Question on surveyors liability

jacroft

we bought a house recently, had it surveyed extensively before we closed (as we thought)
We're now renovating the house it seems that we have two boundary wall on both sides that are unstable (to the back and to the side) and it's likely to fall at any time.
The walls were covered under overgrown and no mention of them in our report.
We would have offered a significantly lower price if we had know.
Seems the cost of repair will be in the thousands as access is limited and work has to be completed by hand and our back yard had been filled in by one of the boundary walls which was never intended as a retention wall.
Is there anyway to redress this with the surveyor ?

BryanF

It was a Visual survey only

How was the surveyor to comment, without carrying out invasive works, which would not have been allowed at the time of survey?

touchdown77

Get the surveyor on site ASAP and have a meaningful conversation.

Meantime, take lots of before and after pictures with date stamp on the pic.

Strolling Bones

Any experienced surveyor will include plenty of caveats to state that they comment only on what is visible to them without invasive works and will provide warnings that the scope of survey is therefore limited.

So maybe you got a cheap and / or inexperienced surveyor who did not warn you so in his/her report.
If so hope s/he is insured if you want to take them.

sydthebeat

jacroft wrote: »

we bought a house recently, had it surveyed extensively before we closed (as we thought)
We're now renovating the house it seems that we have two boundary wall on both sides that are unstable (to the back and to the side) and it's likely to fall at any time.
The walls were covered under overgrown and no mention of them in our report.
We would have offered a significantly lower price if we had know.
Seems the cost of repair will be in the thousands as access is limited and work has to be completed by hand and our back yard had been filled in by one of the boundary walls which was never intended as a retention wall.
Is there anyway to redress this with the surveyor ?

ever consider that the removal of the growth caused them to be unstable?

Rabbo

I am presuming that you paid the surveyor to carry out a non-invasive visual survey of the property. This is the case in the vast majority of pre-purchase surveys.

Assuming that you are a reasonable person, how do you think the surveyor can be at fault for not alerting you to something that was not reasonably accessible?

Calahonda52

jacroft wrote: »

we bought a house recently, had it surveyed extensively before we closed ...
Is there anyway to redress this with the surveyor ?

As stated above by others: non invasive and it may even be limited to the house, full stop.
Read the caveats closely.

on the boundary walls issues, all is not lost as per
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2009/en/act/pub/0027/sec0043.html#sec43

You maybe able to share the burden via your neighbours.

Calahonda52

touchdown77 wrote: »

Get the surveyor on site ASAP and have a meaningful conversation.

Meantime, take lots of before and after pictures with date stamp on the pic.

Date stamped digital pics inadmissible in court: the only ones that work are hard copy from negs and negs submitted as part of court papers, end of.

RORY O CONNOR

Visual surveys only-not invasive. Also if the wall was covered in growth how can you reasonable expect the surveyor to see whats going on underneath.

randel

Makes one wonder about the value of these surveys.
Most of the time you are paying someone to state the obvious.

Strolling Bones

randel wrote: »

Makes one wonder about the value of these surveys.
Most of the time you are paying someone to state the obvious.

Are you offering to make yourself available?