Surveyor sent the Homebuyers Report to the Vendors

root

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

Good point but it would only count as a data breach if it held personally identifiable information OR information that could be used to identify someone when used in conjunction with other information (GDPR). Even then it doesn't mean it would go anywhere further. Certainly unlikely to get any 'compensayshun'.

Maybe you could ask for a goodwill refund or partial refund?

Scotbot

It is  a very annoying human error but the best you could hope for is a refund of the surveyors fee. It will be interesting and for you annoying to see if the vendor remarkets it.  Was 5k a significant amount of the asking price? If they were really bothered by the 5k you  would expect them to come back and ask you for more money before withdrawing especially if they have found somewhere to buy.

General_Grant

root said:

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

Good point but it would only count as a data breach if it held personally identifiable information OR information that could be used to identify someone when used in conjunction with other information (GDPR). Even then it doesn't mean it would go anywhere further. Certainly unlikely to get any 'compensayshun'.

Maybe you could ask for a goodwill refund or partial refund?

As the report was sent to the vendors, the personally identifiable data was presumably the vendors' data, not the OPs.  So the OP doesn't appear to have anything to claim for there.
Only reasonable complaint IMHO is that they didn't provide a timely service to the OP.

verytired11

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

"A data breach"? In what way? There's none of the buyer's personally identifying information being disclosed that the vendor won't have already had from the memorandum of sale. Less, in fact.

It won't have jeopardised the negotiating position, either. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that any renegotiation based on claims of what the survey says would be backed up by sight of the survey.

The data breach is that the OP has commissioned a report for their eyes only.  If you pay for a professional to advise you, you don't expect that advice to be shown to anybody else.  Perhaps a better way that I should have described it is that it is certainly a breach of the surveyor's professional codes of conduct and the surveyor will know that this could result in a horrible disciplinary process if the OP wanted to report it.  I completely disagree with your second point.  If you are in a negotiation with someone you don't want your own position openly being sent to the other side.  It's also effectively giving the seller a freebie at the buyer's expense, as they now have a survey worth £££ for free.  It's a serious mistake that the surveyor should take seriously.  I am not suggesting anything other than that the OP has a right to be furious and for the circumstances leading to this to be investigated.  

Thrugelmir

verytired11 said:

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

"A data breach"? In what way? There's none of the buyer's personally identifying information being disclosed that the vendor won't have already had from the memorandum of sale. Less, in fact.

It won't have jeopardised the negotiating position, either. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that any renegotiation based on claims of what the survey says would be backed up by sight of the survey.

  Perhaps a better way that I should have described it is that it is certainly a breach of the surveyor's professional codes of conduct and the surveyor will know that this could result in a horrible disciplinary process if the OP wanted to report it.  

The office secretary gets a reprimand or worse sacked for mailing it to the wrong person. 

If that's the level of judgement these days nobody would last in a job for long!  

AdrianC

verytired11 said:

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

"A data breach"? In what way? There's none of the buyer's personally identifying information being disclosed that the vendor won't have already had from the memorandum of sale. Less, in fact.

It won't have jeopardised the negotiating position, either. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that any renegotiation based on claims of what the survey says would be backed up by sight of the survey.

The data breach is that the OP has commissioned a report for their eyes only.

The report is the property of the surveyors.

If you pay for a professional to advise you, you don't expect that advice to be shown to anybody else.

But what is the actual loss? Zero.

Oh, noes! The vendor now knows there's nothing wrong with the house they're selling!

I completely disagree with your second point.  If you are in a negotiation with someone you don't want your own position openly being sent to the other side.

If you are buying a house from me, and say "My survey says X is wrong, can we reduce the price by £Y?", I would suggest you are somewhat over-optimistic if you think my response is going to be "Oooh, heck! Well, yes, of course" without being shown the survey...

But since the survey showed no issues for the OP to renegotiate over, it's moot... unless, of course, you are suggesting that the OP was planning on misrepresenting it completely to claim issues that were not shown, and now cannot...?

