Help please basement needing diminished value survey

Alanisakiwi

Hi, can someone please help - I have a basement in my new property that wasnt surveyed by the building surveyor (he wasnt allowed by the previous owner) and didnt disclose this in his report.

I have since had the basement surveyed by another surveyor who has found about £30k worth of structural issues that need resolving. 

As this is negligence, I need to get a new survey that calculates the diminished value of the property as a result of this. I had one quote for this at £3000 which I simply cant afford. 

Can someone suggest a surveyor in London who could provide a diminished value for much less? 

eddddy

Has the surveyor admitted liability - so you're just trying to agree the loss in value, and therefore the damages?

Or has the surveyor denied liability - so your starting point is to prove negligence?


And/or is there a possibility that this will end up in court? If so, I would instruct an accredited RICS Expert Witness, especially as you're presumably fighting against a RICS surveyor (or maybe a whole firm of RICS surveyors).


FWIW, when I was preparing to make a 'building related' claim for negligence, I hired a RICS Expert Witness with an agreement that he would prepare a 'simple' report initially (for a lowish fee), which I could pass to the other party.

If the other party still refused to settle, the RICS Expert Witness said he could upgrade the report to 'court evidence quality' - for a further fee.

(Fortunately for me, the other party caved-in when they read the 'simple' report.)

Maybe take a look here:  https://www.ricsfirms.com/residential/legal-issues/expert-witness/

Alanisakiwi

eddddy said:

Has the surveyor admitted liability - so you're just trying to agree the loss in value, and therefore the damages?

Or has the surveyor denied liability - so your starting point is to prove negligence?


And/or is there a possibility that this will end up in court? If so, I would instruct an accredited RICS Expert Witness, especially as you're presumably fighting against a RICS surveyor (or maybe a whole firm of RICS surveyors).


FWIW, when I was preparing to make a 'building related' claim for negligence, I hired a RICS Expert Witness with an agreement that he would prepare a 'simple' report initially (for a lowish fee), which I could pass to the other party.

If the other party still refused to settle, the RICS Expert Witness said he could upgrade the report to 'court evidence quality' - for a further fee.

(Fortunately for me, the other party caved-in when they read the 'simple' report.)

Maybe take a look here:  https://www.ricsfirms.com/residential/legal-issues/expert-witness/

Thanks - super helpful and what I was looking for!