Suing a surveyor- issue cake up with house which was not picked up

[Frazzled2207]

Anyone know if this is feasible?
To cut a long story short no flooding issues came up in our survey yet our front garden has been flooded several times. Last time it threatened the house. We are now paying £2k to have proper drainage put in to stop our house flooding if there was a major rain event.
My dm is convinced we should sue the surveyor, given the sum involved I am not convinced.

Hmm. It is the Environment Agency that produces a flood map and I would have thought this was something your solicitor should have looked in the searches they did on the property.

However, not all flooding is down to Rivers and water ways. It can be down to blocked drains, blocked culverts and big puddles which don’t drain away because people have gardens turned into hard standing. I am not sure your surveyor could pick this up if he didn’t find evidence of on the day he visited. You should have had a contract with him. It will say what he was inspecting and I have a feeling, that unless the garden has flooded due to a defect in your drains, I am not sure he is responsible.

Your vendor should have mentioned flooding on the questionnaire sent by the solicitor and are you able to get insurance ok?

Unless there was evidence of recent flooding or the Environment Agency shows the property at risk the surveyor wouldn't pick it up. You can take a look at the Environment Agency website and enter your postcode to see if the house is at risk.

If the property has suffered flooding in the past and the sellers did not declare it on the Property Information Form you may have a claim against them. That is probably a better route than trying to take action against the surveyor. However, it is possible that there is no history and that your house has been affected by a blocked drain, a change someone else has made or similar. If that is the case I'm afraid you don't have a claim against anyone.

Thanks both very helpful. Yes I see now that it probably wasn't the surveyor's fault. I can well imagine that there has never been a flood problem with the actual house, just in the garden and it always drains away very quickly. Basically we are at a small dip at the top of a hill.
However one very serious rainstorm last year could have had very serious consequences- it was definitely the worst rainfall in living memory locally. With climate change etc we feel that we don't trust it not to happen again.

Ps yes never a problem with insurance, not on a flood plain and house has never flooded to my knowledge.

In that case you need to investigate how you can drain the land, if it worries you. A surveyor may be able to help with suggestions on how to drain the land.