You also seem to have forgotten that GDPR only protects personally identifying information. Commercially sensitive information is not directly protected.

user1977

verytired11 said:

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

"A data breach"? In what way? There's none of the buyer's personally identifying information being disclosed that the vendor won't have already had from the memorandum of sale. Less, in fact.

It won't have jeopardised the negotiating position, either. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that any renegotiation based on claims of what the survey says would be backed up by sight of the survey.

It's also effectively giving the seller a freebie at the buyer's expense, as they now have a survey worth £££ for free.

The amount of £££ is pretty low, assuming that the survey has merely fallen into the vendor's hands by being posted to them as opposed to actually being addressed to them as the client - without the latter, they cannot rely on it at all (in the sense of being entitled to sue the surveyor), and certainly can't pass on any benefit of it to other buyers etc.

I agree that any professional owes a duty of confidentiality to their clients, and shouldn't be disclosing their advice by mistake to the other party in a transaction - but I'm struggling to see that it's caused any actual loss in this case.

princeofpounds

Indigo_and_Violet said:

Surprised that the first two posters missed the important bit that the valuation was in your favour i.e. showing the house as worth more than you'd offered. 

I actually initially interpreted 'in my favour' to mean a LOWER valuation, given it was sent to the seller.

I still don't think it's particularly meaningful, well within any margin of error.

gettingtheresometime

verytired11 said:

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

I feel that this is a serious mistake - it's a data breach and it potentially jeopardised your purchase and/or negotiating position.  I would find out what the surveyor's complaint procedure is and make a complaint through that.  I don't think you will be able to prove that the mistake cost you the purchase, but irrespective of that your complaint should be taken seriously and addressed.  I would be furious about it.

"A data breach"? In what way? There's none of the buyer's personally identifying information being disclosed that the vendor won't have already had from the memorandum of sale. Less, in fact.

It won't have jeopardised the negotiating position, either. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that any renegotiation based on claims of what the survey says would be backed up by sight of the survey.

The data breach is that the OP has commissioned a report for their eyes only.  If you pay for a professional to advise you, you don't expect that advice to be shown to anybody else.  Perhaps a better way that I should have described it is that it is certainly a breach of the surveyor's professional codes of conduct and the surveyor will know that this could result in a horrible disciplinary process if the OP wanted to report it.  I completely disagree with your second point.  If you are in a negotiation with someone you don't want your own position openly being sent to the other side.  It's also effectively giving the seller a freebie at the buyer's expense, as they now have a survey worth £££ for free.  It's a serious mistake that the surveyor should take seriously.  I am not suggesting anything other than that the OP has a right to be furious and for the circumstances leading to this to be investigated.  

If the survey had thrown up something which resulted in the OP revising their offer downwards, I - as the seller - would want proof of that & certainly wouldn't take the word of the OP.
Yes the seller has a report which shows their property is worth £x but at the end of the day any future buyer (if they have a brain cell) will want their own valuation carried out.

kgfox

Thank you everyone for your comments, regardless of which side you fall on this. Many of the things you have posted are exactly the things I have been thinking about. I hadn't seen any discussion on this topic and I'm very inexperienced in the house buying process so your comments have been welcome. I've also never been in the position of selling a house so was very unsure if having this information would contribute in anyway to a seller pulling out of the sale.

I doubt I will never know if it had any relevance in the collapse of the sale, potentially not, as the vendors have only given the reason 'they no longer want to proceed with the transaction'. I don't believe it would have helped. Our solicitor and the EA have been trying to help us but there has been no communication from the vendors. To answer one of questions that I saw, the property has not come back onto the market, this only happened last week so it may do in time.

I did ask for the surveyors complaints policy procedure which they duly sent. I sent a complaint which followed the timeline of events and in-line with their complaints procedure. The complaint has been acknowledged and they stated that the complaint is being investigated and they will respond to me in 7 working days. I will let you know how the matter is resolved.