Sally says:

I shudder to think how you and your partner must have felt when the asbestos problem came to light. Asbestos is something that many people have an innate fear of – I know I do. Official figures show that several thousand individuals, usually those who worked with the material in past decades, die each year with asbestos-related illness. If asbestos fibres are released into the air they can be harmful to the lungs.

Your surveyor’s dreadful error caused huge upheaval and led to countless sleepless nights for you both.

To give it its due, Colleys admitted the mistake once it had been brought to its attention and acted quickly to ensure the property was sealed before removing the asbestos and making repairs to your home. By the time this was done your partner was close to giving birth but you had no hot running water, no nursery set up for the new arrival and your belongings were scattered across the place in many boxes.

Soon afterwards you paused the claim, as your partner felt unable to deal with it while trying to cope with a newborn in a home that you felt wasn’t fit for a baby. Things were made worse when your partner succumbed to a serious back injury, which needed surgery.

As a result it wasn’t until late 2020 that you were in a position to submit the remainder of your claim, which included detailed spreadsheets and pictures, personal statements and timelines. You had devoted a great deal of time to ensuring they were accurate.

Lloyds took five months to respond, finally coming back with the offer you mentioned of £25,000, which included payments for the asbestos removal and other costs. You felt this fell far short of what you deserved after the stress you had endured. You asked the company to reconsider. It increased the sum by about £13,500 for additional costs.

You still felt this did not reflect what you had been through or the ongoing worry the mistake had triggered. Because of your evident distress – and your fears about what the future might hold regarding potential health problems – I asked Lloyds to look at your case again and consider a total claim of £65,000.

Meanwhile, I sought legal opinion on what someone might expect to receive in terms of financial redress in such circumstances. Mary Young, a partner at legal firm Kingsley Napley, would not comment on your case but made some general observations.

She said: “When a surveyor has been negligent, the value of the claim can be calculated in different ways, but is typically based on the diminution in value. This is the difference in value between the property with and without the defect that was missed.

“By paying for the asbestos to be removed, the company has fixed the problem and it is essentially holding the purchasers ‘harmless’. This means it has put them back into the position they would have been in had the negligence not happened. That is what I would expect to see.”

Ms Young said claims for mental distress were rarely accepted when the relationship involved is a commercial one, as it is between a homebuyer and a surveyor. She said that if a health problem emerged later relating to the asbestos, there might be grounds for making a further claim.

As for physical inconvenience and discomfort suffered in such cases, claims might well be considered, but case law suggests payments range from at most £1,000 to £2,750 a year. In another case Ms Young was familiar with, just £150 was awarded.

Lloyds investigated your case again over a number of weeks, including asking for further details. It eventually offered to increase the additional payment it had previously offered by just over £1,000.

A spokesman said: “We are sorry for the disruption caused and have always recognised our responsibility for fixing the problems and covering the related expenses. In addition to the £24,986 we have already paid, we have made an offer of a further £14,783 in respect of subsequent costs and inconvenience.”

You told me you were disappointed but said you had run out of energy to fight on and so accepted the offer.

Your partner told me: “We want to start 2022 afresh.”

I know that this is not the result you wished for but I sincerely hope you can put this horrible experience behind you. I wish you and your family all the best for the future.