SURVEYOR LIABILITY – fact or fiction?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -  In the English law of tort, professional negligence is a subset of the general rules on negligence to cover the situation in which the defendant has represented him or herself as having more than average skills and abilities.

The usual rules rely on establishing that a duty of care is owed by the defendant to the claimant, and that the defendant is in breach of that duty. The standard test of breach is whether the defendant has matched the abilities of a reasonable person.

But, by virtue of the services they offer and supply, professional people hold themselves out as having more than average abilities.  This specialised set of rules determines the standards against which to measure the legal quality of the services actually delivered by those who claim to be among the best in their fields of expertise.

Yet some say …. You can never sue a surveyor; they use so many caveats in reports that surveys are not worth the paper they are written on.

The following outlines why I have never understood anybody says you cannot sue a surveyor. A mistake is not necessarily negligence but consumers do have rights.

Surveyors’ duty is defined within —

• Contract (written terms of agreement between parties – differs for each survey product).
• Liability to third parties in tort only.
• Implied term to use reasonable skill & care.
• Contracts (Rights of third Parties) Act 1999 is highly significant for the proposed Seller Surveys.
• Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (disclaimers).

Surveyor duty of care is a three stage process —-

• Foreseeability of damage.
• A relationship between the parties of sufficient proximity.
• Whether it is just and reasonable to impose liability in all the circumstances.

There are six basic categories of Breach of that Duty :-

1. Failure to carry out instructions
2. Insufficient knowledge or experience
3. Failure to inspect properly (the most common)
4. Insufficient enquiries
5. Failure to make a proper appraisal
6. Inadequate report

On top of “all this” any Seller survey is obviously designed with no particular client in mind and both seller and the eventual purchaser will eventually rely upon it. Ultimately it boils down to just one aggrieved party.

Notwithstanding “all this”, should you take a complaint forward? Well, YES. Talk to the surveyor one-to-one. If all else fails the Surveyor must have (mandatory) a Complaints Handling Procedure. Hopefully this will deliver satisfaction but the last line of complaint is to talk to a Solicitor in order to consider legal action against the surveyor.