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...they're not much cop? And 'Full Surveys' aren't much better? As in they list stuff that might need further looking at, but not much more?
We're buying a place and need to sort a survey. It's old, but looks in good nick inside and out. We're going to look at it again next week and have a real good look at stuff like:
- the consumer unit (as a modern one is a decent sign that the electrics are reasonable)
- the roof (from the inside and sticking head into the loft to see if any light's coming in)
- the stonework/pointing to check it's in decent nick
- servicing records for boiler etc
- check for damp in the obvious places (top corners of rooms, any peeling paper/plaster etc)
If any of that looks flakey, we'll arrange to get someone specific in to look at it. Other than that, just get a boggo valuation survey. Does that sound like a terrible idea?
Yep
Yep to which bit?
I know that Homebuyers Reports get a hammering on here. But, we just completed our purchase and the Surveyor picked up a few useful things that needed doing. Some needed immediate remediation and I'm sure the cost to the seller was more than the Survey cost us, other bits are worth doing before they cause a more expensive problem and we're rolling them in to improvements we'd planned to undertake anyway.
Personally I would research a good surveyor and pay the money, its a few £100 more expensive and could save you £1000's... when you compare it to the cost of your purchase its a small % of the value...
Agreed - some homebuyer reports are little more than a drive past and I've heard stories of people using google street view ! If you know of a builder that you trust I'd give them a call and ask them to have a right good poke around and pay them for their time
its a few £100 more expensive and could save you £1000’s… when you compare it to the cost of your purchase its a small % of the value…
Yeah, but any delay now might/will push the completion out past the end of March, and cost us £15k in stamp duty
My OH got one last year and it highlighted various issues we wouldn't have otherwise seen and meant we wanted to renegotiate the price, seller was being unrealistic and wouldn't budge much on price so we pulled out. I'm happy with the outcome and the seller didn't sell in the end so it was worth the money IMO.
My parents were glad they'd had a survey done when it turned out that the ceiling of a room / floor of the room above was basically held up by twigs and gaffer tape.. among other issues with the house.
A settlement was reached with the surveyors' insurers...
Just had one done on the house we are buying and purchasers did one on the house we are selling.
The pros are they will find some stuff you may have missed.
The cons are they throw up so much stuff that they report under caveat that it can make many decent houses sound like they are about to fall down. As an example the surveyor who did the one for us rang me and told me there was no asbestos but said the report has to flag the risk of asbestos. So you are basically paying for someone to tell you there might be asbestos or there is asbestos - they will never tell you there is no asbestos.
it highlighted various issues we wouldn’t have otherwise seen
Such as?
Agreed – some homebuyer reports are little more than a drive past and I’ve heard stories of people using google street view ! If you know of a builder that you trust I’d give them a call and ask them to have a right good poke around and pay them for their time
My folks got a home buyer survey done last year, surveyor spent most of the day going over the house (the seller was right pissed!). It was winter so maybe he had a slack spell but you can't say he wasn't thorough and had a good reputation locally.
Wasn't particularly impressed with the homebuyer survey we had done a few years back, missed a few things that should have been obvious.
It depends on your appetite for risk really. If you have the cash to take on an unexpected big job or 2 then seems fair enough. If you're mortgaging to the hilt and have little cash to hand then maybe not so much a good plan but find a good surveyor for the age and type of building.
Don't buy one as an upgrade / combination with the valuation survey if you are getting a mortgage. The lender then has knowledge of any issues (which may be trivial) and might withhold an amount until rectified (happened on our first house).
If there are some issues that you have already noticed, damp, cracks etc. Get a reliable builder to come round check it out and get a good idea of what the issues actually are.
I've found them quite handy as a tool to help decide on buying a house; 2 places I turned down as they found damp which I did not spot when the estate agent showed me the house very quickly, as the "next potential vendor" was on their way.
One thing I do find odd is they do not check that utilities work satisfactory and also mine did not notify me that one of the largest rail infrastructure projects will be built just down the road from where I was hoping to buy the house.
– the consumer unit (as a modern one is a decent sign that the electrics are reasonable)
We've got a modern consumer unit - 2/3rd's of the wiring it's connected to is ancient though! 🙂
One thing I do find odd is they do not check that utilities work satisfactory and also mine did not notify me that one of the largest rail infrastructure projects will be built just down the road from where I was hoping to buy the house.
The RICS surveyor would not necessarily look at that kind of thing. They are primarily focused within the bounds of the plot/ house/property itself, and anything immediately adjacent that might physically impact.
I would expect your searches that you buy through your conveyancing solicitor to pick that up. Envirosearch, one of the most commonly used Environment Search Companies even has a specific section about energy/infrastructure projects that should have identified it.
