Case against surveyor: dispute resolution or solicitor?

[Nasa89]

We have a case of professional negligence against the surveyor we used when we bought our house. We raised the issue with him and he has refused any liability. We got reports by another surveyor & by an expert witness engineer, both of them think that we have a case against our surveyor and should go to court (repair costs are in the region of 15k).
His firm’s complaint procedure says complaints can go to a dispute resolution organisation that solves issues through adjudication. I read their website and they are independent, legally binding, they provide with a resolution in less than 90 days & very important... free! We consulted a solicitor, who said to go to court and that their fees would be over a thousand. we are both working but have no savings after buying the house and furnish it :-(
Is the CEDR (dispute resolution company) any good? Do they really look after the costumer’s interests or are we better off going to a solicitor? It haS been 7 weeks already since we complained to the surveyor, he was giving us hope then he offered to settle for next to nothing claiming our report and quotes are very inflated. I don’t want to waste another 2 months writing letters, emails and submitting reports to find another wall (the house needs to be fixed sooner than later!). the cedr seems too good to be true & we have no idea about legal matters so it’s hard to know what to do! TIA

You shouldn’t need to consult a solicitor or resolution company. There is an Ombudsman for surveyors who will deal for you and ensure the surveyor pays you however much compensation they decide you are owed. It sounds like you have a lot of evidence which should help but they will have their own procedure to follow.

Also contact the rics- the surveyor is duty bound to follow a strict complaints procedure so should have already informed you about the ombudsman.

I agree with the above, contact the RICS compliance department first, they will advise you.

His complaints procedure say that should we not come to an agreement, the next step is going through the CEDR:
www.cedr.com/consumer/rics/
No mention of ombudsman, maybe that’s only in England? I will contact RICS on Monday.
My solicitor recommended me to appoint a surveyor with experience in expert witness (but this can only be done through her). I really need this report as it will be the definite proof that a competent surveyor should have mention that problem in his survey (he claims he didnt have to as there aren’t any visible signs). A friend of a friend is a surveyor & said that this should have been flagged in the report but when I asked him if he could write a report he said a solicitor would need to tell him what type of report & what to add? I could approach the expert witness surveyor myself and ask him but I’m afraid he will signpost me back to my solicitor and I ll look like a cheap steak (which I sort of am at the moment, if you see my other threads I am having other problems with the new house after paying more than asking price for it).

We had a similar situation. We exhausted the surveyors complains process which basically involved them referring us to a loss adjuster who accepted no liability and offered us a token payment of peanuts. We rejected and took them to the ombudsman. We were awarded the full amount to remedy the problem that should have been picked up on. We never involved a solicitor due to the costs to us.

I think he hasn’t informed his insurance and has told us that the responsibility lies on the company that did this dodgy work (even though they have denied any wrong doing and the job was done by the previous owners a while ago so they have no legal duty to us). Nevertheless, it is a visibly bad job to the trained eye and we would have never bought the house knowing it would need extensive works to be done (not even with a reduction of price, for reasons of health & small children).

@gingerbreaddragon what’s the name of the ombudsman?

It's The Property Ombudsman www.tpos.co.uk/
Good luck, this was honestly the most stressful thing I've ever dealt with!

It definitely is! We have been 2 months not knowing if we will be able to afford the costs of repairs, for a while he was giving us some hope, and now insinuating we are exaggerating the problem. Did you have to submit any reports by other surveyors to reinforce your case?

It looks like the CEDR is similar to the property ombudsman. They are all alternative resolution bodies it seems

I didn't have to but I did just to help prove on balance that the problem existed at the time of the survey (they were saying it didn't and so he couldnt have picked it up). It was something that was a long term issue so I just paid a local surveyor to report on the problem and the state of repair. He just stated the condition and cause, rather than whether it would have been picked up by the other surveyor. It was about £300 and I submitted it to the ombudsman along with all my complaint/evidence. I also had to get three quotes for the repairs, we were awarded the sum of the lowest quote.

CEDR are well known - I'm a solicitor and have used them in the past, so they're reputable in that sense. What doesn't seem wholly clear from your post is quite what the dispute resolution process entails - are they suggesting mediation, adjudication or something else?

@FreckledLeopard I rang them and they said they do a mix of everything but mostly adjudication. They don’t pay for the reports I need to defend my case but I think I will get one by a surveyor. I just worry that I might not be as good defending myself as a solicitor would be. Or that the report i get from a surveyor is not as good as the report that a solicitor might instruct a surveyor specialising in working as an expert witness

CEDR are very reputable - alternative dispute resolution. Used by large multinational companies.

You can still have a solicitor prepare all your submissions if you go to adjudication.

If you go through adjudication then it's a very particular process and I wouldn't recommend doing it on your own, particularly if the other side is represented. I'd recommend getting legal advice and considering the options carefully.

This is very confusing then. I thought the CEDR was in place to keep costs down and not involve a solicitor. So if I have to pay a solicitor anyway... i might as well not contact CEDR at all! (CEDR does not cover legal costs whereas my solicitor said they could get some of this costs covered, but is not granted. I’m not very impressed with my solicitor. Her advice was to go with her colleague, or I will get nowhere. No advice of pros and cons. I rang other firms but i have to pay 200£ for an initial app for advice. Legal matters are just too complicated and everyone just seems interested in money. If I’m going to spend at least 1k on a solicitor I would like to talk to them first, if they are sound, seem professional and understanding, I will give them the job. It’s like paying for a builder before he even tells you if he can do a job? How do people get independent legal advice?

I just read these reviews about the CEDR:
uk.trustpilot.com/review/cedr.com?page=2
Looking at the reviews of people complaining about surveyors, it seems that I would need legal help to stand a chance, which totally defeats the purpose of the CEDR.

It also seems that RICS changed their procedure and now goes with CEDR the ombudsman. Pity!

It is a lot cheaper and quicker going to adjudication then a full trial (why businesses use the scheme). If you go down the court route in a prof neg claim it could be years before it went to trial.

@sunshinelollipops thanks for your advice! The conveyancing surveyor we used to buy the house said that it would be better for us to go with her colleague in litigation or we would get nothing by complaining to the surveyor/cedr. When I said that we might not be able to afford it she said that we would most likely settle before court. Still she refused to give me any prices yet, we have to get her expert witness to do a report, see if there is a case and then they will inform us of costs. I’m an anxious sort of person 🙈 I cannot take thinking that we might lose and be 1-2k worse off! She never told me they could represent me with cedr (but then again, you don’t recover report and legal costs from CEDR..). I don’t know, I know is hard to give a quote but they have to understand poor people cannot just agree to a service without knowing wether they will be left with a bill in the hundreds or thousands

@Nasa89 solicitors can and should give you an estimate. Most civil cases are now budgeted so sols can’t say they won’t know how much it would take to trial.

Your conyenacing solicitor is right to say the litigation team would need to deal with this.

Have you got LEI on your home insurance? They may cover the legal expenses.