Compensation recovered from surveyors of a historic building by our team of specialist professional negligence lawyers
A couple wished to purchase a beautiful ‘chocolate box’ half-timbered, Grade II Listed home which had been built in the late 1600s. Given its age and listed status, they commissioned a surveyor who held himself out as having expertise in historic buildings, to undertake a “full survey”. The survey came back as extremely positive, the only real comment of note being a lack of a parking space.
Comment was made on the oak timbers that made up the skeleton of the building. The surveyor said there had been some repair work to the timbers and that, in his opinion, it had been done quite well. The report confirmed that the repair works had been undertaken using resin to repair the joints.
They therefore proceeded to purchase the property, but some years later when they came to sell it, problems emerged. A potential purchaser who had agreed to purchase the property commissioned a full structural survey. They used a different surveyor who was a prominent member of various historic building and restoration institutes.
The purchaser’s surveyor was damning about the resin repair works that had been undertaken such that they pulled out of the transaction. Further attempts to sell met with the same response.
On investigation, it transpired that while the use of resin is considered acceptable for repairing oak joints, it should only be used in very small amounts and usually as an internal repair. Timber-framed buildings have a tendency to move and if resin is used excessively – as with this house – it can crack. Water can then get in behind the resin and cause the timber to rot; rotting wood can in turn attract death watch beetle. The likely cost of repairing all of this was estimated to be in excess of £250k. In addition, it was discovered that the original repair works had not obtained Listed Building Consent which meant the owners could face fines and penalties from their Local Authority.
The couple had no choice but to undertake the repair work. Whole panels of the infill between the timbers had to be removed, exposing internal areas to the elements. It was apparent that the resin had cracked and there was significant rot. This meant that oak timbers had to be replaced, scarfed where possible to the original timbers. The cost of repair exceeded the original estimate.
The couple approached our team of professional negligence lawyers for specialist guidance on what they could do.
We advised them that although it had been 13 years since the original surveyor’s report, the limitation period in these circumstances was not the usual six years, but was extended to 15. This was because the owners had only recently found out about the potential negligence so were still within what is known as the longstop date to bring a claim.
The legal position was complicated by the fact that the surveying company had gone into liquidation, but we were able to establish there was still a sufficient “run off” period under their insurance policy for the Indemnity Insurers to step in. This enabled us to pursue a professional negligence claim on the owners behalf, and we succeeded in recovering a substantial sum of compensation.
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