On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:08:53 +0000 John Williamson wrote :
A flip answer is that it's just another tax on selling.

The accredited assessor is independent of the vendor, so is, in
theory, impartial, and responsible for any errors in the report. I
would certainly not trust *any* report produced by the vendor,
should I be buying.

Part of the cost is for the liability insurance.

But the reality is that no one cares. I did a lot of work
(pointlessly as it turned out) on my UK home before selling - the
agent said mine was the first older property he'd seen that had a 'C'
rating. Did it make any difference? No. I can't imagine one vendor in
a hundred leaning on the assessor to produce a better rating.

As to liability, surely all you can sue the assessor for is the
difference between what you would have paid had you known that the
property had a 'D' versus what you paid because it purportedly had a
'C' rating. A negligible amount compared with what you might be
claiming for a defective structural survey.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on' Melbourne, Australia
www.superbeam.co.uk www.eurobeam.co.uk www.greentram.com