Advice on Surveyor's report

Nearlydebtfree

Hi
We moved into our new property 3 weeks ago. It is an old property and so we decided to have our own report done to make sure there were no huge problems with it. I managed to locate a Surveyor and when I contacted him  I specifically asked his advice about which report to obtain based on the age of the property and that our main concerns were the state of the roof and if it was damp. We already knew it needed a full rewire and a new boiler system. He had a look at the house on the estate agent's website and recommended a homebuyers report - when I asked why not a building survey his response was:-
"The main difference is the level of advice. In a home buyer's, you're told whether there is a problem and what it is. In a building survey, you're told the causes and advised on solutions. 

Building surveys are ideal for older properties where you might have lots of interrelated issues and need advice about what to do first and how all the issues affect each other. For newer properties where there'll just be a few isolated issues, a homebuyers is all you need.

In your case, a homebuyers will be fine and if, after inspecting it, I think you really need a building survey on a house that new, my advice would be to pull out!"

On that basis we instructed him on a homebuyers. He did the report and telephoned me that evening - I made handwritten notes in which he told me the roof was in perfect condition and nothing to worry about with it. He also confirmed orally after attending that as it was a bigger property than what he had expected he had been there for 7 hours (confirmed by the owner) and had in fact carried out the equivalent of a building report and he sent me a 59 page report which was very detailed and was definitely much more of a building survey. He said that he would do the report for the same price as agreed.  In the section regarding the roof he put:-

"The roof of the house is covered with slate tiles over a secondary waterproof barrier (roofing
felt). Over the bay window there is a flat roof which has a covering of lead sheeting. There is a flat roof to the rear over the WC and inner porch. The roof pitches were examined from ground level with the aid of binoculars and using a camera, and from the loft space, for possible defects including sagging, collapse, broken/missing/damaged tiles, holes, and other evidence of failure.
Condition No significant defects were noted."

On Saturday morning (before the storms) we had a velux replaced in the roof - the workers went on to the roof and found the roof in a state of disrepair, there are holes in the roof (visible from the loft), slates missing, misplaced and broken and we have had 2 leaks. Fortunately they have been able to make a temporary fix which was thankfully before the storm came. We are obtaining two quotes from roofers as to the extent of the work required but both people have said you can see the damage to the roof from ground level.

I have taken photos and emailed him setting out the above and I am currently waiting for his response but I just wondered if anyone had experience of such matters? Had I know the problems then I could have renegotiated the asking price but there was no suggestion at all by him that we should get a roofer to look at the roof. He did make other suggestions in the report as to getting people to look at things but nothing about the roof. It was also confirmed in the email that this was a concern for us that we wanted him to look at.  Will there be any issue as it was a homebuyer's report and not a building report based on the fact that he advised us that would be sufficient. I am just wondering what my potential courses of action are or if I will be fighting a lost cause. I am just really disappointed that I really researched a suitable surveyor who was experienced in Victorian properties, to cover ourselves and make sure we knew what we were buying and now we are faced with potentially a new back roof according to one of the roofers from the weekend.
Any advice would be very much appreciated!

kinger101

I sounds like you and I might have used the same surveyor! 

My understanding is to pursue this, you'd need to pay another surveyor to confirm the first surveyor was negligent in writing their report.  Then get a solicitor to take it to court.  If you win, you'll be awarded the difference in value in the property with and without the defect.  Which will be less than the cost of a new roof.  There's an internal process at the surveyor then RICs, but that's there to fob off us poor sods who've had shoddy copy/paste surveys done rather than make suveyors behave professionally.

 My experience of roofers is the one will tell you need a new roof.  Another will tell you you just need to butter up the ridge tiles. The third won't show up.  None of them enter the loft to investigate where the actual leak is.  The one you finally get to replace the ridge tiles which are the actual source of problem will decide to repoint your chimney while he's up there, even though he's completely cack-handed.

Good luck.

Nearlydebtfree

Thanks - pretty much confirms what I have read up and concluded - that they’ll happily take your money but won’t happily compensate you when they get it wrong!  I will see what response he comes back with and go from there!

shinytop

kinger101 said:

I sounds like you and I might have used the same surveyor! 

My understanding is to pursue this, you'd need to pay another surveyor to confirm the first surveyor was negligent in writing their report.  Then get a solicitor to take it to court.  If you win, you'll be awarded the difference in value in the property with and without the defect.  Which will be less than the cost of a new roof.  There's an internal process at the surveyor then RICs, but that's there to fob off us poor sods who've had shoddy copy/paste surveys done rather than make suveyors behave professionally.

 My experience of roofers is the one will tell you need a new roof.  Another will tell you you just need to butter up the ridge tiles. The third won't show up.  None of them enter the loft to investigate where the actual leak is.  The one you finally get to replace the ridge tiles which are the actual source of problem will decide to repoint your chimney while he's up there, even though he's completely cack-handed.

Good luck.

Brilliant!  Sums up my experiences exactly.