Cases - Hamlin v Edwin Evans

Record details

Name

Hamlin v Edwin Evans

Date

[1996]

Citation

47 EG 141, CA

Legislation

Limitation Act 1980

Keywords

Negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

In September 1986 the claimants purchased a house, relying on a House Buyers Report and Valuation which they had commissioned from the defendants. In 1987 the claimants discovered dry rot that the defendants had failed to detect, had it eradicated at a cost of £4,000 and brought a claim for this cost against the defendants. This claim was settled. In 1992, the claimants discovered serious structural damage due to subsidence, which the defendants had also failed to detect, and started a legal action in respect of this damage. The Court of Appeal, approving the decision in Horbury v Craig Hall & Rutley, held that the claimants' discovery of the first (and relatively minor) defect in 1987 operated to trigger the 3-year period in respect of all claims, with the result that the later more substantial one was statute-barred.