How much of a survey can you do yourself?

RHemmings

I'd like to know how much of a survey you can do yourself.

One of the risks of buying a house is that you make an offer, get accepted, then commission a survey. One of the things that can go wrong is that the survey comes back with major sticking points (see other threads) and then you negotiate with your vendor. If the sale falls through, then you're out the survey costs.

If you could do some bits of the survey yourself, then there would be less risk of the real survey falling through or throwing up problems. So what parts of the survey are you likely to be able to do yourself? I've seen it said that most structural problems can be spotted if you read up on what you should be looking for (sagging bits etc.) I think the propery info can be obtained from the LR reasonably cheaply. You could searh in the local authority offices for information on planning permission and the like. You could search on teh LR sales data for comparables to get a better idea of whether the mortgage valuation will come up short.

What else can you do? Is it worth the effort and expense trying to second-guess the survey ahead of time? What bits can't you do without excessive amounts of time, expense, or invasion of the vendor's privacy?

lilyann1

I also wondered this, as our chain seems to be collapsing because of the vendor not being able to find a property, we are out looking again,but i do not want to spend loads more money on surveying property if indeed our original vendors end up finding somewhere and its all back on again.
We are viewing 3 properties this afternoon and I'd like to know what to look for.
Also one of the properties we think we're going to like is about 250metres from our old proposed purchase,so when it comes to searches can the solicitor use the original environmental and drainage searches,or can we save on any other conveyancing fees,since we have done it once already??

silvercar

You can't take on the risk. Have a professional survey and you ave comeback if things go wrong, take it on yourself and where do you turn?

If it was so easy to be able to identify all building problems yourself, surveyors would be out of business.

clutton_2

"can the solicitor use the original environmental and drainage searches," - no.

Lenders are lending you an enormous amount of money to buy a house - they want a professional opinion that they are lending on a good risk - ie that they house will re-sale down the line and that they will ge their money back.

in terms of looking round a house to see if it is worth buying, before applying for a mortgage, that is a different matter - you can read books, or, go round houses with a builder, or accompany a surveyor (this is how i learnt a huge amount - it cost me a few hundred quid for houses i subsequently did not buy, but, it saved me thousands in the long run as i did not buy a pup).

But its probably down to experience, and REALLY looking at the fabric of the house, and not the wallpaper/furniture. i spend more time looking at the outside of a house, than the inside, that is where the expensive repairs are to be found.

look for parallellity (if such a word exisits !) - are all windows, doors, bricks, roofs, parallel with each other (if not there may have been movement). BUT, if it is a terrace, and everyhouse shows the same, its probably nothing to worry about. Has it had wall ties replaced ? (little blobs of concrete all over the walls spasmodically placed ?) is there a Damp Course (often a vertical row of small round concrete dots about a coupel of foot up the external walls). Are the water goods in good condition? Is there a dip in the roof line ? Do the walls "bow" out - if so - wall ties may need doing - and so on. ITs fascinating once you start Really looking at a house's fabric.

kyleheath

I have undertaken my own survey with the help of my father who has 30 years exp in housing, if you look for the obvious issues, roof problems, cracks in exterior walls, no damp course, damp internally, old electric wires, records of gas service you should be fine. Any issues call an electrcian or professional, if there are no issues then save the money.

If your property is over 40 years old I would suggest the full survey, this goes beyond good knowledge and into the field of structural engineers.

Cheers

dunstonh

One of the risks of buying a house is that you make an offer, get accepted, then commission a survey. One of the things that can go wrong is that the survey comes back with major sticking points (see other threads) and then you negotiate with your vendor. If the sale falls through, then you're out the survey costs.

The other risk is if you dont have a survey and find out after the sale has gone through that there is £20,000 of repairs needed.

RHemmings

silvercar wrote:

You can't take on the risk. Have a professional survey and you ave comeback if things go wrong, take it on yourself and where do you turn?

If it was so easy to be able to identify all building problems yourself, surveyors would be out of business.

I wasn't suggesting that I would ONLY do my own survey. The strategy I was asking about was to do a bit of my own home-made survey. And then only if everything looks fine, go ahead with the proper professional survey.

Think of it this way, you see a house and like it. Offer, and are accepted. Then the professional survey comes back and says that the basement is overrun with radiation mutated six foot long woodlice immune to any poison known to man. You don't buy the house and are down £££££ that you paid the surveyor. If you had done you own survey, gone down in the basement, and observed the woodlice, then you would then not offer ont he house in the first place, and save the £££££ wasted on the survey.

But you could really investigate things yourself, perhaps including a few searches, checking of planning permission. If you don't find anything wrong, then it looks much more likely there are no problems, and you go ahead with the professional survey.

RHemmings

dunstonh wrote:

The other risk is if you dont have a survey and find out after the sale has gone through that there is £20,000 of repairs needed.

I wasn't thinking of not having a survey done. I was trying to avoid wasting the costs of commissioning a survey which will find out something which kills the deal, that I could have found out myself for £10 and a few hours work. I wouldn't dream of buying a house without a survey.

TJ27

I'm pretty sure that I could do a better job than most surveyors actually. Most surveys seem to comprise a load of standard paragraphs cut and pasted into a report. If the surveyor is in any doubt he/she will just say that you need to call out a specialist. Sounds like money for old rope if you ask me. I quite fancy doing it myself!

I have an honours degree in building, have hands on experience of building work and have been involved in looking at houses for about ten years. The problem is that I'm not a chartered surveyor and I don't have PI insurance.

So even given the above, if I was spending several hundred thousand on a house, I would probably still get a proper survey done. If I was buying a cheap run down terrace, I wouldn't.

You can do loads of the house buying/selling stuff yourself, even conveyancing, but it's a question of risk.