Which survey would you go for?

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[Engineer1]

I'd go for the middle survey, the bottom one says the house exists, the top one will say it's an old house so get an electrician to check the wiring, a registered gas engineer to check the gas and finally the house is old so a structural engineer may need to check the.. etc, same way an RAC check would throw similar problems on an old car.

[VxDuncan]

Sadly, I think you need not to worry so much about the level of survey you have on the place, but more the company that is doing the survey. Having let the mortgage company let "a major property group" do the homebuyers report on mine I really regret it. I believe you are better letting the mortgage company do their basic report if they insist, but getting your own, independent homebuyers done, by a local small company you can trust. Make sure they will go in the loft, lift rugs and carpets if possible.

Better to spend a bit extra to get a good homebuyers than have a crap one done by the mortgage company.

For reference mine missed a chimney that had been removed downstairs, but left unsupported in the loft (bricks hanging in mid air) and lintel above a patio door that wasn't supported properly. Finding out you've been sleeping under a couple of pallets of bricks that are dangling a couple of metres above your head is not good...

[b2hbm]

VxDuncan said:

Sadly, I think you need not to worry so much about the level of survey you have on the place, but more the company that is doing the survey. Having let the mortgage company let "a major property group" do the homebuyers report on mine I really regret it.

Ditto.

Many years ago I had a "complete & full" survey on a 9yr old house paid for during an urgent company move. We viewed the (empty) house in December, surveyed in January, bought the house and were moving within a week on receipt of survey which finalised the deal. Within the first 6 months of moving in;

1. On moving day we switched on the water to find the pipes leaking under the floorboards. A night without water until we could sort out a plumber.
2. The CH boiler never worked from day one & needed replacement. By simply lifting the cover panel even I could see it was in very poor condition.
3. Once we got that fixed, CH on, we found a radiator leaking from rust damage
4. The flat utility room roof leaked & subsequently collapsed when I got up to inspect it - complete renewal of utility/garage roof boards/felt.
5. But the most telling was subsequently sorted out under the NHBC (?) warranty as the house was under 10yrs old. We found some rear brickwork spalling badly & got it inspected. It turned out that the houses had been built with unsuitable bricks for the area and the problem was compounded by a poor mortar mix which was also eroding badly. THe NHBC paid for 2 external brick walls to be knocked down & replaced.

Now I could be blamed for not spotting these myself, but I guess in those days I was a bit naive. However I would have expected a local expert to have known about potential frost problems given the house had been empty for some weeks; the water & CH were clearly not even looked at. When we eventually contacted the NHBC after advice from a neighbour, it turned out they knew all about the brickwork/mortar problems as there had been previous claims. (including our neighbour)

You can argue that 1,2 & 3 might not be present at the survey date but the others clearly were long term problems. Fortunately, my company were excellent and helped fund the repairs. Not surprisingly, we've never had another "full" survey since.

[hadenough!]

James,
YHM, in a nutshell I let the mortgage co do the basic survey they insisted on and payed a local MRICS chap to do a full structural for me. Very happy with the result.

Don't have a homebuyers, theyre a waste of money and can be done by anyone providing they have eyes.

Phill

[garycat]

hadenough! said:

Don't have a homebuyers, theyre a waste of money and can be done by anyone providing they have eyes.

Phill

+1.

We paid extra for a homebuyers report and basically just got 2 pages of A4 telling us it was a detached bungalow. You could see that from the first two words of the estate agent's description.

[davidjpowell]

hadenough! said:

James,
YHM, in a nutshell I let the mortgage co do the basic survey they insisted on and payed a local MRICS chap to do a full structural for me. Very happy with the result.

Don't have a homebuyers, theyre a waste of money and can be done by anyone providing they have eyes.

Phill

Unless it was a desktop even the basic survey will be done by a Qualified Surveyor. The basic survey is intended to value the property (obviously), spot any value significant defects and spot any defects that will affect the property as suitablilty for security. If the property looks relatively true with no obvious wants or defects I would not think it is woth paying for a full structural.

Even in a basic survey the valuer should look in the loft (Heads and shoulders) if it is accessible. In most inspections the valuer will not move furniture or lift carpets, nor will he turn on / test services other than looking for the basics eg indications of age in wiring / correctly fitted flu.

HTH

[Coco H]

Think it all depends on the compant. I paid for the middle report - cost about £400. I think it was a homebuyers report. I got a 20+ page document on the house and absolutely evrey aspect of it - including what could be done to increase the value. It was really well done and picked up some interesting things and also told us what not to worry about - hugely detailed

[hadenough!]

davidjpowell said:

Unless it was a desktop even the basic survey will be done by a Qualified Surveyor.

Depends what you consider "qualified". The fella who surveyed our old house for the buyers came around, asked me a load of question like how old the kitchen / bathroom is, whether the house was timber framed etc, had a very quick scout around and popped his head in the loft. He was there for a grand total of 15 minutes at a cost of £300 - £400.

I employed a local chap whos details I got off the RICS website. He spent 3 hours in the house, damp tested all walls and gave comments on all aspects of the property including services (even so far as lifting external drain and manhole covers / checking stopcocks) and supplied a full report together with photographs. All for £450.

I'm happy with the choice I made.

[VxDuncan]

hadenough! said:

davidjpowell said:

Unless it was a desktop even the basic survey will be done by a Qualified Surveyor.

Depends what you consider "qualified". The fella who surveyed our old house for the buyers came around, asked me a load of question like how old the kitchen / bathroom is, whether the house was timber framed etc, had a very quick scout around and popped his head in the loft. He was there for a grand total of 15 minutes at a cost of £300 - £400.

I employed a local chap whos details I got off the RICS website. He spent 3 hours in the house, damp tested all walls and gave comments on all aspects of the property including services (even so far as lifting external drain and manhole covers / checking stopcocks) and supplied a full report together with photographs. All for £450.

I'm happy with the choice I made.

As I said, it's WHO does the survey that's the important thing.

[Harsh]

James there's the RICS website...
http://www.rics.org/
as the centralised area for surveyors.

i echo all the comments above...
i'd ask around the SAS guys to see if they know a decent one.

word of mouth is far more important.
i'll have a word with my project manager too

[Merlot]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

A little cheap, but not excessively so - depends on the size of the property.

I'd go for a *decent* Homebuyers report, provided its prepared by a chartered surveyor whom you either know or have been recommended. I've used a website to allow local firms to 'tender' for my business. As it turns out, the cheapest was a chap I had done business with in the past, who I trust and who provided me with a 25 page sample report which is very detailed for a Homebuyers report.