I don't understand why everyone is giving examples such as the engineer digging a garden for asbestos, knocking walls, etc. All he had to do was inform his client of the limitations of his survey, instead of giving the impression it seemed fine. .
So the engineer was employed to survey the property, how does he prove that the founds, walls etc are (or are not) in complaince? You say he should inform the client the limitations of the survey, then he should just put a disclaimer on the entire report