Cases - Kerridge v James Abbott & Partners

Record details

Name

Kerridge v James Abbott & Partners

Date

[1992]

Citation

2 EGLR 162

Keywords

Negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

The claimants, who were considering the purchase of a substantial residential property, commissioned a full building survey from the defendants. Four years later, having discovered serious and extensive dry rot, the claimants brought an action for negligence. Among other complaints, the claimants alleged that the surveyor, alerted by the poor condition of stonework in a parapet surrounding a flat roof, should have ordered the removal of part of that stonework in order to reveal and inspect the adjacent roof timbers. The judge, however, rejected this as contrary to common sense, even in the absence of an express term limiting the extent of what was to be included in the surveyor's inspection of the property.