SAVA Home condition survey - any good?

Bungly_2

Hi

I have just had an offer accepted on a house and am looking to arrange a full structural survey (FSS) as the house is over 100 years old. I have to have at least a basic survey from the mortgage provider anyway, but would rather have full structural one independently.

My solicitor's husband is a surveyor. I spoke to him and he offers a home condition survey. He described it as 80% of a FSS - it does not provide a valution (which I will get via mortgage provider) and it does not give price estimates for issues that are found.

It seems that home condition survey is covered by SAVA rather than RICS.

Any thoughts on this? Has anyone had one? How does it compare with a FSS?

Many Thanks

cattie

I'd steer clear. Sounds as if your solicitor is trying to drum up business for her partner.

RICS is the standard registration for surveyors & I would be questioning why he isn't a member, if he isn't. I've never heard of SAVA I have to say. I would guess it stands for something along the lines of Surveyors, Auctioneers, Valuers Association?

How much will the survey be compared to what a full structural one would be?

On an older property I'm always much more comfortable & confident when a full structural survey has been carried out by a RICS surveyor.

Bungly_2

Thanks for the reply. The price of the home condition survey was quoted as £499 + VAT. I've not got any RICS build survey quotes yet. However, I think I may go down the RICS route anyway :beer:

knowsley

The 'survey' that is carried out by your mortgage lender is NOT a survey on a properties condition, is is just a brief assessment of the property to see if it is worth the money that they are lending you to buy it.
This is a common mistake in that homebuyers think that they are getting a survey on the condition of a property when it could'nt be more further away from one!!!

SAVA stands for Surveyors And Valuers Accreditation and is a bona fide organisation with hundreds of surveyors on its books.

See the SAVA website for details and an example of the Home Condition Survey (HCS).
The Home Condition Survey is carried out by qualified, accredited and insured surveyors.

Maxtonmike

cattie wrote: »

I'd steer clear. Sounds as if your solicitor is trying to drum up business for her partner.

RICS is the standard registration for surveyors & I would be questioning why he isn't a member, if he isn't. I've never heard of SAVA I have to say. I would guess it stands for something along the lines of Surveyors, Auctioneers, Valuers Association?

How much will the survey be compared to what a full structural one would be?

On an older property I'm always much more comfortable & confident when a full structural survey has been carried out by a RICS surveyor.

For a full structural survey you need a specialist surveyor or building engineer, but for condition surveys the SAVA Home Condition Survey is a far better report than the RICS Home Buyers Report. Apart from content and methodology the RICS survey is not intended for older properties. (see the limitations on the RICS web site)

Only 20% of home buyers in England & Wales opt for a proper survey, and rely instead on the mortgage valuation report which has serious limitations, not least of which is the fact that the surveyor is contracted by the lender and not the home buyer. With no contractual relationship the purchaser has no redress against the surveyor if he or she should make any errors.

The majority of RICS surveyors spend most of their time on valuation work and have comparitively little training or experience of detailed condition reporting. The SAVA surveyors have had intensive and detailed condition reporting training. They will also have full Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance.

scrappy2000

I can fully recommend the SAVA Home Condition survey. I had one done a few months ago for a house we were buying, we were advised to get an independent survey done. We asked around - and both the RICS home buyers survey and the SAVA Home condition report were mentioned. They were a similar price, but when we the SAVA surveyor showed us one and explained it to us, we decided to go with the HCS. It was returned to us in 2 days so no time was wasted, we were impressed at the detail of the report, and the easy to understand traffic light system it used, good to see some pictures in the report, and the surveyor kindly went through some of the points with us. Overall it gave us a great deal of confidence to proceed to buy, plus we knew what to expect when we moved in. A friend had previously gone down the RICS road, and their survey took over a week to come back with no offer from the surveyor to discuss his findings!!!

G_M

SAVA

"Any qualified home inspector. You don’t need to have trained with SAVA and you can switch from another certification scheme at any time."

Home Inspector? Not a surveyor then.

JQ.

Note - all the recommendations above have come from One Post Wonders. Looks like a few SAVA employees are bored at work.

I have never heard of SAVA and having had a quick look at their website would definately not be using their services. It takes 5 years to be an RICS qualified surveyor, you can imagine Home Inspectors doing a 2 week training course and then being let lose on the most expensive purchases of our lives.

Jeffrey_Scott

I notice that most of you keep your details quiet, well for information I am a Home Inspector who carries out Home Condition Reports.
I am registard with SAVA (who where part of RICS originaly). You can also be a surveyor with BRE, or CIOB (British research establishment, Chartered Institute of Building). All including RICS can be Home Inspectors and be certified through SAVA or BRE.
It is the quality of the survey you should be looking at and RICS will be the first to say that a Home condition Survey cannot be improved on - they where part and parcel in the making of the report. You will find many differently qualified surveyors supplying this report.
Too emphasize the point, as qualification seems to be an issue mine are BA(Hons),Dip SIAD, PGCE(construction), Dip HI, MRPSA, MCIOB, ARICS.
BY the way it took one and a half to two years for most to qualify on the Home Inspector course.