A chartered surveyor in Cuckfield, West Sussex, is facing a damages bill of more than £45,000 after the High Court ruled that he had been negligent in failing to report on defects in a house.
The case came to court after surveyor Douglas Edwards was engaged by retired civil engineer Anthony Hoadley and his wife Lois to report on a house at 16 Warren Lane, Friston, Eastbourne, that they wished to buy.
In March 1994 the couple exchanged contracts on the house, a mock Tudor, three-bedroomed property built in the 1930s, with a one-acre garden that slopes steeply to give a view of Beachy Head and the sea.
They completed the purchase in May that year for £197,000, but later discovered a number of defects that the surveyor had missed in his seven-hour inspection. One of these was a structural flaw in the southern elevation, requiring rebuilding with steel beams.
Allowing the Hoadleys’ claim against Edwards, Evans-Lombe J said that the structural flaw would “render the property a different building to that which the couple contracted to buy”.
He found that the value of the property in March 1994 was £157,000, because of the work that needed doing and the possibility that further work might be required in the future, and he awarded the Hoadleys the £40,000 difference between that figure and the purchase price.
The judge also found that the surveyor had failed to report on the state of the propertys electrics, plumbing, soil and vent pipes, windows, wall tiles, and exterior herringbone brick panels.
Altogether he awarded damages of £45,881, made up of the £40,000 difference in value, plus £881 paid as the surveyors fee and £5,000 for inconvenience and discomfort.
Hoadley v Edwards Chancery (Evans-Lombe J) 28 March 2001
Sean Brannigan (instructed by Thomson Snell & Passmore, of Tunbridge Wells) appeared for the claimants; Fiona Sinclair (instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) appeared for the defendant.
PLS News 28/3/01
