Is the cost of a survey justified?

For the extra £250 you're getting something which could identify issues which save you a lot more than that when you knock the cost of the repair work from your offer.

More to the point the surveyor owes you a duty of care not just the BS therefore if they miss something important you can sue - that's why the cost is relatively high - you're paying for the surveyors professional indemnity insurance.

You could use someone else but they would probably expect to do a full structural survey for higher cost.

I think you have to accept that there is much more to this than 'a couple of hours work'.

When reviewing professional service fees, most people (who have never run their own business) tend to ignore the fact that there are overheads involved in running any business, like office expenses, staff costs, insurance, salaries, professional qualifications and training costs, vehicle and travel expenses, marketing and advertising and of course, insurance legal and liability costs.

You can't just pay for the time involved in the visit - your fee includes contribution to all the costs of providing the survey, not just the bit you see.

Remember also that the surveyor him/herself has trained long and hard and you are paying for their qualification and experience - most people that have spent years of slog studying for hard earned qualifications tend to believe that they should be entitled to be paid a premium for their expertise ...

*****

The essential difference between a valuation report and the home buyers survey is that the valuation is conducted to protect the interest of the LENDER whereas the homebuyer survey covers the interest of you the buyer.

The buyers survey is a lot more detailed than a valuation and covers constructional items and obvious defects. The valuation is only concerned with whether the property represents a mortgageable risk to the lender.

The Home Buyers Survey is not a full structural survey and will not necessarily pick up every fault with a building, but it should offer advice on anything truly serious. The surveyor cannot for example remove or damage anything in the building to gain access to hidden areas (say under floorboards or removing carpets) - it is a purely visual inspection, although where possible to do so, they will lift carpets. There is a risk that items like dry rot or beetle infestation in hidden areas will be missed.

A full structural survey is much more detailed and will endeavour to gain access to all hidden parts, although can be more destructive by nature and requires agreement from the vendor.

None of these surveys cover electrical or gas appliance inspections which would have to be commissioned separately.

Time to produce the report is dependent on the lender and the surveying company they use, 2-4 weeks is probably normal for a report to be made available.

VERRRRRRRRRY good value - if you compare it to, say, your cars MOT, which costs more than £40 EVERY YEAR!!

VB

There are three levels of "survey". One is basic valuation, the middle one is homebuyers report and the last is structural survey. The latter is the most valuable one as for what it looks at and picks up.

I wouldnt bother with the middle option but go with the full survey.

I've recently had a mortgage offer from the Abbey and had my valuation survey carried out for free. I then employed a local surveyor that I've known for years to have a look for me, he charged £250+VAT. I was quite surprised that the valuation survey was more in depth than I'd imagined.