Hired a bad surveyor - what to do?

LirW

Hi,

Excuses if this is the wrong board for it.

Currently in the process of renovating and it's an absolute pain, the previous owner was a DIY enthusiast with no skill whatsoever.

When we bought the house a few months back I hired an engineer to do a survey of the house. The survey was absolute crap and even an illiterate could have done that to be honest. There were things that he wasn't able to see but there are a few minor issues he left out as well as a dampness issue that's not insignificant.

The house had an extension once, the previous owner knocked it down and built it back himself, he did a horrible job with it. The concrete floor is still there and it's sloping a bit so we have all the water coming to wall and the wall being built of a material that soaks a bit... not good.
While we can take measures that aren't too expensive to buy us time for the repair, I think that absolutely must have been spotted and we might have decided against the house if we would have known. However, he didn't even mention it, I honestly doubt that he even went out the back.

What am I supposed to do now? Put it under "lesson learned" and let go? Complain?
I found out he's not part of the Society of Chartered Surveyors.

Gumbo

LirW wrote: »

Hi,

Excuses if this is the wrong board for it.

Currently in the process of renovating and it's an absolute pain, the previous owner was a DIY enthusiast with no skill whatsoever.

When we bought the house a few months back I hired an engineer to do a survey of the house. The survey was absolute crap and even an illiterate could have done that to be honest. There were things that he wasn't able to see but there are a few minor issues he left out as well as a dampness issue that's not insignificant.

The house had an extension once, the previous owner knocked it down and built it back himself, he did a horrible job with it. The concrete floor is still there and it's sloping a bit so we have all the water coming to wall and the wall being built of a material that soaks a bit... not good.
While we can take measures that aren't too expensive to buy us time for the repair, I think that absolutely must have been spotted and we might have decided against the house if we would have known. However, he didn't even mention it, I honestly doubt that he even went out the back.

What am I supposed to do now? Put it under "lesson learned" and let go? Complain?
I found out he's not part of the Society of Chartered Surveyors.

First off, work out exactly what you engaged him to do.
Was it just a visual inspection during the purchase stage?

Member of the SCSI is not mandatory, he may be a member of another body, here or the UK.

LirW

Yes, it was a visual inspection. As I said, there are things that he couldn't see of course, but that one issue was pretty obvious to the eye of anyone who's somewhat familiar with building.
I engaged him for finding exactly this. He also missed out on a few other things that should have been obvious to him. Basically not worth it.

Double checked, he's member of the M.I.E.I.

davo10

Did you notice the dampness when you viewed the house?

68 lost souls

davo10 wrote: »

Did you notice the dampness when you viewed the house?

You also said it was a few months back so Im guessing it was in the summer when the weather was at its best and there was no damp to see?

antoinolachtnai

I don’t think you will be able to do much. You haven’t had a structural collapse or a major safety issue, thankfully. You will have to forget it in the end I fear.

Surveying old houses and giving advice is a craft really. You really need a recommendation, and the kind of recommendation that tells you whether he is really skilled, not that he is somebody’s mate.

LirW

Thanks for all the answers.

The thing with this one particular wall is: Guy knocked the extension down and built the wall himself. He didn't use the right material.
We looked at and bought the house when the weather was good. From the outside you see paint coming off as well as on the inside.
That was why I hired the surveyor, he rang me after the inspection and told me beside the window being a strange one he thinks it's grand.
And now it turned out it isn't and I got questions from my tradesmen if I had a surveyor in and it would have been on him to spot that.

Lucky as we are we can relatively easy fix it to buy us time until we have money again to repair that. Still an annoyance.

Sleepy

The first 5 pages of any survey I've seen generally contain enough legal disclaimers to render the survey rather useless.

LirW

My survey had only 2 pages.... Oh dear.

December2012

Did he measure any dampness at all?

LirW

No definitely not. The house itself isn't damp, it's just the one wall that was built wrong. We know what to do now, it's just a major inconvenience.

Gumbo

LirW wrote: »

No definitely not. The house itself isn't damp, it's just the one wall that was built wrong. We know what to do now, it's just a major inconvenience.

How would the surveyor have known that the wall was built incorrectly?
Who built the wall, you or the previous owner?

If its a simple fix, then id be inclined to fix and move on.

MIEI means he is a member of Engineers Ireland.

LirW

Survey was done when we were sale agreed, so the work was done by the previous owner. From the outside you can see that the Masonry isn't done right, so some layers come off. We noticed that and wanted answers from a surveyor.
The surveyor never mentioned it in the report only on the phone along the lines "should be grand".
What made me come back to it is our tradesmen telling us we should do something about it because he should have spotted a few things that were never mentioned.
Maybe that's angry tradesmen talking, I don't know.

antoinolachtnai

No your tradesmen are probably right and understandably annoyed on your behalf. It doesn’t mean there is anything you can really do about it though.

