Can I sue my surveyor?

Many people will engage the services of a surveyor, when they are buying and selling property. If you are buying a home to live in, it is incredibly important that the surveyor carries out the survey properly and advises you if there are any issues with the property. If they don't do their job properly, you could pay too much for the property and be left with a building that you cannot live in or adapt to your needs. 

A surveyor who is instructed by you, owes you a duty of care to carry out the survey to the correct professional standard. If they fail to do so, it is possible that you may be able to bring a claim for negligence against them.

Surveyors can be negligent in many ways, but some examples of surveyors' negligence are:

• Valuing a property too high or too low
• Failing to identify building defects in a property
• Failing to report on issues such as damp and dry rot

Putting right any of these problems can be incredibly expensive. However, if you have an issue with a survey, which turned out to be wrong, the good news is that the surveyor is likely to be insured.

If you think that you have a claim against your surveyor, it is very important that all of the evidence is preserved. You are very likely to require the second opinion of an alternative expert surveyor, to comment upon whether or not your first surveyor did the job properly. Under the rules, you are also required to give your surveyor the opportunity to view the property again, possibly with their own expert.

If the early formalities are not complied with in a professional negligence claim against a surveyor, it can be very difficult to bring successful court proceedings. For example, if work is rectified or if problems are covered up before experts have had the opportunity to inspect, this can seriously affect the value of your claim and possibly make it worthless.

At Samuels Solicitors, we have decades of experience of assisting clients who want to bring claims against negligent surveyors. There are some cases where we are able to carry out this work under the terms of a conditional (no-win no fee) agreement, but we are always happy to discuss the best funding options with you at the very outset.

If you want to sue a surveyor for negligence, we have the expertise and knowledge to be able to help you claim the compensation you are entitled to. 

Contact us today for no obligation discussion about how we can assist you with your claim against your negligent surveyor.