Surveyors Report-Please Help!!

Lipsticklady

Hi all,

I am a FTB and have just received a copy of the surveyors report. In it he describes the house as the following:

1)Ex council -spoke to the previous owners and they insist that this is incorrect. The lady (their mother, who has died) lived their for 40 years and it was never council.

2)Property in Historic mining area!! Mining search should be conducted -the house is in Reddish, Stockport. As far as the neighbours are aware this is also incorrect!

He recommended the following reports be conducted:

1)Structural
2)Major Damp and Timber
3)Cavity Wall
4)Artriculturaluralist (its the garden and the trees)
5)Electrical
6)Water
7)Re inspection required

Someone said that this is alot for a surveyor to request. In regards the water survey, we phoned the water company who advised us to question the need for this. She has deemed it unnecessary in this sitauation and has provided us with her contact details.

The previous owners family (who we happen to know well) has said he was quite a nasty individual this surveyor. Plus, the house was up with a certain estate agents but was taken off this one and sold with another. The surveyor requested by accord mortgages happens to be from the estate agents number one.
Someone suggested that he might have been a bit harsh as the previous 'FOR SALE' sign for that company was still in the garden.

As a FTB, i am not sure as to whether all this is normal or whether i should be worried. I really cant afford yet another surveyor to conduct a report.

Poppy9

Challenge some/all of the points after all you are paying for this survey. You are the customer he is answerable to you.

Surveyors do tend to overkill on getting second opinions to cover themselves but you should ask what exactly have you paid him to do? As he was appointed by the BS ask them what level of survey he was supposed to carry out.

Why do you need a further damp survey? Did he find evidence of damp? If so where?

What was wrong or out of place with the Electrical system? Has he given you an approx. age of wiring. Did he note any DIY bits?

What evidence has he got to support that it's ex council housing?

Same with Mining, you could probably even check this yourself by ringing your local council.

TheDink

In terms of finding out whether there is likely to have been mining conducted in the past, you can check this website: https://www.homecheck.co.uk

If this surveyor was appointed by the building society, they will act on his advice and may require you to get additional reports conducted before they will agree the mortgage. They need to be happy that the property is a good investment for their money and I'm not sure how you could get around this. Even if you got your own surveyor in at your own cost, they would still rely on the report they commissioned.

You should contact the surveyor though and ask for a better explanation of the comments in his report.

Lipsticklady

Thank you so much for the website. It appears the house does NOT feature in a coal mining area.
It appears that he has requested reports for nearly everything. A previous report,by previous potential buyers, shows that the popular trees in the garden are not deemed to be doing any damage to the house so we have asked them to justify why they want a report on this.

misfire

I would commission an independent survyor.

We paid for the basic mortgage one and then had a full one with a surveyor who was recommended to us and worth his weight in gold. His report was highly detailed and he was willing to go through any points with us on the phone. We also needed his report asap so he gave us a brief run down of the property condition over the phone the day he had been here and got us the full report ASAP. The mortgage company were perfectly happy to go on the basic one, we did this purely for peace of mind as we had to double our mortgage moving here so it was a huge financial commitment.

We pulled out of one sale due to the mortgage basic survey finding horrendous problems. This house it picked up things and then with the further investigation done by our surveyor we thought it was o.k to continue although there were numerous things on the report. We bought a 1930s house so knew it would have issues just didnt want them to be too big.

Surely the council can tell you if it was excouncil - maybe the womans mother wasnt aware of it i would definitely make some enquiries, just for your peace of mind.

good luck
anita

Rosie-red-cheeks

I am a chartered structural engineer and tend to see quite a few surveyors reports. Occasionally, you get a surveyor who wants to make money with no responsibility and they simply go and look round a property and then they tell you to get specialists in to report on all aspects. Whilst not accusing your surveyor of doing this, you do have a right for explanations if he has not detailed WHY you need each of these disciplines to inspect the property.

What were the comments specifically on the structural side?

The other aspect to bear in mind to one of the posts above is that you are not the only customer - the mortgage lender is too! The report is for the protection of both of you, but unfortunately, you have to foot the bill!

Lipsticklady

Thanks,
As i mentioned earlier, we requested a water report to which the water company laughed. It appears this is highly irregular and uncommon.
Structural work is required prior to the mortgage money being released.

Using Housecheck, we have found that the house is not built on ex mining land. I dont think the surveyor the mortgage compnay requested, was very good!

dave49

Im a Chartered Surveyor too.

The surveyor has duties to you - complain to his company / Building Society who instructed the report - if it is not correct.

There appears no way you will get the mortgage without a Structural Engineers report if he has mentioned ' structural ' problems. There either are OR are not.

Lipsticklady

Hi,
The last few weeks have been so stressful and upsetting. The mortgage company are not releasing any of the cash unless the work has been completed. I cant understand how one survey can say the house is ok and the next to say the complete opposite!

It looks liek we are going to have to pull out! :-(

lush_walrus

Will your vendors not take the cost of a structural report on board then? Its potentially a cost that will come up again whether you buy it or the next person does so it might be worth getting the EA to have a chat with them. THat is if the survey hasnt put you off.

Lipsticklady

well, the problem is it is my partners granmothers home. He is effectively buying it from family making it really hard to negotiate. I feel really angry as if we walk away we will have paid £350 in useless surveys!