Asking about Indemnity Insurance Cover from Solicitor & Building Surveyor..??

sujsuj

Should I explicitly ask my Solicitor about Indemnity Insurance cover for the Buying of my new house, as in case any mistakes  I can get insurance cover..? 
I suppose same should be there for the Building surveyor as well, as in case they make big mistake I should be protected..?  
Is there any issue in explicitly asking for these from surveyor & Solicitor. 
Or its mandatory..?? 
Will a lender allow a surveyor without indemnity cover to do survey for them..??

jonesMUFCforever

Any surveys done for the lender are for the benefit of the lender (some will give you a copy for a fee).
You get no benefit from this - however if the lender pulls your mortgage due to the survey it will give you a clue!
You can employ your own surveyor at your own cost - but get it in writing what they will cover eg hidden things such as wiring might be very difficult for a surveyor to comment on.
Not sure what you mean by mistake by solicitor - perhaps you can elaborate?

davidmcn

sujsuj said:

Should I explicitly ask my Solicitor about Indemnity Insurance cover for the Buying of my new house, as in case any mistakes  I can get insurance cover..? 
I suppose same should be there for the Building surveyor as well, as in case they make big mistake I should be protected..?  
Is there any issue in explicitly asking for these from surveyor & Solicitor. 
Or its mandatory..?? 
Will a lender allow a surveyor without indemnity cover to do survey for them..??

I'm not quite sure exactly what sort of "mistakes" you're worried about, but if either your solicitor or your surveyor are negligent in the work they do for you then you're entitled to claim against them whether or not they've got professional indemnity insurance (and in practice, they all do, so you really don't need to ask the question).

As above, the lender's surveyors will all have insurance, but if they're only working for the bank then it's only the bank who can sue them. If the survey is also addressed to you then you'd be entitled to claim from the surveyors.

sujsuj

I am doing Building Structural Survey of the property by the same surveyor arranged by my lender Bank. My worry is most of these surveying firms take quote  & get cheapest local surveyor to do the job ( may not be most compitent one..?) So if my surveyor's structural survey report missed a critical problem of the house then what guarentee I have aganist the surveyor..?? (though he is arranged by the lender..)

[Deleted User]

Just like in any profession some surveyors will be better than others.  Some will have 30 years experience and some only a few.  But maybe the one with less experience sees something that someone else doesnt becuase he/she saw it in another property and it stuck with them.  

Ultimately you dont know if there was going to be a better surveyor than the one you have got.   You are welcome to find your own and let the lender do their own one.   That may be more expensive or it might not be. 

If a surveyor makes an error that is clearly negligent then you can sue them. However, surveys are very much a game of opinion and its only a snapshot of what was there on the day.   If it isnt raining then they might not spot that there is a leak, if its windy it might not be safe for them to get to any height. They arent qualified to comment on a lot of the services like gas and electrics.  And they will refer you to specialists for anything they are concerned about.  They wont do a cctv survey of the drains to see if there is a collapsed drain (i bought a house with a collapsed drain, what a nuisance that was!)

There are no guarantees with buying a house.  If you want certainty that someone is responsible for the state of the building when you buy it then get a new build with the 2 year warranty (the remaining 8 years are only for really big problems).