Surveyor sent the Homebuyers Report to the Vendors

Jumblebumble

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

AdrianC said:

verytired11 said:

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!

The report is not the property of the surveyor.  That's not how professional advice works. The report is commissioned for and paid for by the buyer and a professional relationship arises between the two of them that brings obligations on the part of the surveyor to the buyer and gives the buyer certain rights that they can expect to be upheld.

You're close.

There is indeed a professional relationship, in which the surveyor grants a licence to use their intellectual property - the report. That licence specifically excludes others relying on it, not least for professional liability insurance purposes. The intellectual property is not transferred. The report is still the surveyor's property.

In terms of loss,  I can think of at least one potential loss.  The buyer asks for £5000 off in respect of hidden work identified by the report.  The buyer sends an extract of the report to the seller to back up the request.  The seller sends the extract of the report to the buyer showing that the buyer has got the property £5k cheaper than the valuation and asks for an extra £5k instead.

Or, even, refuses to accept a revaluation on the basis that the property has not been downvalued at all.

Yes, that's the way negotiations work.
And if you think handing me selected extracts would work, you're still wrong. You want to rely on the survey to renegotiate, provide the survey. All of it. Especially any valuation, or we are not getting very far in our renegotiation...

But, since this particular survey did not identify any defects...

The real issue is that when a mistake is made, in my view, three things should happen.  The first is that the mistake is acknowledged.

Read the OP. Already done, and apology issued.

The second is that it is investigated to find out how it happened to stop the same mistake from happening again.

Internal procedures, not the OP's problem or business.

The third is that repair is made.  In this case, repair may only extend to an apology and acknowledgment of the inconvenience caused to the buyer.

Read the OP. Already done.

In a personal situation one can walk away and remind oneself not to have any dealings with that person again.

And such would, of course, be entirely the OP's prerogative.

To be fair I know some  stupid people who might just agree to take 5 K less if given an  extract that showed that there were 5Ks worth of repairs without seeing the whole picture

The fact that the vendor has been given a survey at the buyers expense is of course nonsense  as the vendor did not want or ask for this survey and as you say have probably not gained much if anything by having sight of it

kgfox

Just as an update I have now resolved this matter with the surveyors. In their response to the complaint they acknowledged the error, outlined what happened, what they've done since and offered a resolution to the complaint. I accepted the resolution offer and closed the complaint. The resolution was a full refund of the survey fee.

Thank you for your comments. We will now get our heads back up after the disappointment of the sale falling through and try again, hopefully with a little more luck.

lucypilates

kgfox said:

Just as an update I have now resolved this matter with the surveyors. In their response to the complaint they acknowledged the error, outlined what happened, what they've done since and offered a resolution to the complaint. I accepted the resolution offer and closed the complaint. The resolution was a full refund of the survey fee.

Thank you for your comments. We will now get our heads back up after the disappointment of the sale falling through and try again, hopefully with a little more luck.

that's a reasonable outcome - you can now put it behind you and move forwards!! good luck