No one wants to face a negligence claim. Even spurious ones are time consuming and expensive to investigate. If substantiated, the cost is even greater and a hard-won reputation can be tarnished.
An easy mistake is to focus on the property at the expense of the client. This can be a serious error if you have not clarified who you are acting for or whether anyone else may try to rely on your advice.
Take the time to understand your client and his or her needs and you will be able to tailor your advice appropriately.
Better communication should result in fewer expensive misunderstandings.
Whilst money laundering may not be the biggest issue facing building surveyors, the FSA is currently investigating a £30m property fraud, so knowing your client well is a very good idea.
If you don’t think carefully enough about who your client is, you may find that one of your best defences to a negligence claim – the caveats, disclaimers and exclusion clauses in your terms and conditions of business – prove completely useless.
Whilst establishing the client’s needs and requirements has long been recognised as critical, also try to find out why have they come to you. Do look a gift horse in the mouth if it has come a long way for no obvious reason.
Don't assume you know what clients want, particularly if you have acted for them before. Lawyers and accountants often copy what they did last time.
Don’t make the same mistake without checking that ‘same again please’ is what is required.
Clear instructions are essential. Hoping that matters will fall into place in due course could be disastrous.
If it transpires that it is work you don’t fancy tackling or that you shouldn’t have agreed to do in the first place don’t ‘palm it off’ on a junior member of staff. Relations with your client are almost bound to suffer.
Tips
- Perform a web search on new clients to see what comes up. It may save embarrassment later on
- For that new company client, check whether they are insolvent or have been struck off the Companies Register by carrying out an online WebCheck at Companies House. Many of the basic checks can be carried out for little or no cost. Better this than your next bad debt
- When acting for businesses and organisations, take care to establish that the person instructing you has authority to do so. Local managers may not necessarily have the authority to bind the companies for whom they work
- Make sure that work is handled by someone with the right experience, qualifications and time – not necessarily the one with a free day in his or her diary
- Beware new commissions that start with an informal email. Don’t forget to respond with a formal letter scoping the task. If there isn’t the discipline of a formal letter setting out your terms of engagement, it is easier for misunderstandings, errors and disciplinary proceedings to follow
- At the end of a matter, always submit bills promptly. The feel good factor for a job well done can evaporate quickly. The later you leave it the more likely your bill will be challenged. Embarrassment at doing so suggests that the client has been kept in the dark on fees
When things go wrong, don’t shake your head and mutter to yourself: "I knew this client was going to be trouble."
Instead think more carefully next time about who you take on – and why.
Case study
In Republic International Trust Co Ltd and Others v Fletcher Ramos (2000), building surveyors prepared a 59-page report on the condition of an 18th century Grade Two listed property worth £1.25m.
Amongst other things, the surveyors failed to appreciate the significance of a repair to a bressummer. It later transpired that the property was riddled with dry rot.
In reply to a claim for repairs costing £527 000, the surveyors relied on an exclusion clause.
Unfortunately for them, their terms and conditions had been sent to a beneficiary of the trust and not to the trustees, their clients, who had commissioned the survey – a fatal error.
The only saving grace was that damages were limited to the diminution in value of the property, a mere £397 000.
