Survey and vendor changing locks/keys

martindow

Marvel1 said:

user1977 said:

Surveyor charging £200 for not doing a survey is taking the pee somewhat.

Could be a discount of the full fee and could have filled the spot with another booking at full fee.

Not very likely is it?  The surveyor travelled to the agent, collected the keys and returned them to report that they couldn't get in to the house.   The surveyor spent time and money travelling and it is certainly not his fault he was supplied with keys that didn't work.

TheJP

Ath_Wat said:

TheJP said:

doodling said:

Hi,

TheJP said:

doodling said:

Hi,

From the point of view of the original poster, the HA and the EA are the same person (who I'll call the vendor) What appears to have happened is that the vendor has agreed to make the property available to the surveyor at a particular time and have failed to do so.

The next question is what was the agreement about making the property available and what is the contractual context around that?  Unless the original poster agreed to pay for access then it is not clear that there is any contract at all under which losses could be claimed (as we are still at the surveying stage then the overall purchase contract will not be relevant unless this was something like an auction sale).

If the vendor cannot be pursued then there is no legal avenue to get any money back.

Having said that, both the EA and HA should recognise that they have cost you money and might be prepared to make some kind of goodwill payment - I wouldn't bank on it though.

But they aren't...

From the point of view of the buyer the EA and HA are the same person.  One is the other's agent with respect to the sale of that house so the buyer can deal with either of them pretty much interchangeably (subject to the extent to which the EA or HA want to be involved) and any buck there might be stops with the HA (who the EA works for).

The buyer is dealing with the EA, if the EA didn't check with the HA that all was ok to enter the property to carry out a survey then that's sloppy. An EA wouldn't arrange a survey in a residential property without clearing it with the owner first so why is this any different (assuming the EA didn't check first).

The buyer is dealing with the vendor who in this instance consists of the HA and their agent.  I'm not saying that this is any different to any other house sale, I'm saying that from the legal point of view of the buyer the EA and HA are indivisible.

There is no contractual context for the buyer yet as they haven't exchanged contracts, the contract to sell is with the EA and the HA.

Again the pitfalls of buying, if the sale falls through from the buyer should they then compensate the EA and HA?

I think you're missing the point; because there is no contract then sellers or their agents can do stuff like forget to allow access for surveyors (or allow access and then decide not to sell) with complete impunity, other then the effect on the relationship between them and the buyer - which side that matters to most depends on the nature of the market.  I make no comment on whether that is a good or bad thing.

As I noted in my post, the only chance the OP has of seeing any money is by appealing to the EAs or HAs sense of fairness.  I don't rate that chance highly.

You've over complicated the basics of there was a mis-communication between the EA & HA. The HA is not like you or me selling a property, they will have different departments doing different things relating to the property. We all know the Ar*se doesn't talk to the elbow in these public organisations, the EA should know that this sale will be more complex than a normal residential property and should have checked that access for a survey is ok, similarly the HA could have notified the EA (again ar*e & elbow).

Again a business is not going to refund/pay out to someone they have no contract or business with. It sucks but its the lay of the land.

When a  vendor gives keys to an estate agent that is generally an agreement that it's ok for the estate agent to go to the house at any time (for the purpose of furthering the sale, of course).  Nobody would then expect an estate agent to check every time they do so if it is still ok.  The whole point of giving them the keys is so the vendor doesn't need to be bothered with it.

Although i do agree with you, wouldn't they have to seek permission to pass on the keys to a contractor on behalf of the buyer? Its clearly a result of a lack of communication from the HA & EA.

Marvel1

Seems what I have posted has been taken the wrong way.

I agree with the fee as not their fault the key didn't work, they shouldn't lose out.