TECHNICAL BULLETIN
ISSUE 36
DECEMBER 2020
ASH -v- POWELL A LESSON FOR SURVEYORS HILARY GRAYSON BSC EST MAN (HONS) DIRECTOR OF SURVEYING SERVICES, SAVA NIK CARLE FCIARB PARTNER, BROWNE JACOBSON
In February 2020 the Evening Standard reported on a case where a couple selling their home in Oxfordshire, and who failed to tell the buyers about the plans for a new motel nearby, were found liable and ended up facing a legal bill of up to £300,000 (source here). The reason this story hit the Evening Standard, The Telegraph, and the Oxford Mail, among others, was that the property was “a stunning barn conversion with excellent equestrian facilities”, worth in excess of £1 million and the new motel in question was Mollies Motel, developed by Soho House, the exclusive members club favoured by celebrities. The opening of Mollies was attended by Jeremy Clarkson, Paloma Faith, and Declan Donnelly, among others. While this case involved just the sellers and purchasers, it does raise questions about the application of the new RICS Home Survey Standard (HSS) which come into force on 1 March 2021. In this article, Hilary Grayson and Nik Carle look at the case and consider how the new RICS HSS might have impacted a case such as this (if the HSS had been in force). What if the purchasers had happened to commission a level three service with the HSS in effect?
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