Reselling Engineers House Survey

whereisthelamb

If a customer commissions an engineer to perform a survey of the house before they purchase it (foundations, structural, electrical checks etc), can the engineer then resell that survey report to someone else, of does the original customer who paid for it own full ownership of that report, including copies?

This is assuming that the report doesn't contain any personal information about the customers like name, contact details etc and is just information about the house or apartment.

BryanF

Copyright remains with the author. Unless you specifically buy the rights

tigger123

BryanF wrote: »

Copyright remains with the author. Unless you specifically buy the rights

No, copyright remains with the person who commissioned (paid for) the work.

E.g., if you're employed by a company and come up with an amazing report or paper, the copyright belongs to the company you work for, not you.

Victor

tigger123 wrote: »

No, copyright remains with the person who commissioned (paid for) the work.

No. If clients want the copyright, they have to specifically buy the copyright from the author.

tigger123 wrote: »

E.g., if you're employed by a company and come up with an amazing report or paper, the copyright belongs to the company you work for, not you.

BryanF is correct. In your example, the company (not the individual engineer) is the author.

Metric Tensor

Just to point out that such surveys are retained by solicitors and it's not unusual, yet completely inappropriate, for the current purchasers or their
solicitor to supply this survey to future purchasers many years down the line as if it is some sort of structural guarantee - so sometimes the "reselling" happens both ways.

Victor

Metric Tensor wrote: »

Just to point out that such surveys are retained by solicitors and it's not unusual, yet completely inappropriate, for the current purchasers or their
solicitor to supply this survey to future purchasers many years down the line as if it is some sort of structural guarantee - so sometimes the "reselling" happens both ways.

Not only is this inappropriate, it is also dangerous - the property may have developed issues in the meantime and the solicitor may get sued.

whereisthelamb

Thanks everyone for all the replies! Very informative
People seem to be leaning towards the engineer owing the copyright and having the right to resell the report to others unless it's specifically stated that the customer owns the copyright.

Thanks again!

kirving

If I were the engineer, and a second potential customer came to me looking for a report on the house that I recently surveyed, then it makes no sense to do anything but resell them a copy.

To be honest, I'd like to give them a discount, but that's very hard to justify when you may have to stand behind that report in years to come.

Kevin Irving

Kevin Irving wrote: »

To be honest, I'd like to give them a discount, but that's very hard to justify when you may have to stand behind that report in years to come.

but do they stand behind reports?

Victor

BrownFinger wrote: »

but do they stand behind reports?

Generally, yes.

When I was a wain ... back in 1991. Engineer inspected a second-hand house and did report, passing it. Client bought house. Over the next year client became very worried about house, including the sloping floor (glass marbles would roll across the floor boards of their own accord) and the 50mm crack in the gable wall. Client sued engineer. Case spent 20 days in the High Court. My then boss was an expert witness in the case. Clients awarded £250,000 (cost of rectification and being put out) + costs.

Turns out, back in the day grandfather ran a quarry, father ran a landfill and son was a building contractor. This particular house was built on the edge of what would have been the 'cliff' in the quarry and the foundations had snapped.

cruizer101

Victor wrote: »

Generally, yes.

That surprises me now, they are full of legal caveats and what not.

Also seems strange Engineer would be liable in a case like that if there was no evidence of subsidence at the time they inspected. How would they be expected to know foundations were dodgy with just a visual inspection.

Metric Tensor

cruizer101 wrote: »

That surprises me now, they are full of legal caveats and what not.

Also seems strange Engineer would be liable in a case like that if there was no evidence of subsidence at the time they inspected. How would they be expected to know foundations were dodgy with just a visual inspection.

They can't - and yet I know of more than one case where even though the engineer stated that on their report they were made pay (through their insurance) for repairs to foundation problems that they were neither responsible for nor could see. It makes insurance premiums high and is not fair but solicitors will advise their clients to seek redress where they know there is money available - i.e. the person with insurance regardless of fault. Insurers will pay up rather than risk higher costs fighting through the courts. In a way it's quite similar to car crashes/claims.

Victor

cruizer101 wrote: »

That surprises me now, they are full of legal caveats and what not.

Also seems strange Engineer would be liable in a case like that if there was no evidence of subsidence at the time they inspected. How would they be expected to know foundations were dodgy with just a visual inspection.

50mm crack in the gable wall?