Lawyer who specialises in property survey disputes.

Good morning,

This is just a preliminary enquiry re help with filing a complaint against our property surveyors.

We purchased a 4 bedroom property with a loft and had a level 3 survey done with an RICS surveryor before we bought the property. He looked at the loft and said that even though the loft floor was uneven this was just wear and tear and not a structural problem.
We bought the house and have since found out by two strutural engineeers and a builder, that there is definitely a structural problem with the loft.

The loft comes with no paperwork, it was constructed using something called a permitted development. It was constructed very cheaply, and the wooden beams/joists in the floor of the loft were not changed to load bearing ones, which could carry human loads. The beams in the loft have now become warped, screws holding the beams together have started to loosen, and the loft is crushing the 1st floor.
We have been told that we are going to have to lift the roof off the house to insert a steel beam to make the property safe. We are currently waitng on two seperate reports from a structural engineers. We will then file a complaint to the surveryors , as we hope to be compensated to carry out the remedial work to repair the loft.

We would of course like the engineers to note that the surveyor was negligent and failed in his duty of care, we have asked the structural engineers to watermark the reports/ or highlight the main points , which would also like to forward to you to look at, in case they need to be amended. We are forwarding this request now, because we would just like to ensure we are on the right track.

The structral engineers have stated that 1. The surveyor should not have said it was not a strutural problem, as he was not qualified to say this. 2. Should have recommened we seek advice from a structural engineer. 3 He should have looked into the eves as he had straightfoward access. 4. Should have seen that the windows in the loft are bowing, and not straight. 5. The outside roof also indicates that the loft is crushing. 6. The surveyor also called a water leak on the ground floor rising damp, which shows he rushed the survey and was not as thorough and as diligent as it should have been.

Kind regards
Rita