House Purchase - What Type of Survey?

thescouselander

I'm in the process of buying a house and I was wondering what type of syrvey I should go for. The house is only 7 years old and I've had a good look round and there are no signes of any problems such as subsidance of missing bits of roof.

Given that a homebuyers report will only report on things that are easily accessable (ie obvious problems) and given that the house is fairly new I dont think getting this type of survey will be good value for money. If there was any problem with the house, I think it would only be picked up if I had a full Structural Survey.

Should I just go for the basic valuation or would it be worth spending the extra money on the Homebuyers report?

silvercar

The basic valuation will be for mortgage purposes only, if there are major problems you will have no comeback. At the very least the homebuyer's report gives you some comeback. Though I agree it will be covered by so many caveats you won't gain a lot.

Some newbuild round my area suffered subsidence after a few years. There was a big fight with the NHBC to sort the problems out, during which time the properties were unsaleable, so don't assume a new house will not have subsidence.

A house purchase is the biggest purchase of your life (probably!) so give yourself piece of mind.

LouLouHelen

I went for a Homebuyer's Report (one step up from Standard Valuation) and boy am I glad I did. AS nice as people are you'd be surprised what they cover up either intentionally or my accident. My electrics were condemned and the boiler needed some work. The surveyor doesn't go into everything but he will make reference to areas that are of concern and suggest getting someone in to check it out. This is a very useful batering tool if the sellor and agent have simply decided on the property value based upon what other have gone for in the area!

Good luck

thescouselander

LouLouHelen wrote:

I went for a Homebuyer's Report (one step up from Standard Valuation) and boy am I glad I did. AS nice as people are you'd be surprised what they cover up either intentionally or my accident. My electrics were condemned and the boiler needed some work. The surveyor doesn't go into everything but he will make reference to areas that are of concern and suggest getting someone in to check it out. This is a very useful batering tool if the sellor and agent have simply decided on the property value based upon what other have gone for in the area!

Good luck

Yes, all good advice however, as you say the surveyer might suggest I had the boiler or electrics checked and then I would have to pay an electrician or gas fitter to come and check things out. I could just bypass the surveyer and pay the gas fitter/electrician to come and look anyway saving the money on the surveyers fee.

Sarahpuggy

But it might not even come up that the electrics or boiler needs looking at so that would be a waste of money to get them in anyway? And it could be something more serious that you have no way of knowing about..

We have decided to go for a homebuyers report, its £200 extra and we cant really afford to pay it, but considering its the biggest financial commitment we'll ever have, i think its better to be safe than sorry.

If you go ahead and buy the house anyway and then in a years time, find out something major has gone wrong, then the cost of repair will be all yours, if something is highlighted now at least you can negotiate it off the price with the vendor?

Good luck anyway, our survery is due back sometime this week! eeek.

Sarah x

epoman

LouLouHelen wrote:

This is a very useful batering tool if the sellor and agent have simply decided on the property value based upon what other have gone for in the area!

Agree! I've just had a private 'valuation only survey' on a property that we found very difficult to value as it's almost one of a kind on the road and all we had to go by was the estate agents valuation. Our surveyor thinks the property is overvalued by £60,000! If the seller does not reduce the price accordingly we will be walking away from the purchase (with a loss of £2k on purchase expenses). The report was only £500 plus VAT, so definately money well spent.

marybishop

Check out the RICS website https://www.rics.org.uk where you'll find the definitions of the different survey types. As someone else has already said big outlay on a house purchase so you want peace of mind - oh, and don't assume that just because a house is only 7 years old it won't have any problems!

thescouselander

Thanks for all the advice. As many of you said, getting a survey could provide peice of mind but my main concern is that a home buyers report doesn't neccessarily provide peice of mind.

For example, I have looked round for signes of subsidence myself and couldnt see anything amiss. It is possible there could be signes there such as cracks in the plaster but since the walls have wallpaper on there these cracks would be hidden and not picked up in the home buyers report.

I have beed advised that if the homebuyers report does miss something like then there is no legal comback against the surveyer - apparently there is only legal comeback if you have a full structural survey. So if there are no obvious signs of problems, the homebuyers survey is only a visual inspection and there is no comeback anyway if they miss something, I ask myself what is the point?

_Andy_

We had a Homebuyers done on our house (i.e. the house we bought) last year. The guy obviously was either stupid or incompetent, probably both, and failed to notice there was huge issues with damp in the kitchen, dining room, and front room.
After some negotiation I got the surveying company to pay for the lot + compensation.

MascaraMinx

thescouselander wrote:

I have beed advised that if the homebuyers report does miss something like then there is no legal comback against the surveyer - apparently there is only legal comeback if you have a full structural survey.

I think this is wrong. We were facing this decision on friday and we chose the Homebuyers - the main reason was that we were told it forms a contract between ourselves, the mortgage company and the surveyor.

I was told that the full structural is usually only done if the property is particularly old/ at risk/ listed building etc.

Or was i misinformed?

clairehi

To the OP. The mortgage valuation is carried out on behalf of the lender, not the buyer. A copy is only provided to you for information. So you cant take action against the surveyor if they make a mistake in carrying out the mortgage valuation.

Homebuyers reports are different because theyare carried out on the buyers behalf, by the surveyor, so you should be able to take action against them if they stuff it up. The contract for the homebuyers report is between you and the surveyor - not the lender.
Homebuyers reports get a bad rap but ours have actually been quite useful, and for the sake of an extra couple of hundred quid when you are spending hundreds of thousands, I think they are worth having and certaionly much better value for money than estate agent fees. Now theres a ripoff!