HOME REPORT ERROR QUESTION

[fannybaws]

Hi we have recently purchased a house in Scotland.
While getting quotes for new windows we have realised that we have a very badly cracked mullion and lintel on the front elevation, which will need to be replaced.
It was not mentioned at all on the home report, it is clearly visible, we did not worry about it before purchased as it was not mentioned and we thought it was cosmetic because of this.
Do we have any recourse?

Not quite sure of how it works in Scotland, but did you get a survey done?

I presume the home report is the survey.

fannybaws - what did the report say about the lintel/windows/structure? was it done by a surveyor, and were you the one who paid for it (ie not the mrtgage lender)?

I think that although the purchaser pays for the Home Report in the first instance, there is something about the surveyors having a duty of care to the seller once a price has been agreed upon. Check it out with your solicitor.

Home reports are, IMO, hopeless. Im in Scotland too and we looked at a house last year, and the home report had no problems reported in it. However, I am fortunate that my dad is a buildings surveyor so we took him along on the second visit and he came away with a long list of issues including damp, woodworm, cracked exterior render, concern re tree roots etc. And from the other side, we had to correct factual errors in our own home report which is not surprising, given that the surveyor was here for only about 5 mins.

Speak to your solicitor immediately.Unfortunately there are problems with Home reports is not great,I would always get my own survey done

Speak to your solicitor.

One mullion and one lintel won't be massively costly if you're replacing windows anyway.

You need to read the back terms and conditions of the home report most them mean that now there is no come back on the surveyor no matter how big there mistake is - speaks she of bitter very expensive experience resulting in obtaining adverse possession order as the surveyor had not noticed that the entire visible garden was no actually all the vendors to sell on the deeds.

But Lizcat something like that is the responsibility of the buyer to note. The solicitor should send you a copy of the land registry plan and you should satisfy yourself that it accurately defines the property you want to buy. Unless the surveyor is sent a plan of the property and asked to confirm that it is accurate (don't know why this would be done though) then all they are doing is commenting on the state of the building.

The surveyor was sent for a full commercial survey including planning the property and confirm accuracy for the Bank's central lending board. This survey includes a massive amount of detail from where every electricity cable and drain run - it is over 1000 pages long. These are done in fairly complex commercial purchases.
However, still their big fat a*s are covered and despite spending thousands on this survey we still ended up spending thousands putting his mistake right. Oh and he only acknowledged that there maybe a problem when I had put £25,000 of tarmac on top of the piece of land I didn't own. I'm not bitter and twisted at all am I.