Home buyers survey?

I've never really valued surveys. So many caveats and things not checked that they can be worthless. Someone who knows what they are looking at can point out the big issues fairly easily and most things can be dealt with.

Level 2 is the standard recommendation for anything more than a few years old. Afaik level 3 would be if you have some specific concerns and advice I saw from a surveyor is there's no point doing that "just in case".

There are some examples of different types of survey here..

https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/building-surveying-standards/home-surveys

I’ve always gone for the most detailed survey.

Though I have not yet bought a house built before 1920.

I’d rather have more information and be able to make a choice than less and realize I’d bought a mega lemon after.

YMMV.

IMPE surveys are utterly useless. RICS seem to adorn anyone with a tape measure and a clipboard with chartered status. Seemingly yet another profession in the home buying chain that wants putting on the B-ark and crashing into a distant planet  You get a report back that is so full of caveats and get outs that there’s absolutely no comeback. Like an MOT, if the  can’t see it they won’t report it.  Utterly useless

Buy the cheapest “yes it’s a house” survey you can get away with, then take a tame builder, plumber and electrician along for a viewing. Ask them to take a look over the property. Drill the walls for actual insulation , inspect the plumbing, take a pile of sockets off to see what halfwit has been at them.  Potentially get an EICR done by a decent sparky to formally vet the electrics - ours would actually have killed one of us!

Supposedly there was nothing wrong with our house, according to the £1500 full structural survey we had and the £300 mortgage lender’s survey. Yeah right, in 18 months I’ve had to replace all the wiring, am working through all the insulation which is best described as homeopathic, every single one of the 14 veluxes needs replacing, along with the whole of the roof. A patio door was even installed backwards. The task list is never ending.

Late 60s / early 70s British properly? Asbestos survey everything.

I'm with nickjb, so many caveats they are misinformative and the surveyors don't even seem to come prepared with a torch or ladder for some of the comments I've seen about loft spaces.
Money is probably better spent on bringing the nearest builder to the house that you can find when viewing if you can't spot something a bit ropey yourself.

As above, we needed a new roof but it was not picked up by the 'surveyor'.

My advice is to pay the minimum to get through the mortgage but in parallel get a decent builder to advise you on what's really going on with the property.

We're 17 years in and still occasionally finding surprises. Re-roofing the garage,  'adult literature' hidden in the hollow sections of brieze block pillars was a surprise. Having said that though. I'd not expect a surveyor to be looking for hidden magazines.

I got the most detailed survey too and got a couple of builder mates round. Its a lot of money, so any help swerving a turkey is money well spent.

I'm in the valuation survey/trusted general builder camp

I'd research the era for potential problems, e.g. asbestos^^, lead oxide in paint, original electrics, etc. They have a generally solid build, but some were rushed through because successive governments wanted to clear an estimated 600,000 "slum" properties.

Horrible internal walls made of cardboard and plaster panels exist and are tricky to hang cupboards on because the studs are set only at the end of each 4' panel

Drill the walls for actual insulation , inspect the plumbing, take a pile of sockets off to see what halfwit has been at them.  Potentially get an EICR done by a decent sparky to formally vet the electrics – ours would actually have killed one of us!

Did a seller actually let you drill holes in their walls?

I got an EICR done when I moved in, fixed a couple of potentially dangerous issues but was overall a pleasant surprise.

 ‘adult literature’ hidden in the hollow sections of brieze block pillars

Dry grot?

Just to add, '60s-'70s-'80s are the best era of home to buy IMO.

I've always done the cheapest.

Late 60s / early 70s likely to have asbestos -concrete flue pipes for the original gas boiler and possible asbestos -concrete water tank in loft. Worth knowing about beforehand. Can be left undisturbed unless you plan to to improvements that might disturb them

@cha****ng, you know what? Having seen what was hiding behind a beautifully executed plasterboard lining I'd insist on it now. Just needs a couple of 10mm holes to shove a camera into and all would have been revealed PDQ.

Hallway's bad tetris insulation:

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Kitchen insulation

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Our amazing floating staircase that was held up by thoughts and prayers:

https://youtu.be/MjEOdVt5CxQ

Just needs a couple of 10mm holes to shove a camera into and all would have been revealed PDQ.

If you'd drilled a 10mm hole into that Kingspan what exactly would have been revealed? You'd have seen some Kingspan that's all. Certainly not what you've uncovered.

All homes have surprises. So don't buy anything unless you have some cash in the bank to fix them.

And staircases aren't held up by studwork.

I’ve had a basic “drive by” valuation survey done that massively undervalued the property and nearly scuppered the sale because they thought it was a 2 storey and didn’t see the huge basement kitchen/diner.

Next house I spent loads more money on a proper survey. Surveyor must have been drunk because he highlighted the fact there were no radiators on the ground floor, even though his photos did in fact show radiators.

Sometimes you might be able to use it as bargaining leverage to get the original price down but I think that’s a bit off.

tl;dr, Waste of money, get the cheapest you can and if there is any specific thing you’re worried about, get a specialist to take a look.

Some years ago we went with a fuller survey via the mortgage company and it really scuppered the sale. The report highlight all the 'standard'  small / expected stuff for a house of that age stuff but because mentioned in the report the mortgage company insisted on further inspection reports for damp and electrical (it was a couple of decades old so yes we expected it would need changing at some point) and something else I forget. We ended up walking away because they then undervalued the house significantly which the seller was never going to accept.

Now, I'd take the minimum survey for the mortgage company and perhaps get additional personal checks via builder or independent survey.

You use a right angled mirror on an inspection camera to look along the surface of the insulation - either the front surface looking for vapour barrier integrity or the back looking at the cavity for mould, bridging and gaps. We've drilled walls in other rooms like this and uncovered enough to know the entire building needs stripping and re-insulating.

It wasn't the studwork that was the issue, it was the 4" main posts between the stud panels that were just hanging in mid-air. Survey said nowt, builder found this when removing the floor

Your vapour barrier is full of 10mm camera holes, I’m not buying this house.

So as someone in the process of buying their first home, with no expert knowledge or convenient builder friends...

What would hiring a builder to do an inspection tell me that a survey won't? Do surveyors have any skills or experience that a builder might not? How much is hiring various specialists going to cost compared to a survey?

We went for the level 2 survey on our 1960s 2 bed semi 3 years ago. We were encouraged to use the level 2 as the level 1 doesn't really cover much and we hoped we wouldn't need the full level 3 survey for a fairly standard house.

In short, it didn't really offer much beyond what we'd already seen. As others have said it was full of generic disclaimers such as wiring looks original (barring some dubiously relocated sockets with surface mount wiring), should be rewired due to age, roof tiles appear ok but may need replacing in the future, pointing appears ok but may need local repairs soon etc.

It's a dormer bungalow with flat roof dormers, and they didn't even check the condition of the flat roof! I think the only thing they did highlight was that the pitched roof above the flat roof had loft insulation installed, which somehow the EPC managed to miss. I was a bit disappointed with how little was checked though.

If you know any builders I'd go level 1 and take a builder. If not, I'd probably go level 2.

I bought a 60s bungalow, a few superficial cracks but nothing to worry about.  Look at neighbours, where the water drains, roof lines, where the services are.  Just get the cheapest survey and get a friendly builder round.