Surveys? FTB with no idea.

mattyha

Hi All

Myself and partner have just had an offer accepted on our first house.

Needless to say very happy.

Anyway we have our mortgage agreed in principle and are going to the estate agents tomorrow to confirm the bid / make sure its taken off the market!

Lots of info on here about Solicitors / Converyencing, however not much about surveys, so question is, when do you sort these out? is it down to me to find a serveyor or do my mortgage provider offer me this (at a cost).

Thanks in advance!

no1gymbunny

You will need to sort this out quite soon. You can ask the EA to recommend a good surveyor to you. Your lender will instruct a survey to be carried out, but this is for their own purposes even though you will be paying for it - in most instances you won't even see it (nice eh?). If it's a recently built property the lender's survey will merely consist of the surveyor driving past the house to check it's actually standing. Some mortgage companies even have automated valuations done on computer!

If it's an older property, I strongly advise you instruct a Homebuyers Survey & Valuation to be carried out. This will tell you any building defects that require significant or urgent attention or any legal matters that may need to be resolved. This should cost about £300. If it's very old or in an area prone to subsidence, then a more detailed inspection is called for - 'the building survey' (formerly 'structural survey'). The construction materials and services will be inspected, floorboards will be lifted, etc - average costs £300-£750.

Hope this helps.

MissMotivation

Your mortgage adviser/arranger, IFA will arrange a survey on behalf of the lender which is a very basic survey that only really confirms that the building is standing and that it being sold at the right price. You can either pay for the more in depth survey....called a Homebuyers Report OR get an independant survey done yourself. Obviously these are more expensive.

mattyha

Cheers,

Am guessing the house is lat 50's / 60's so will go for the homebuyers, so the EA will probably reccomend me a serveyor and then they report to my mortgage provider to check that the property is worth the price / has no major defects.

Thanks again

no1gymbunny

I advise you just choose the HSV survey. Don't be freaked out if woodworm is mentioned. It is far more common than people realise. It'll cost about £500 for the vendor to rectify, if he's not up for paying for it, then try to re-negotiate the sale price. This is quite normal.

mattyha

Thanks again

Had heard of the homebuyers report before and was thinkin gof this, just wasn't sure who approached who regarding this, so am i right in thinking that my mortgage company will tell me they are sending a serveyor (at a cost) and offer me the homebuyers report (at an extra cost).

As I say many thanks but I like to have my facts correct before heading into the unknown.

Dan29

mattyha wrote:

Had heard of the homebuyers report before and was thinkin gof this, just wasn't sure who approached who regarding this, so am i right in thinking that my mortgage company will tell me they are sending a serveyor (at a cost) and offer me the homebuyers report (at an extra cost).

Yes, that's always been my experience - except that sometimes they offer a free valuation, but you'll still have to pay the extra for the homebuyer's report.

no1gymbunny

I doubt whether your lender will suggest an HSV, they're just concerned with making sure they can get their money back on the property. You'll need to sort this out for yourself. Ask your EA if you're stuck, they'll be more than happy to help you. Make sure your financial adviser searches hard for a good deal for you, when I bought my property last year I had a deal where I didn't have to pay for the lender's valuation which is great as you probably won't even see it!

Dan29

I'm pretty sure every mortgage lender I've ever used has offered to 'upgrade' from a valuation to a homebuyer's report for an additional fee. Surely if you arrange for a separate surveyor it's going to cost more?

no1gymbunny

True. There are more than 7000 different types of mortgage out there. There is a deal to be found!

dalia_2

Hi just a point if there is woodworm found, it is very common apparently.
Our house had some woodworm in the loft and it cost £250 to have it treated.
Our buyer however wanted £800 off the asking price to deal with it!
Needless to say we had the work carried out ourselves........