Negligent surveyor

newsgroupmonkey_

Please let us know how this ends. Very interested to know what happens next.

ThisIsWeird

Havanese said:

lincroft1710 said:

Havanese said:

I'd love to hear from anyone that has had success in suing a surveyor for damages.
How long was the process, what were your costs and what was the outcome?
Following a pre aquisition survey, I bought a property last February. On the day of completion, I noticed two issues which the surveyor had overlooked.
Unfortunately, 4 months later, the property was deemed uninhabitable due to the rising and falling damp throughout.
I have been renting since August.
I have started proceedings against the surveyor but so frustrated to learn that I can only recover 60% of my costs.
I have paid for a subsequent survey plus had an expert witness report produced and all have shown that the damp is historical and would have been visible  at the time of the pre-acquisition survey.
In my opinion, solicitors and barristers see this as a gravy train and want to see a battle.
Any advice greatly appreciated...

Who said you could only recover 60% of your costs?


Many of my former work colleagues were Chartered Surveyors and they would have had very expensive insurance to cover eventualities such as these. Unlike car insurance policies, where you can build up a no claims discount over years, surveyor's insurance premiums increase over the years as the more properties surveyed, the more chance of a claim.

Apologies for the late reply and thank you for your comment.
My barrister gave me this advice. Should this go to court, up to 60% costs can be claimed 

Do you have Leg Prot included in your house insurance?

Grotdog

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79937833#Comment_79937833

Solicitors dont often succeed - rics have so many opt outs and clauses in their paperwork that they might as well just send out a standard form that says "It might have damp, but we dont really know: It might have structural problems but get a structural engineer, it might have rot but get an independend damp wally survey, it might not have planning permission so get an independent expert on planning" - generally Homebuyer and Level 2 and Level 3 surveys as marketed areent worth the paper they are printed on. Most surveys are now written by AI anyway.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6434424/negligent-surveyor

On the day of completion, I noticed two issues which the surveyor had overlooked.

What were these two issues?

What did you do about them?

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981613#Comment_81981613

If they did anything it was 3+ years ago…