not fit for purpose

Ms80

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.!
I had some structural drawings made last year for an extension on our house.!
luckily our builder suspected they would not work which the building inspector confirmed. The rear of our house would have collapsed they said.!
We and our builder tried contacting the structural engineer to explain this and get new plans drawn up but he would never return our calls.!
this was of course holding up the build so in the end we had to find a second engineer who did us new working plans on short notice.!
My question is. Is there anywhere we can report/complain to about this structural engineer and possibly get our money back for plans that were not fit for purpose? Tia!

daivid

What accreditation did your original engineer have? If any complain to the body that provided it. You won't get money back that way but it would be an avenue to take action against the engineer.

Ms80

Not sure on the accreditation would have to check that. So is there no process to try for a refund?

Warwick_Hunt

Ms80 wrote: »

Not sure on the accreditation would have to check that. So is there no process to try for a refund?

County Court.

EachPenny

If the engineer is a member of either the Institution of Structural Engineers or Institution of Civil Engineers then you could make a complaint about professional behaviour/standards. This could result in disciplinary action up to and including removal of Chartered status - assuming they have it in the first place. This route won't get you your money back though.

Personally I would write a letter to the engineer at the address you have for them and state clearly that you are complaining about the service provided. Ask that they consider your complaint and contact you to discuss it. Then state that if you don't have a response by a certain date (say two weeks) that you intend to take the matter further. (but no need to say what you intend to do at this stage).

Davesnave

As EachPenny says, something like this needs action in the form of an old-fashioned letter, where you set out your grievance and the evidence you hold that supports it. You give a reasonable period for a response and take it from there.

It's much easier to ignore phone calls than a letter, which begins a paper trail, necessary if you want to take this further.

As regards your right in law, the Consumer Rights Act states that professionals you employ should use adequate care and skill, which seems not to have not happened in this case. However, you don't have that paper trail which would prove that you gave the engineer the necessary chance to rectify the situation, so your case against them is weaker than it might be.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act

Furts

Your structural engineer might be a cowboy so go after him. However there are a huge string of buts here. You engaged this person so what due diligence did you do? You do not appear to know about accreditation, or Membership, so this is worrying. Clearly you are saying the person is not competent so why engage them?

Then when things were clearly wrong what period of notice did you give for matters to be put right, and how did you action this. Matters need to be more professional than saying telephone calls were not answered.

Then consider your legal duties. You had a legal duty to apply for Buildings Regulations, and it is common sense for this to be a Full Plans Application. This means there should have been no delays with the build, and no problems with safety because this would have been picked up before the builder started work.

Your payment for the drawings could, or should, have been linked to Buildings Regulations Approval. Had you done this there should be no financial loss to you here. Plus all the issues should have been corrected on the drawings before the builder started work.

Then consider your legal duties under the CDM Regs. You should have appointed a competent designer, and taken on your legal duties for the safety of your extension. OK if you then passed this duty to your builder, with an audit trail. But you are in the frame for any incompetence and any collapse of your extension.

Going back to my first point , by all means go after your engineer.
However there are so many grey areas over your role in all this that you may end up writing of the original fees. It sounds like you are far from innocent in all this saga.

Ms80

Thanks. Will give this a try