May have purchased a house 🙂 advice on survey please!

My experience is that survey reports aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. But I still keep getting them, just in case.

Take them with a pinch of salt - we've just sold MIL's house, and the survey came up with all sorts of 'potential' issues, and we told the buyers to fark off as we knew the house condition. We even withdrew from the sale as the house was priced to sell, but the buyers then came back and agreed.

Surveys can miss some big stuff though - that's what you really want it for.

I treat them as insurance for big stuff they [i]may[/i] miss.

Anything little thing they do spot will be noted with a comment - ‘would recommend further investigation from a specialist’!

Your mortgage company may insist on one anyway.

Mostly they say “we didn’t check as we couldn’t access the roof/loft/garage/kitchen/house/etc” or else “plumbing/heating/wiring/etc seem ok but we recommend inspection by an expert”.

Cheers for the reply guys - really appreciate it. Yeah keep seeing comments like yours Dr J... That's what is concerning me. Part of me thinks I should get one done... But the other part looking at example reports says it won't pick up anything I could spot (not bragging but it's all basic stuff and anything more complicated as muffin man says will be caveated by "needs further inspection")

Fossy yeah that's the concern - I want the report to show anything I may have missed "the big stuff"

I am sort of thinking, like anything to do with health and safety (my area of expertise) these surveys will highlight problems just to show you are getting value. I don't suppose they ever come back with "all good mate!".

As suggested mortgage may need one but I thought that might be valuation report which is slightly different (and more a paper based excersise)?

Got a couple of quotes for survey and the weasel words in the T&Cs basically absolve the surveyer of any liability if they miss anything...hence I guess it all comes down to the quality of the guy/girl doing the survey.

Just had EPC done on my house and that was laughable - ten minutes in then out. For £75 quid to get exactly the same answer as I predicted.

Again thanks - any builders / RICS survey options for people you know would be appreciated (bonus points if they ride ha ha)

Mine found damp that i did not see so i did not buy the house, the next one said the house was ok so i bought the house. Got the Home buyers one and it cost about £700.

If they spot it you can make an informed decision. Either investigate further, walk away or just shrug and carry on anyway.

If they don’t spot something they should have that crops up after purchase you could use the failure to make a claim against the surveyor.

In the scheme of things it’s a small cost when buying a house.

Any mates/family who are builders or similar, if so could you bribe/beer etc them to walk round with you.

They're bollocks.

Buying we got a lvl 2 done on a 1920s 4-bed seminin need to of complete refurbishment. Survey came back and it was all fine apart from what we knew.

Selling, our house has been fully renovated over the past 9 years. Buyer got a lvl 2 and the surveyor went to town on it. Made up all sorts of crap even down to the boiler may not be working because the heating wasn't on while he was there. The pillock could have just asked us to turn the thermostat up so he could check.

All surveyors are not equal. May as well just get the cheapest one because you'll probably pick up on more than they will.

Towzer yeah sadly I don't have anyone near me local I can call on 🙁 would welcome any recommendations on here for sure! So many companies out there, pretty convinced the survey is worth it given value involved and peace of mind and per muffin man and caher comments (thanks guys) but now it's just who do I get to do it.....

Any decent builders / property experts / RICS accredited surveyers on here? Or welcome any reviews on companies (national or otherwise) you have used just to help me narrow down my selection*

*no comeback, I am pissing in the wind here as the quotes range from £400 to £900 for level 2 report.

Cheers!

Northern matt - yep this is what I am afraid of 🙁 property is not new, Old couple downsizing but well maintained. Plumbing is fairly old, CH timer is old school dial, electrics won't pass latest regs and I will need to fit new downlights etc (all within my capability) but fine for now, couple of double glazing panels blown in conservatory, slight leak in 15mm copper compression fit to water softener under sink etc. All small things. It's the structural stuff I am less familiar with so maybe a builder would be better? Got a good price so not worried about the small stuff but if the house is going to fall down I would rather know 😉

An experienced surveyor will have exclusions built in that'll be down to you as pointed out^^
We had woodworm and damp included in one survey that were old and already treated. Fortunately we inherited the original contractors' lifetime warranties and didn't incur any cost, just a visit from them to keep the mortgage company happy.
Since then we've used the bare minimum to keep the mortgage company on-side and IMHO you're right to be looking for a realistic builder's advice. Do you have any work that you're planning and could tempt them in with?

