Suing a surveyor

[Threesoundslikealot]

We've had to do a lot of very expensive work to our house following structural problems. We only bought just over a year before the problems became evident, and an independent surveyor and a builder looked at our Homebuyers' survey and pointed out that the surveyor had failed to point out very basic issues that suggested big problems. We contacted our home insurance who were progressing preliminary legal action but today we got a call to say that as the survey was through the building society's surveyor, we didn't 'contract' the survey and therefore can't sue. I don't really understand this as we paid several hundred pounds for the survey and chose to have a Homebuyer's (never again) rather than a valuation so how did we not commission it?

We are very upset at this as we are now in a dreadful financial position and recovering some of the costs through legal action was a (probably pipedream) hope of getting back on some sort of financial footing.

Any advice? I can't see any reason at all why the mortgage company would sue on our behalf. We have doubled our borrowings and the house is now structurally sound so they won't care about it.

Ps- you haven't been stupid.

Lovely flowers, thanks!

I'm glad you share our puzzlement. I can well imagine that the person getting stuff at the insurance company might not be fully qualified etc, but the papers and the case have been with a real, proper experienced solicitor since before Christmas, and we have had several conversations with her. Another solicitor has taken over for reasons we don't know, but in our experience of large legal firms this is pretty common and so didn't alarm us, and it's him that has decided there's a problem. So either she was inexperienced and he is more experienced, OR she was experienced and he is inexperienced, and has jumped to a conclusion, which would be worrying.

Get a written explanation so you understand the advice. In reputable law firms there should be people checking each other's work. You're entitled to understand the change in advice. Good luck. Legal problems are always stressful.

Thanks, notadoctor. Although obviously not good news. I'll talk to them on Monday and ask them to explain why their thinking changed. We have spent a further £500 we don't have on the supporting survey so I am pretty hacked off.

We should explore that. Feeling a bit exhausted and defeated right now.

After this thread had convinced me all was lost, the solicitor has today written to say he thinks he may be wrong, and that because we commissioned more than a valuation, we can still sue. I'm reluctant to be remotely optimistic but we'll see where we end up.