Over-the-top surveyor destroyed our house sale

ClockworkTV

We're selling our property (some parts 300 years old) which we bought several years ago and did a lot of refurbishment on. It took a while to get a buyer. Everything was going well until the buyer's surveyor came to do a 'structural' survey (normal for old buildings). His report was so over the top basically trashing our house (80 pages long! - about a page for every two square metres!). It seemed to be an excercise in covering his back and found fault with all sorts of things that were not really significant (cheap to fix) or we had actually fixed or just plain wrong. Our buyers freaked out and pulled out of the sale without even any discussion. There's nothing actually seriously there to stop a purchase, the house is solid but the way he listed stuff it sounded awful. Our 'structural survey' when we bought the house was only 30 pages long and that was before we did any work on it! I'm furious and there's no come back - you can sue your own surveyor but what do you do when the buyer's surveyor basically libels your house?

canaldumidi

Your buyer paid for a detailed survey and was entitiled to receive one, which he did.

A survey is not simply there to identify serious faults, it is there to describe the property in detail and give the client/buyer a full descriptiono the property.

What the buyer chooses to do next is up to the buyer.

My house is 150 years old and when I bought it also had a lengthy and full report. I used this to comprise 3 'to do' lists:

* jobs to do when I moved in - many very small and easy almost insignificant improvements, but which I would not have done had they not been suggested in the report

* jobs for the 1st year or so

* longer term jobs, both routine maintenance (which as a newbie I would not have known about) and improvement projects.

Don't blame the surveyor. Blame the buyer.

As for suing for libel, it's impossible to comment unless you tell us what was written that was inaccurate.

theartfullodger

Sounds like the prospective buyer was lucky (and not that common) in finding a surveyor who was diligent & thorough. 

All part of the fun of buying and selling property (sold 2 in last 3 years, probably selling another in 22/23..).

user1977

It's entirely up to buyers which professionals they engage and how much attention they want to pay to the advice they receive.  And the whole point of a survey is to tell you about defects, whether minor or not. You do not have any means of complaining about the surveyor. You just need to find a buyer who is less liable to "freak out" when they read what was probably a fairly standard report.

canaldumidi

user1977 said:

It's entirely up to buyers which professionals they engage and how much attention they want to pay to the advice they receive.  And the whole point of a survey is to tell you about defects, whether minor or not. You do not have any means of complaining about the surveyor. You just need to find a buyer who is less liable to "freak out" when they read what was probably a fairly standard report.

I believe this is a common belief/misconception.

That is certainly one of the points of a survey, but a survey, especially the detailed ones, should give a description of the contstruction of the property so that the client understands it, point out related maintenance needs (not just 'defects'), suggest improvements, generally educate the client as to the property he intends to own.

[Deleted User]

My report was 79 pages long and there was no major faults.

Surely there must be something major in the report for a buyer to pull out?

Was it a FTB?

propertyhunter

user1977 said:

It's entirely up to buyers which professionals they engage and how much attention they want to pay to the advice they receive.  And the whole point of a survey is to tell you about defects, whether minor or not. You do not have any means of complaining about the surveyor. You just need to find a buyer who is less liable to "freak out" when they read what was probably a fairly standard report.

Exactly. I had a survey done on an old house and everything needs doing at some point but I'm still proceeding. If you're buying a house such as yours, an experienced buyer would be prepared for this. I reckon you might have had someone who was a little naive. 

Chris_English

ClockworkTV said:what do you do when the buyer's surveyor basically libels your house?

You can’t libel a house.

As to what you do, you get on with marketing your house.

propertyhunter

I mean it's a 300 year old house, so what do buyers expect? It'll last longer than a new build I bet. 

daveyjp

The report is for your buyer not the property owner, I wouldn't have even shared it with a vendor.  Buyers pull out for all sorts of reasons.

ClockworkTV

canaldumidi said:

Your buyer paid for a detailed survey and was entitiled to receive one, which he did.

A survey is not simply there to identify serious faults, it is there to describe the property in detail and give the client/buyer a full descriptiono the property.

What the buyer chooses to do next is up to the buyer.

My house is 150 years old and when I bought it also had a lengthy and full report. I used this to comprise 3 'to do' lists:

* jobs to do when I moved in - many very small and easy almost insignificant improvements, but which I would not have done had they not been suggested in the report

* jobs for the 1st year or so

* longer term jobs, both routine maintenance (which as a newbie I would not have known about) and improvement projects.

Don't blame the surveyor. Blame the buyer.

As for suing for libel, it's impossible to comment unless you tell us what was written that was inaccurate.

I blame the surveyor when he is innaccurate and alarmist. For instance he said 'the windows need refurbishing' - not true - we did this when we moved in - one window only has some putty coming away but that's it. The way he worded it sounds like most of the windows require work which is just not true and he put it as a 'sigificant' issue.