Q. My husband and I obtained a loan from a bank to enable us to buy a home. The loan offer was subject to a satisfactory surveyor’s report and the bank were happy with the survey, so we proceeded to purchase the property and drew down the loan. We are now selling the property. The prospective purchasers completed a survey of their own and found there was a pre-existing structural problem with one of the walls when our survey was carried out. The purchasers have pulled from the purchase. The bank pointed out that their loan offer included a disclaimer of responsibility for the value and condition of the property. I would have thought that the bank would have some liability here given that they instructed the surveyor in the first place?
Dear Reader,
The bank may be correct in that they are not responsible for any damage you suffered as a result of an inaccurate surveyor’s report. However, their lack of responsibility has nothing to do with their disclaimer.
The bank are not liable for omissions in the surveyor’s report because they merely instructed the surveyor. If you both relied on the surveyor’s report and you agreed to purchase the property and the bank agreed to loan money as security on the property then the surveyor involved owed a duty of care to bring attention to all defects which affected the value of the property.
You say the bank’s letter of offer had a disclaimer on behalf of their surveyor. This disclaimer is worthless if the surveyor neglected to bring attention the defective wall. It is irrelevant that you did not commission an independent survey of your own, you relied on the bank’s survey.
In these circumstances, any action brought by you should rightly be taken against the surveyor and not the bank. The surveyor should have known that carelessness may be likely to cause damage to you, as it clearly has.
If you do not know the identity of their surveyor, your bank should provide this information. Generally, all of the surveyors used by financial institutions are bonded (they have professional insurance in place to deal with issues such as this).
If you do not get any satisfaction from the surveyor, you should contact your solicitor immediately.
The bottom line is that you relied on a professional person to carry out a survey and if the survey turned out to be inaccurate as a result of a lack of care taken when conducting the survey causing you loss you are entitled to damages for that loss.