Property Negligence Claims UK: Your Rights Explained

Overview

Property negligence is shorthand for two related but distinct areas of civil law. The first covers defective premises claims, where a building or piece of land has been left in an unsafe or faulty condition and someone suffers injury or property damage as a result.

The Defective Premises Act 1972 sits behind a large part of this area, alongside the common law duties owed by occupiers under the Occupiers' Liability Acts. The second covers professional negligence claims, where a qualified person, for example a solicitor, licensed conveyancer, chartered surveyor, architect, or structural engineer, has fallen short of the standard of care expected of someone in their profession, and that failure has cost you money.

Both types of claim rest on the same basic idea: a duty was owed, the duty was breached, and the breach caused a loss that the law recognises. What changes between the two is the standard of care, the evidence you need, and, often, the professional indemnity insurance sitting behind the defendant.

Key steps

1. Identify who owed you a duty and what that duty looked like. Work out exactly who was responsible. A conveyancing solicitor owes a duty to their client under the retainer. A surveyor owes a duty to the person who commissioned the report. An occupier owes a duty to lawful visitors and, to a lesser extent, to trespassers. Pin down the relationship before you do anything else.
2. Gather the paperwork that shows what went wrong. Pull together the contract, engagement letter, survey report, conveyancing file, building contract, invoices, photographs, and any correspondence. If you are claiming against a professional, their written advice or report is usually the single most important document because it shows what they told you at the time.
3. Get an independent expert view on the defect or the error. Most property negligence claims stand or fall on expert evidence. A second surveyor, a structural engineer, or another solicitor may be needed to confirm that the original work fell below a reasonable standard. Without that, it is very hard to show a breach of duty.
4. Quantify your loss in pounds and pence. Courts award damages to put you back in the position you would have been in if the negligence had not happened. That means calculating the difference in property value, the cost of remedial works, any consequential losses such as alternative accommodation, and interest. Keep receipts for everything.
5. Follow the Pre-Action Protocol before issuing a claim. For professional negligence, there is a specific Pre-Action Protocol that requires a Preliminary Notice, a Letter of Claim, and a response period before court proceedings begin. Skipping these steps can cost you on costs even if you win, so the process matters as much as the underlying merits.

Common questions