Building defects, survey disputes and disputes between neighbours.
Finding out what has gone wrong with a building, why, what it will cost to put right, and whether a surveyor or contractor should have prevented it. Inspection-led, reported to CPR Part 35.
Building defects, survey negligence and neighbour disputes.
Each starts with the building and the record, and ends with a figure that can be checked.
Building defects
Water ingress through roofs, parapets, chimneys and junctions; penetrating and rising damp; render and external wall failures; balcony and flat roof defects; drainage; defective or incomplete workmanship after extensions and refurbishments. The report establishes the cause from inspection and records, specifies the remedial works in enough detail for a contractor to price, and gives the reasonable cost, separating defect from incomplete work and from betterment.
Home survey disputes and surveyor negligence
Claims that a Level 1, 2 or 3 Home Survey failed to identify a defect that a reasonably competent surveyor would have found. The analysis compares what the survey level required, what was visible and accessible on the day, what was reported and what should have been, and then costs the repair of what was missed. Chris carries out Home Surveys at all three levels, so the opinion comes from current practice, not theory. Where the claim is measured by diminution in value, that opinion is given by a separately instructed Registered Valuer, working from the costed remedial scope.
Neighbour and adjoining-owner disputes
Damp and water damage from a neighbouring property, shared roof seams and chimney stacks on terraces and semi-detached houses, parapets and party walls, boundary walls and retaining structures, and works carried out next door that have affected your property. The report identifies the source and mechanism in building terms, the works required to each property, and their cost, so that responsibility can be settled by agreement, mediation or the court.
Inspection first, then the documents, then the opinion.
Defect disputes are won or lost on evidence gathered early. The inspection is planned around the questions in dispute and is non-destructive unless the parties agree otherwise: moisture profiling of affected walls and floors, thermal imaging to trace cold bridging and wetting patterns, drone survey of roofs, chimneys and high-level details that cannot be reached safely, and a full photographic record keyed to a plan.
The documents are then read against what was seen: the contract or the survey report, the specification and drawings, the contractor's or surveyor's own photographs, correspondence, and any earlier reports. Where the cause cannot be established without opening up or specialist testing, the report says so and recommends the next step rather than guessing.
Defect diagnosis and remedial costing sit in the same person here, so the cause and the cost come from one expert. Where a structural engineer, a drainage specialist or a Registered Valuer is needed, the report identifies which opinion is whose; valuation evidence is never given by this practice.
Examples.
| Year | Forum | Matter | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | County Court (pre-issue) | Water ingress to a terraced house attributed to adjoining-owner defects; inspection with moisture testing and drone survey; causation and party-structure evidence. | CPR Part 35 report, instructed by solicitors |
| 2026 | Pre-action | Post-extension defects to a rural bungalow: render failure, roof and balcony junctions, drainage; scope and reasonable cost of remedial works. | Expert adviser report for homeowners, CPR 35 structure |
Anonymised. Further defect and survey-negligence enquiries are at pre-appointment stage. See the full list.
Defects and survey disputes.
Do you inspect, or work from documents only?
Both. Most defect matters need an inspection, and Christopher carries out a non-destructive inspection with moisture profiling, thermal imaging and, where roofs or high-level elevations are involved, drone survey. Where the cause cannot be established without opening up or specialist testing, the report says so and recommends what is needed, so that the limitation is on the record rather than glossed over.
Can you say whether my surveyor was negligent?
An expert can give an opinion on whether the survey met the standard of a reasonably competent surveyor acting under the RICS Home Survey Standard, what a survey at that level should have identified on that day, and what the consequences were. Whether that amounts to negligence in law, and what is recoverable, is for the lawyers and the court. The report is written so that the opinion on standard and the opinion on loss can each be applied to the legal test.
Can one expert deal with cause and cost?
Usually, yes, and it is often the proportionate route in residential disputes. Christopher is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor who also inspects and reports on residential buildings, so the same report can diagnose the defect, specify the remedy and cost it. Where the cause is structural or involves specialist installations, a structural engineer or specialist is brought in for that part and the report says which opinion is whose.
What about disputes with a neighbour?
Many water ingress and damage disputes between adjoining owners turn on a shared or abutting building element: a roof seam, a chimney stack, a parapet, a party wall or a boundary structure. The expert's task is to establish in building terms where the water or damage is coming from and what works will stop it. Questions of legal responsibility, easements, title and the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 are for the lawyers, but the report is structured so those questions can be answered from it.
Discuss an instruction in confidence.
Early conversations are without obligation and treated as confidential. Conflicts are checked before any detail of the dispute is discussed.