A survey stopped me from buying a house with damp issues I had missed years ago.  I didn't know as much about buildings then but it saved me tens of thousands in remedial work that was needed.  Not just a reading from a damp meter but rotten joist ends causing the floor to drop.

If you know someone with good building knowledge or are confident in your own abilities then maybe thats enough otherwise £500 is small change in a big purchase

Cheers Timba... Sadly no. No real building work is required (I hope!) just a good bit of painting and replacing old people stuff... Current decor is "of its time" I think is the polite way of putting it 🙂 might split the garage at some point into a store but don't want to waste anyone's time as this is a while off whilst I save up some more pennies!

Would be happy to pay for good advice but don't want to pay £500 quid plus for nothing that offers any value! Mortgage on a 40% LTV so not sure how much they will push a full survey over a basic valuation (this is still ongoing)

Cheers!

Tj - thanks... Yes my thoughts exactly... But the question is who? I have no builder friends near me sadly

I m buying a house without a survey. I know it's history and it's priced to reflect the condition. If I was concerned I d get a builder to look at it, there are cracks but nothing to worry about.

Just look at neighbours roofs, if similar houses and some have been replaced, yours is due soon.

Neighbour sold their house (built 2000) - which is leaning at 20 degrees. It's incredibly obvious from the road and there's no way I'd have bought it. You can roll a can from one end of the house to the other.
Survey said "slightly uneven floors".

New buyers are devastated - but did they not look at the house from the road ?!

So - go look at the house instead.

Stirling - yep 3 times now 🙂
Poolman - yep this is the thing... Been over it with my critical eyes and all looks OK to me..I have spotted some small issues with a weepy pipe, older electrics etc. But nothing that would put me off right now as offer accepted under asking price

I do get a feeling the feeling £500 quid on a survey might tell me nothing more than I know now.... . Or it might give me scope to haggle

I guess the second part of my question becomes more important now - who the heck do I use!

If I were going through the process now We did last year (buying a 170 year old stone carbuncle ), I’d ditch anything other than the lender’s survey in lieu of an inspection of the electrics by an electrician and the plumbing/heating by a heating engineer. Everything else will largely be covered by get out clauses in a full structural survey.

I do get a feeling the feeling £500 quid on a survey might tell me nothing more than I know now…. . Or it might give me scope to haggle

Basaically this.

I walked away from a purchase last year as it needed about 20k of real work doing, rendering, collapsed lintle that was craftily hidden behind a roller blind when I viewed, and other stuff i didnt see but the surveyor did.

Equally you have to read between the lines a little bit with surveys...
The survey on the house I ended up buying said things like 'loft insulation 'X'mm could do to be thicker at 'XX'mm, probably £800 but speak to an expert. yeah, whatever.

Chimeny flashing looks a bit iffy, bit of moss on the roof....but no damp issues noted over 30 odd readings around the property.

These were level 3 surveys.

The vendors on the first place wouldn't budge when I dropped my offer by 15K below asking, it eventually sold for 5k more than my offer but still 10k less than asking price.

I used this website for some good info on surveys and to find a list of surveyors local to me.... https://www.reallymoving.com/

Old people you say.
Has the house been empty long?
At least check the basement.
I watched Renfield last night,you just never know where master's familiar stores the bodys.
😉😜🙃🤣🤣

In my limited experience a complete waste of time & money, unfortunately my go to builder & I kept missing each other & it turned out he'd even looked at the house I bought with a view to purchase ☹️ I'd say just check and double check everything, go over it with a fine tooth comb & speak to the neighbours - see if they are likely to be neighbours from hell or not, probably more important than a survey but nobody does it do they?

I'm a surveyor and I wouldn't bother. The caveats and limitations that our professional indemnity insurers require us to add basically make them worthless

The survey we had on our house (12y ago) came back generally OK, and only mentioned a need to bring wiring up to modern spec's, and to get the CH and boiler looked at by a professional.

There were so many cop outs in the small print, it seemed like they would be able to wriggle out of any problems that subsequently occurred. It did, however, give us piece of mind that the was built properly and not going to fall down on our heads.

Yes, they seem costly for what you get, and are often demanded by mortgage company. However, if they say something is good/OK, which subsequently turns out to be patently wrong and expensive to fix, you MAY have a leg to stand on.