Professional Negligence Claim Against Surveyor
Surveyors can be required in a number of situations, ranging from when buying and selling a property, during a landlord and tenant dispute about repairs, or even during the course of litigation.
We rely on surveyors to give us their professional and reliable opinion in order to either provide an accurate valuation when buying and selling a property, or to ensure that a property is structurally sound. Missed defects in properties could not only cause financial losses but could also mean that a property is unsafe.
Surveyors are almost always instructed to survey a property during the course of buying a property, and there are certain criteria which they must fulfil and comment upon in order for their report to be sufficient. An obvious example would be that a surveyor is expected to comment upon whether or not Japanese knotweed is within a certain distance of the property, and failure to do so could mean that you buy a property which has knotweed within a distance close enough to affect the value of the property.
Should I make a complaint?
If you have not already made a complaint about the surveyor, we recommend that you consider making a complaint to them, or their practice. A large proportion of surveyors will be registered with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which has strict regulations regarding conduct and standards. You may also want to consider making a complaint to RICS in order to see if your issue can be resolved via them.
If however, you are still not satisfied and wish to pursue the surveyor, you will need to instruct a specialist professional negligence solicitor.
How can we help you?
We will make an initial assessment of your potential claim and advise you of your options. We may recommend taking advice from a barrister at an early stage so that you are given the best advice at the earliest opportunity.