Can I complain about survey on these grounds?

[fruitstick]

We bought a house in December, we had full structural survey before purchase.

One of the rooms needed renovating and the fire replacing. However, we have now discovered that the fireplace in the room is highly illegal as it is not directly below the chimney stack.

Essentially, 2 rooms had been knocked into one and the fireplace was on the wall that was removed. The builder had then put in a flue between the RSJ which had 2 90degree turns to reach the fire on the other all. This is not allowed at all.

The survey did not pick up that the gas fire was not below the chimney. In fact it says
There is one fireplace to the property and this is located to the front reception room.

"The fireplace has a gas fire point, and has a brick surround. However full inspection of the fireplace was not possible due to furnishings at the property.

If the chimney is to be used it will need to be lined or swept to ensure that it complies with modern standards."

It is going to cost £3,000 to have a new fire put in and the gas point moved. Can we complain that this is something the surveyor should have spotted?

You might as well try but I suppose it depends how obvious it would be to professional (ie. did the builder bodge it effectively enough for it not to be an issue unless the chimney was partly dismantled or the fire partly removed?). Most surveys are full of caveats to make it difficult for people to take action against them - "Full inspection was not possible" sounds like a typical one. But it will cost a stamp to write a letter asking how the surveyor could miss this if it is an obvious defect.

We had a full survey done and they didn't pick up that the whole of the upstairs was single skin brick.

So our upstairs is basically a shed and couldn't be inspected because "of decoration and fitted wardrobes".

Total waste of money.

There is a fireplace upstairs so fairly obvious where the chimney is in the house.

We did not know that it was against regulation for a flue to turn corners but I would have expected a surveyor to know that.

Our chimney flue is not beneath the stack and never has been,it dog legs to the left and then goes straight up,as does the neighbour's.We don't have gas fire though,so not sure if the regs are the same?

I'm wondering what sort of 'furnishings' were in the property to prevent your surveyor from inspecting the fireplace.It does sound a bit of a get out,but you have nothing to lose by complaining.

Unfortunately I don't think you'll get any joy with complaining. The majority of the survey is guesswork as the surveyor is not allowed to move things or pull up carpets, look behind cladding, etc. I had a similar problem when I went to remove a chimney in a bathroom and we found that behind the wooden cladding (I've decided that surely that's the only reason people put that stuff up is to hide things, sigh) the chimney was resting on only a few bricks and it could have come down into the kitchen at any time. Cost me an extra £1K to have removed and made safe but it was just what had to be done.