Large rail infrastructure projects are usually pretty well publicised. I could understand being surprised if you found HS2 or Crossrail in your back garden if you bought a house in Norfolk, but surely if looking in an area you would have a general knowledge about this kind of thing?
We’ve got a modern consumer unit – 2/3rd’s of the wiring it’s connected to is ancient though!
Oh yeah, but the modern consumer unit gives a good chunk of safety/reassurance should anything go awry with the older wiring. I'm buying an old house, there probably is old wiring in there, I accept that.
They are full of caveats but as others have said they do highlight things that the average Joe (or Jane) simply wouldn't know about.
For example our house was built in 1905-ish and they used iron wall ties. IN the area the house is, sometimes due to the mortar used these rust and fail leading to massively expensive wall damage. This was pointed out in the HBS and as such we were able to raised the enquiry via our solicitors and the sellers confirmed they had had these checked recently.
For the price, given the comparative cost of the house I don't see why you would not get one unless it was a relatively new build and still under guarantee.
Note the lender valuation will not show as much as an HBS and it is very much worth upgrading. All the lender val does is say 'Yes, we think that should the buyer default you'll get your money back'. This is often done in a very quick visit, 5-10 mins max.
A full HBS takes much longer.
I think this is a bit like the MyHermes debate. Some people have horror stories because the surveyor/delivery driver who actually does the thing was shit. Some people luck out and get a surveyor/local delivery driver who actually does their job properly and conscientiously.
We got one done on a house we were going to buy, and my father in law, who's seen a few surveys in his time reckoned it was pretty thorough.
Don't overlook the option of speaking to the surveyor who actually did the survey after you've read the report - you should get an idea of how thorough they were from how much detail they remember, and you might get more of a feel of the condition than you would from a dry report constructed from stock text.
Don’t buy one as an upgrade / combination with the valuation survey if you are getting a mortgage. The lender then has knowledge of any issues (which may be trivial) and might withhold an amount until rectified (happened on our first house).
My understanding is that lenders tend to do this rarely nowadays, unless the LTV is very large, and let you assess and take on the risk. It can be useful if they do since you have grounds for negotiating the price, as long as you're not in a hurry.
We're on the cusp of exchanging contracts and didn't have a survey.
Our current property surveyor wound me up so much I'd rather risk it than go through that again, total ******.
Our buyers had a survey on ours, I had to inform her it wasn't solid brick but cavity walls.
Large rail infrastructure projects are usually pretty well publicised. I could understand being surprised if you found HS2 or Crossrail in your back garden if you bought a house in Norfolk, but surely if looking in an area you would have a general knowledge about this kind of thing?
Well, it was not publicised enough for me to notice; and also if you are new to an area and always working from home you may not be too familiar with the roads and exact placement of the project and new buildings/warehousing. And you would not be talking much to locals.
Someone in my cycle group mentioned it and I then got a map and detail of the project via the local chamber of commerce.
I've commissioned one for a place, I'm going to be interested to see if it picks up on the fact a new housing development is being built nearby...something I found out by doing some googling.
I always use the same surveyor, he s brilliant for c 500 GBP you will get half day poking around. I am seeing lots of previously sold houses come back on the market, I suspect due to down valuation. I am happy to wait and pay up on the stamp duty as I reckon I will be paying less all in.
We've just had a homebuyers report done on our house that we're selling. It was not much more than a walk around by two guys, they were never going to find much wrong as the house is only eight years old!
The place we're buying is 160 years old so my other half is insisting on a full survey. We've got copies of the survey that was carried out when the current owners bought it seven years ago along with a list of the remedial work they've had done since then. I think the full survey is going to be a waste of money but at the end of the day it's such a small percentage of the house price it's not worth arguing. Looking at the previous survey they found quite few things that I'd never notice when I look at a house, thankfully all the major things they survey found have been repaired.
One thing we found with surveyors is there seems to be a huge difference between companies. Some are easily double the price of others for the same survey. Some seem pretty hopeless, one in particular told us he'd book the survey straight away but a week later he stil hadn't bothered and told me it was my fault! When we booked the current one we found that they were all booked solid for the next few weeks, at the end of November many were not taking any more bookings until early January at best.
Get a recommendation for a good local independent surveyor (if completely stuck estate agent can normally recommend someone) go on the survey with them and have an ‘off the record’ chat about what they find - Negates all the caveats in the reports. Survey is useful to either throw up issues you haven’t spotted or as a negotiation tool with vendor. For a few hundred pound on a purchase of hundreds of thousands of pounds, it’s well worth it
Whoever did the compulsary homebuyer report on my house was utterly useless, missed loads of stuff. Turned into a much bigger job than I expected. Not worth the paper it's printed on.
If I can find out who it was I'll get him back when I come to sell 🙂