Has anyone sued their surveyor?

[ladymuck]

And if so were you successful? We're being advised by our current surveyor, and also our builder that we ought to sue our previous surveyor (long sotry which I won't bore you with). Our solicitor is saying that it can be very difficult to prove professional negligence. Just wondering if anyone out there has tried?

Bump for the daytime shift

When we first bought our house the survey said it was basically okay but a bit ugly (in a nutshell) which we realised anyway. When we actually got the keys we found loads wrong with it including charred mains cable in fuse board from overloading, house riddled with woodworm etc. MY boss wrote a letter to the surveyor and in the end they offered an ex gratia payment - I did work for a large national firm at the time which may have helped

ladymuck, it might be worth firstly writing to them (a letter before action) with a figure for compensation advising them if they do not pay within a reasonable time (28 days?) you will follow with a court action.Then issue a claim with the court. When they see you are serious they might pay up but if their insurance company decides to fight the case it may not be worthwhile it financially for you to continue.In any case, the court will need to see that you tried to deal settle outside of court before issuing a claim.

Do you have legal cover from your insurance company?

We wanted to sue our double glazing company so contacted our insurance company's legal helpline for advice. They sent us a claim form and we were assigned a solicitor who assessed that we do have good cause for suing them, and is taking action against them on our behalf.

So we wont be paying a penny and will hopefully see the schisters (SP) in court.

Worth a try.....

BR

Surveys are full of so many get out clauses "this not tested" that not tested, etc. How much negligence do you think you're owed; how bad was the survey, & would it be worth taking the chance of lining your soliciter's pockets but getting nothing back?

bunnyrabbit, that sounds good, one insurance co against another - best way of doing it!

Unfortunately we're not covered by our policy's legal expenses cover, as we didn't have our policy with them at the date of the survey. Admit that the solicitor's costs are a bit daunting - ours estimates that his costs in going to court would be £5k, probably similar for the other side, and if we lost we would probably have to pay both lots. Damages conservatively £15k, may go to £20k. So, I'm faced with a certain bill of £15-20k, a worse case of £25-30k (if we go to court and lose), a best scenario of say £2k or so (I've been warned that even if we win there may be some costs which will fall to us). It would be a no-brainer to sue if we were covered for it, but less appetising when it is (more of) our own money at stake.

So far we've had our solicitor write to the surveyor, setting out the issue and the compensation that we would want, and giving the surveyor a chance to come and see the property again.