I paid for a full survey which I duly received. A year later we raised an insurance claim for water ingress which was refused on the basis that the extension roof (which we inherited) was leaking as a result of bad workmanship. On review of the Goldcrest survey to see if we had missed something, we were deeply surprised to see that this flat roof (a pretty important part of the building…) was not even referred to in the full survey. After some to-ing and fro-ing with the proprietor of the firm, I engaged a property litigation Partner at a specialist law firm to assess my ‘case’, who told me (unfortunately) that while there was a very strong case for litigation on the basis of this significant omission, it would cost me much more to take to Court than I could ever recover, and that these cases nearly always result in settlement i.e. it would cost me even more than it already cost me to repair the damage. Most surprising was an e-mail received from Goldcrest which said, and I quote, “we have a record of fighting court action to the limits, resulting in an abortive action and huge legal costs being borne by the claimants.” In 20 years as a Director/Partner in professional services firms, I have never encountered such a bizarre veiled threat from a so-called professional services firm, let alone one who admits to a record of Court cases !
I have learned my lesson. My advice to any potential client of Goldcrest is that if you intend to use this firm, please be extremely diligent in reviewing any report they provide for completeness, or cross your fingers that they haven’t missed anything, as they will attempt to wash their hands of responsibility later, if my experience is a reference point.