The FTB club

morgaine7

Framps wrote: »

The homebuyer's survey only involves surface inspections - from the above it sounds like the electrics / gas are okay, although a 10-yr old boiler should be replaced IMHO. The further urgent inspections are just to cover themselves, as these are specialist disciplines and expensive to repair - costs which you could potentially claw back from the surveyor's insurance if you can prove that they were negligent in their survey.

For any "signicant matter" items that you are unsure about you should get builders in to give you estimates on the works. Therein lies one of the biggest benefits of the full structural survey, which includes estimates for any work recommendations and thus saves you a lot of hassle (the estimates won't be completely accurate but they give you a starting point for negotiations).

The vendors aren't legally responsible for anything arising from the survey; the best you can do is try and see what happens. There are loads of factors affecting whether someone will accept your renegotiations, it's impossible to say what they will or won't accept.

Thanks for your reply. I didn't realise that a full structural survey would have included estimates for the work - useful to know for the future!

I've sent an email to the EA asking that the Vendors undertake the required checks and (cheekily, but it's worth a go) asking for a small reduction in the purchase price. I'll now wait and see what happens.........

morgaine7

homehunter wrote: »

Our survey had lots mentioned too, but when you look at it, you see just how thorough they are being. For example - electrics and central heating checks - we were advised to get these too and our solicitor approached theirs requesting that the seller gets these done. Stairs - we were advised to put in some posts so small children and animals won't slip through. Defective glazing - actually just one area where some inner beading had expanded and dropped, easily fixed. We even had a suggestion to replace the downstairs window, so it matched the others, for aesthetic reasons! I wouldn't worry too much. We had suggestions for fixing a slipped tile and repointing work...we had a reasonble quote from a roofer and it is just one of those things we'll have to sort out soon.

I agree that some of these checks should really be included in the price. Also shows how useless these HIPs are - I've never seen the one for the property we're buying and we complete in 2 weeks! They were meant to make the process quicker?! What use are they...? You'd think that the legal searches and utilities cheks would be covered by that...:rolleyes:

Your report sounds remarkably like ours! From reading your post, and others I've found looking through here over the last day or so it does seem that a lot of the 'problems' are standard and appear on most surveys - never having had one done before I didn't realise this, and am now slightly less concerned.

Our HIP was so out of date that we had to pay for a new local search so wasn't a lot of use. I think newer ones have some sort of questionaire in them which I certainly think should cover things like 'When was the house rewired/a full electrical check done?' and 'Has the boiler and central heating system been regularly serviced?' as it would save a lot of time later.

morg_monster

Hi, can one of you guys who has had their survey tell me how long we might expect to get the report? Our survey is being done today. We've sent back their signed T&Cs on monday so there shouldn't be any delay due to that, how long does it take them to type up the report and send it out? Also I presume they'll contact the bank pretty quick to tell them whether the valuation is ok? So if we don't hear anything from the bank in the next few days can we assume the valuation is probably OK at least, even if we are waiting on the post strike to receive the formal report?
I'm too excited!

mandy_s_2

morg_monster wrote: »

Hi, can one of you guys who has had their survey tell me how long we might expect to get the report? Our survey is being done today. We've sent back their signed T&Cs on monday so there shouldn't be any delay due to that, how long does it take them to type up the report and send it out? Also I presume they'll contact the bank pretty quick to tell them whether the valuation is ok? So if we don't hear anything from the bank in the next few days can we assume the valuation is probably OK at least, even if we are waiting on the post strike to receive the formal report?
I'm too excited!

Our's took three days to come back to us after the survey had been done and we received a copy of it in the post (as did the bank)

bulktrans

hello people, we are first time buyers (based in Scotland) currently looking for properties. after having read some comments etc it looks like there are lots of hidden fees etc apart from the mortgage fee and the solicitors fee.

is it possible for some one to list all the fees etc so that we can plan accordingly - such as critical illness cover, home insurance etc etc....

it looks like a long tiring process...

regards,
bulktrans

Brallaqueen

Hello, just recently joined and taken the opportunity to gush and gripe about being a first time buyer. Basically I'm really lucky in that two 2-bed flats have come up in my iddy-biddy price range (~70k) and I could live OK in either of them (one needs a LOT of work doing to it in town, the other is further out but in much better condition). Even though two beds in my price range are like hens teeth, the market is already starting to sort itself out and I'm not paid that well, i still have managed to find two options. But I guess I'm just really fatigued. Hopefully emotionally things will look up over the weekend...

Tia_24

Hi all! My partner and I are currently in the middle of buying a house, the survey was supposed to be done last Wednesday but has been rearranged to next Tuesday - never mind! We've agreed with the surveyors to have the report emailed to us so that will speed things up and they're doing the mortgage valuation at the same time (suprisingly it was cheaper to go through the bank for both the valuation and the home buyers survey!) Still in the excited stage of house buying, although I know from reading on here how quickly that can change!

bararah

We had independant buildings survey done which did not give any estimates but highlighted every small detail which read like a horror story. After much thought though the majority of the points were easily fixed general maintenance. The survey took 5 working days to come back to us but I phoned the company in the meantime as I didn't want any nasty surprises! The bloke who did it explained all of the points and told me to phone if needed any further advice. The mortgage valuation survey advised electrics and gas check (which we knew would need inspecting) and the house needs rewiring but the gas and heating was fine. The vendor would not drop the price for us but they had accepted offer £3500 below asking price so I decided to go ahead anyway, negotiating is worth a try.

VKay

Our survey was pretty scary too bararah, but when I took a deep breath I realised that buying a 60 yr old house which has been rented out there are bound to be issues arising from general lack of care. We are going ahead.

I was planning to pay the £995 mortgage fee upfront but have decided we need cash in the bank at this point so am disappointed to add that to the mortgage and pay interest on it (damn!).

We are now waiting for the vendors to replace a broken window and have the carpets professionally cleaned and then we'll exchange- hopefully end of this week. All down to how fast they want the money really!

Good luck everyone.

morg_monster

Guys with recent surveys, did you pass on the survey to your solicitor? Did you get the sol to do negotiating or do it yourself? I'm kind of clueless about what stuff the sol should be doing and what stuff we should do ourselves. keen to keep communication lines open and everything going smoothly as we are supposed to be exchanging by nov 14th.

We're just waiting for our survey report to come through the post (if it isn't on the doormat when I come home tonight I'm calling them to ask them to email it as it won't arrive through the mail strike - great idea wish i'd thought of it sooner!)