Which survey to get?!?!

MORPH3US

Seems like I am on here every day now asking questions so apologies in advance if you get tired of hearing from me:

The house that we are buying is a 9 1/2 year old 3 bedroom terrace house. Am I right in thinking that we will need a Full Building Servey?

Any idea how much this will cost?

Pal

A full building survey would be overkill and most surveyors will try and talk you out of it. They are generally only any use for really old, listed or unusual buildings that really need a lot of investigating.

A detailed housebuyer's report should be plenty for a 10 year old house, and should cost about £400-£700 including the mortgage company valuation fee.

Is the property still under builder's guarantee? If so then definitely worth paying for a housebuyer's survey so that you can demand that the builder fixes any problems before you buy.

MORPH3US

We were told when viewing that the house was about 9 1/2 years old and so has a few months left on the builders guarantee! I'm sure we'll find out the real age of the house from the solicitor when they do the searches.

Thanks

M

Ian_W

Agree with PAL that a full survey is over-kill for a relatively recent build.
RICS recommend it for:
# Listed buildings
# Older properties,
# Buildings constructed in an unusual way, however old they are
# Properties you plan to renovate or alter in any way
# Properties that have had extensive alterations.
Full descriptions of the 3 levels of survey are at:
https://www.rics.org/Property/Residentialproperty/Residentialpropertyvaluationandappraisal/understanding_surveys.htm

HTH.

Cristy

We are buying a 5-yr old house are we've just had a homebuyers' survey and valuation done through our lender. Because the mortgage product we're going with has a free mortgage valuation, the homebuyer's survey only cost £185 which is very competitive.

BTW - our lender's chosen surveyor was Romans Surveyors which, so far, have given us good service. We were called on the afternoon of the survey for preliminary results and the hard copy report was with us 4 working days after. The report seems thorough enough (though only time will tell if they have not picked up something important!).

MORPH3US

We are getting our mortgage through HSBC.

I think their valuation costs £350 and i'm sure they said that they can also do the homebuyers report at the same time to save us cash. Anyone got any idea how much they would charge us for this?

Or has anyone got any idea how much an independant home buyers report should cost in the midlands?

Thanks again

M

Heth_2

MORPH3US wrote:

We are getting our mortgage through HSBC.

I think their valuation costs £350 and i'm sure they said that they can also do the homebuyers report at the same time to save us cash. Anyone got any idea how much they would charge us for this?

Or has anyone got any idea how much an independant home buyers report should cost in the midlands?

Thanks again

M

We are currently buying our house with an Abbey mortgage and their valuation was 260 and the valuation+homebuyers 465. We went for the valuation+homebuyers, it was cheaper than getting the valuation and a separate homebuyers, and we didn't have any personal recommendations for a surveyor anyway. I think the valuation does depend on house price, hence why yours is probably more expensive. I think when I phoned up surveyors around Coventry for homebuyers quotes they were about 300-400 pounds, but that was a few months ago. Our house is about 50 years old but we still felt the homebuyers was most appropriate.

MORPH3US

Heth wrote:

We are currently buying our house with an Abbey mortgage and their valuation was 260 and the valuation+homebuyers 465. We went for the valuation+homebuyers, it was cheaper than getting the valuation and a separate homebuyers, and we didn't have any personal recommendations for a surveyor anyway. I think the valuation does depend on house price, hence why yours is probably more expensive. I think when I phoned up surveyors around Coventry for homebuyers quotes they were about 300-400 pounds, but that was a few months ago. Our house is about 50 years old but we still felt the homebuyers was most appropriate.

Thanks Heth, I appreciate that!

We would rather get our valuation and survey done by the same people at the same time as its less messing about. I just thought maybe HSBC would charge extortionate amounts for the survey. If they are a reasonable price then we'll go with them to keep it simple!

BTW, good luck with your new house!!

M

Heth_2

MORPH3US wrote:

Thanks Heth, I appreciate that!

We would rather get our valuation and survey done by the same people at the same time as its less messing about. I just thought maybe HSBC would charge extortionate amounts for the survey. If they are a reasonable price then we'll go with them to keep it simple!

BTW, good luck with your new house!!

M

Good luck to you too. We're pretty much there, have already exchanged and are completing in a couple of weeks.
Thinking about it, 350 seems an awful lot just for the valuation. We were going to go with hsbc (but got a better rate with abbey) as we could have got a graduate mortgage and this is what they advertise their valuations to be:

HSBC Bank plc, Valuations Fee Scale – UK and Offshore (Channel Islands / Isle of Man)

The cost to customers, including VAT (UK only), for residential property valuations is detailed below. The valuation fee quoted includes a £35 non-refundable administration fee payable to HSBC Bank plc.

Valuation up to
Standard Valuation Report (inc. VAT)
Homebuyer Report (inc. VAT)
Building Survey (inc. VAT)

£75,000
£125
£285
£460

£100,000
£135
£310
£500

£150,000
£155
£335
£545

£200,000
£175
£385
£625

£250,000
£195
£435
£660

£300,000
£225
£485
£725

£400,000
£265
£560
£835

£500,000
£325
£635
£885

£600,000
£385
£710
£1,035

£700,000
£435
£785
£1,185

£800,000
£485
£835
£1,285

£900,000
£515
£910
£1,385

£1,000,000
£535
£985
£1,485

£1,250,000
£735
£1,285
£1,685

£1,500,000
£735
£1,435
£1,885

£1,750,000
£735
£1,585
£2,085

£2,000,000
£735
£1,735
£2,285

£2,000,000+
By negotiation
By negotiation
By negotiation

MushyPeas

Hiya Morph3us

Sorry to add another opinion, but I'm a FTB and wish I had gone for afull building survey. For just an extra couple of £100 my mind would have been put at ease. I'm buying an 1930s ex-council house which I was adviced didn't need a full building survey. However, I'm disappointed by the homebuyers. The surveyor didn't even pick up on a cracked window pane in the bathroom!

But, it is a personal preference I admit. If you think the house is OK and don't want too much information I would go with the homebuyers. However, if you are like me and want detailedinfo that doesn't leave you asking questions go for the structural. A difference of a couple of hundred doesn't equate to much against the full cost of the house, does it?

MP

MORPH3US

@ Heth, I made a mistake in my calculations. Saw the HSBC last night and it is £335 for the valuation AND the home buyers survey or £150 (aprox) for just the valuation.

@ MushyPeas, thanks for the input. It sounds to me (in my VERY un-experienced opinion) that the surveyor wasn't doing their job properly rather than the survey you chose not being enough. Like you, I would have thought that the home buyers survey would have been plenty to pick up a cracked window. Although given the age of your property, maybe the full buildings survey would have been better for you.

I hope there wasn't anything wrong with your house that the survey missed and that you are happy with your house!

Given that our house is only 9 years old and looks in great condition we are only getting the home buyers survey. The mortgage advisor in the bank was saying that as the house is so new we would only need the valuation. Since its our money, our house and our risk then we told her we'd rather have the HBS. I had budgeted for that too so its not a problem for that little bit of peace of mind!

M