When you instruct a professional to help you with something, you expect them to get it right. Whether it’s a surveyor in a house purchase, an accountant giving tax advice, or a solicitor helping you with a legal case, you rely on their judgment and skills to get the job done properly.

So if things go wrong because of something which that professional did, or didn’t do, it can be a shock – and one that can easily lead to you incurring costs and other financial losses as a result.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the common types of professional negligence that can leave you worse off financially, and then – most importantly – explain what you can do to claim back these losses if they have happened to you.

Common ways professional negligence can happen

Solicitors and legal advisers

Data suggests that solicitors and legal advisers are most the frequent target of professional negligence claims. In a study of 792 professional indemnity claims made between Jan 2020 to June 2024, 56% were made against solicitors. By comparison, the next highest sector (construction) accounted for 14% of claims.

In part this may be because the legal sector is one of the most highly regulated, with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) requiring all practising solicitors (and anyone working at a regulated solicitors’ firm) to be covered by professional indemnity insurance.

Common types of solicitor and legal adviser negligence are:

  • Giving incorrect or careless advice
  • Missing limitation deadlines (deadlines which can prevent a claim being made after a certain time period)
  • Overlooking significant losses in a compensation claim
  • Making drafting errors on important documents (such as contracts, deeds, court documents, or wills)

Builders

The consequences of professional negligence by a builder can be severe, leading not just to significant financial losses in relation to the property, but also potentially life-threatening defects. Some examples are:

  • Building unsafe or structurally unsound walls, roofs, or foundations
  • Causing electrical defects, such as exposed or unsafe wiring
  • Fitting a faulty boiler flue, or fitting the flue incorrectly, which could cause carbon monoxide poisoning
  • Failing to carry out proper repairs on existing building defects
  • Leaving unfinished work or causing loss through unreasonably long or avoidable delays

Architects

Architects often provide a diverse range of services in relation to the construction of a building. This means there is a variety of ways in which an architect may be negligent, including:

  • Severely under-valuing the building costs involved
  • Breaching planning permissions
  • Unsafe or structurally unsound designs
  • Changing designs without seeking client permission
  • Using unsuitable materials in a building’s construction

Accountants

Negligence by accountants can be extremely costly due to the central nature of their work to many organisations. Some common examples include:

  • Producing and filing inaccurate accounts
  • Missing deadlines for filing accounts or VAT returns
  • Mismanaging payroll or PAYE tax deductions for businesses
  • Giving incorrect or careless advice, for example over tax structuring
  • Overlooking relevant tax credits

Surveyors

If you are purchasing a house or other property, the surveyor’s role is crucial. The principle of caveat emptor – ‘let the buyer beware’ – means that it is up to the buyer to ensure that the property they are buying is worth the purchase price and doesn’t come with any nasty surprises.

If a surveyor is negligent, it could take the form of:

  • Failing to spot or report severe defects with a property, such as the presence of asbestos or signs of subsidence
  • Over-valuing a property, causing the buyer to pay significantly more than it is worth
  • Failing to recommend that further investigation or action should be taken regarding the property

Seeking compensation for professional negligence

In order to have grounds for a compensation claim for professional negligence, you must be able to show that:

  • The professional owed you a duty of care – it is unusual for this to be an issue, as the law will often impose this duty on professionals if you have engaged their services, and the nature of their work could affect you significantly
  • They failed in their duty of care – in that their conduct fell below the required standards of a reasonably competent professional in that field of expertise.
  • Their failure directly caused you financial loss or damage – If you had a written contract with the professional, any breach of the contractual terms can also help to support a professional negligence claim. It speaks to how they have fallen short of the standards of work reasonably expected of them.

Practical steps to starting your claim

If you are considering a professional negligence claim, make sure to preserve all the evidence you can. This means saving any communication between you and the professional, such as letters, emails, texts etc., as well as any contracts, advice letters, reports, or formal documents the professional produced. It is also very useful to preserve anything which supports the losses you have suffered due to the professional’s conduct.

Seeking legal advice at an early stage can assist you with this. Your solicitor will indicate the pieces of evidence that are likely to be most helpful in your circumstances.

The professional negligence claim process

Firstly, your solicitor will review your case and provide advice. If you decide to proceed, the general process of the claim will be determined by a ‘pre-action protocol’, which all claims must follow before the court can become involved. The general steps of the process are:

  1. A letter of claim is sent to the professional, making them aware of your intention to claim and providing enough detail for them to investigate.
  2. The professional or, more commonly, solicitors instructed on behalf of their professional indemnity insurers will formally respond in detail. They generally have up to three months to respond.
  3. Key documents and information may be disclosed by the parties including evidence of loss claimed between the parties.
  4. The purpose of the Protocol is to identify issues at an early stage and thereby promote attempts to settle.
  5. If agreement cannot be reached, then court proceedings may be commenced. Ultimately, this may mean the case goes to a court hearing, though most cases are resolved before this happens. Negotiations can take place right up until the hearing itself.

Legal support from Ison Harrison

Ison Harrison’s specialist professional negligence solicitors can provide you with clear, expert advice at all stages of your claim including representation in any court proceedings. Our team are highly experienced in this often complicated area of law.

If you would like to discuss making a professional negligence claim, please do not hesitate to contact us.