Surveyor has made a mistake on report, what can I do?

Tom99

Samson94 wrote: »

But surely the surveyor should have said he could not comment on the chimney breast in the loft as it was covered by plasterboard. He should then recommend the plasterboard be removed to expose the wall and ascertain why the chimney stack is leaning.

Instead the surveyor has told me all the chimney breasts have been removed including the ones in the loft. So from that he has recommended additional support is required to the chimney stack which is wrong information.

Yes you would think plasterboard on a loft party wall would be a warning sign that something was behind it which, since it cannot be seen nor inspected, would warrant a caveat.

Rambosmum

Samson94 wrote: »

But surely the surveyor should have said he could not comment on the chimney breast in the loft as it was covered by plasterboard. He should then recommend the plasterboard be removed to expose the wall and ascertain why the chimney stack is leaning.

Instead the surveyor has told me all the chimney breasts have been removed including the ones in the loft. So from that he has recommended additional support is required to the chimney stack which is wrong information.

I guess it would depend on how obvious the false wall was. If it was plastered/ decorated and looked in keeping with the rest of the loft i.e. not obviously a fake wall, then I think not noticing it is reasonable. If it was 3 sheets of unfinished plasterboard nailed to something, or a freshly plastered wall then fair enough he should have said something.

edgex

Samson94 wrote: »

But surely the surveyor should have said he could not comment on the chimney breast in the loft as it was covered by plasterboard. He should then recommend the plasterboard be removed to expose the wall and ascertain why the chimney stack is leaning.

Instead the surveyor has told me all the chimney breasts have been removed including the ones in the loft. So from that he has recommended additional support is required to the chimney stack which is wrong information.

Tom99 wrote: »

Yes you would think plasterboard on a loft party wall would be a warning sign that something was behind it which, since it cannot be seen nor inspected, would warrant a caveat.

Why would there have to be be something behind the plasterboard?
It could just as easily have been fixed to the wall after the chimney breast/stack in the loft area had been taken out.

edgex

Now that you know the chimney needs work, it's a good time to contact the neighbour on that side, & find out;
do they still use the chimney
if not, has it been removed in their rooms, & if so, what is happening in their loft
what is their view on having the external stack removed

[Deleted User]

Tom99 wrote: »

Would the average surveyor have noticed the and fire-stop wall and therefore that there may be a problem behind it?
If so you maybe have a claim but the average surveyor would not have broken open the fire-stop wall so would not have been able to report on the poor condition of the brickwork behind it.

That's missing the point. If the surveyor didn't check they should have just stated that in the report. They often note that things look potentially problematic but they were unable to check due to lack of access etc.

Because the surveyor made a definite statement in the report with a detailed description it appeared that they had checked, and simply made a mistake. Commercial insurance covers professional mistakes like that.

Sachs

Surely the surveyors mistake would have to have caused a loss for anyone to be claiming anything?

What I don't understand here is how anyone is linking this mistake to a financial loss. The surveyor brought your attention to a problem, the stack is twisting and leaning. He suggests a cause and a solution (note use of language, "apparently" "presumably").

You have investigated the problem and it turns out the cause isn't what the survey presumed it to be but the problem presumably still exists.

It's not like he said 'the chimney breasts have all been removed and everything is fine.'