Gumbo

In my experience, every singe trades person complains about the trade in before them.

listermint

Two page survey...

Sounds poor

Gumbo

listermint wrote: »

Two page survey...

Sounds poor

Definitely.
Sure it would take longer just to advise on possible upgrades.

shesty

A surveyor and an engineer aren't necessarily the same thing....MIEI means he's a member of Engineer's Ireland, which certainly doesn't necessarily make him a surveyor. He would only look at structural stuff, and only stuff that visible to the eye, without removing or stripping back anything in the house. But that said - I would assume that he stated all that in his report? Was the stuff that's a problem easily visible without pulling up floors or taking plaster off walls?

I don't think you can do anything about it to be honest. A two page survey would worry me. You could, I suppose, have a chat with the guy himself or possibly Engineers IReland, but I don't know how much use it would be .
Personally I found the whole "surveyor" thing to be a pain in proverbial. I'm an engineer myself and engaged someone way back to survey our house because I didn't have much experience at the time and I was unsure what detail would be involved. I was disgusted with the finished result - a good report but full of disclaimers and only describing stuff that I could have picked up on myself. Annoyed that I paid out a couple hundred euro for it at the time.

LirW

For someone who was any experience it would have stood out, but the whole thing didn't even make it into the report. At least he put in that one of the smoke alarms seem damaged :rolleyes:

I'm fully aware that a visual inspection doesn't involve any lifting, stripping or anything. There was not a single mention of any kind of improvements that we could make. It just stated how big the rooms are, how big the rad is and that's about it. No mention about any wiring or plumbing (he states on his homepage that it would be mentioned I discovered yesterday) - House needed a full rewire because the old wiring was lethal, not kidding. Now I know that there's loads of visual stuff he should have been picking up.
There also was no boundary check.

But anyway I might just give it a rest and put it under "Lesson learned". I had to find a surveyor servicing the backarse of nowhere where I didn't know anyone and managed to pick a bad apple. That's life really.

When the work is done I'm sure I'll laugh about it.

Gumbo

LirW wrote: »

For someone who was any experience it would have stood out, but the whole thing didn't even make it into the report. At least he put in that one of the smoke alarms seem damaged :rolleyes:

I'm fully aware that a visual inspection doesn't involve any lifting, stripping or anything. There was not a single mention of any kind of improvements that we could make. It just stated how big the rooms are, how big the rad is and that's about it. No mention about any wiring or plumbing (he states on his homepage that it would be mentioned I discovered yesterday) - House needed a full rewire because the old wiring was lethal, not kidding. Now I know that there's loads of visual stuff he should have been picking up.
There also was no boundary check.

But anyway I might just give it a rest and put it under "Lesson learned". I had to find a surveyor servicing the backarse of nowhere where I didn't know anyone and managed to pick a bad apple. That's life really.

When the work is done I'm sure I'll laugh about it.

Just on those notes, I am MIEI and also SCSI Registered.
An opinion on Heating, plumbing and electrics would never be done in my report if I had to do one. I would certainly check that the boiler fires up, the roads get warm and that all lights and electrical sockets work, but I would put a foot note that the electrics and plumbing would need to be inspected and tested by qualified trades (sparks and plumber).

A boundary check would not be part of a visual purchase inspection either in my experience. You would make a comment on accessible and visual boundaries to ensure no overhanging or over sailing the boundary was in place but not a specifically a boundary check to confirm that boundaries match what is been purchased. That’s a separate inspection, but indeed one that could be added onto a standard survey.

LirW

Thanks for the insight, kceire!

The boundary isn't really a deal for me anyway.
Unfortunately there wasn't even a word about electrics and plumbing in the whole report. After he did the survey he called me and asked a few minor things and asked about our renovation budget (10k) and he said that will get us very far.
After we moved in we found out that the wiring was seriously dangerous and the heating system wasn't working at all (I had a plumber coming in who was recommended and his approach was pretty much the same "be grand") and for very essential things we're spending 30k now and there are still a few leftovers.
I'm a bit torn, I know I bought a fixer upper, I know this means work and surprises. Surprises are not on the surveyor, because I understand there is no X-ray vision.
On the other hand I hired him to do the survey knowing I wanna be well prepared for the project and I stated this when I engaged him.
Personally I feel he didn't take the care he should have, now I know a 2 page report is lousy and basically left every single thing out bar one that he should have seen. We always wanted to take on a project that we can manage financially and mentally an I made this very clear.

I hope you understand where I'm coming from (I'm not dismissing that we obviously made our mistakes too!).