Surveyors are legally required to carry out their duties in a way that meets the standard of a ‘reasonably competent surveyor’ – that is, someone who has the professional qualifications of a surveyor, acting with a reasonable degree of care and skill.

If your surveyor’s conduct has fallen below this standard, they will have breached their duty of care towards you. But to have grounds for a professional negligence claim against the surveyor, you must show that:

• you suffered a loss; and
• this loss was caused by the surveyor’s breach of duty

For example, if your surveyor rushes through a Homebuyer’s Report and carelessly overlooks a significant issue, this could easily cause financial loss. You might end up paying more for the house than it’s worth, or you might have to pay to repair the defect – something which the sellers would have done (or which would have been accounted for in the purchase price) had it been reported by the surveyor.

Surveyors instructed by a mortgage lender

You don’t necessarily have to have instructed the surveyor yourself to have a claim against them. Even if a surveyor is carrying out a valuation of the property on the instructions of your mortgage lender, the surveyor will still owe you a duty of care when performing the valuation. This is because any mistakes or carelessness on their part have the potential to affect you and cause you losses.

In reality, this is rare however. Buyers will usually instruct their own surveyor to assess the property before a purchase.

With professional negligence claims, you must begin your claim within 6 years of the date on which the negligence occurred. Otherwise, you may be prevented from making the claim at all.

However, if you were unaware of the professional negligence at the time, the time limit will run from the date when you found out about it.

Also, there are other rules which can change the time limit that applies in your case. So, if you are thinking of bringing a professional negligence claim, or are worried that you may have left matters too long, it is best to contact us as soon as possible so that we can advise you fully.

At Truth Legal, we understand that the last thing you want is to incur more costs after losing out to a surveyor’s negligence.

That’s why we offer funding through a ‘No Win, No Fee’ agreement, wherever possible. This agreement means that, in the vast majority of situations, you will not have to pay our fees if we are unsuccessful in recovering compensation for you.

Funding arrangements will always be explained to you fully before you start your professional negligence claim. And we are more than willing to answer any questions you may have.