Is a valuation survey enough?

AppleCore

I'm having a bit of a disagreement with my partner over this - we're in the process of buying a semi-detached house built in 1996 with a single storey extension added in 2000. We get a free valuation survey with our mortgage so this is going ahead anyway and my OH thinks this would be enough as its a modern house but I think we should also go for a homebuyer's survey just in case.

What should we do?

BitterAndTwisted

I wouldn't necessarily be that bothered about a house built only a decade ago but I would be worried about the extension. The additional cost of a full structural survey could pay for itself if there's anything wrong with the property. I'd never buy any property without a proper survey.

pimento

We bought an extended property built in 1978 (we bought in 2001) and just had the valuation.
For a couple of reasons.
1. Money was tight as we'd been let down by the vendor of another house (she pulled out just before exchange) and we'd spent nearly £1000 on searches and surveys.
2. My dad knew the builder of the extension.

If I were to buy another house, I'd probably have the homebuyer's report, but I'm not convinced you'd ever have a successful claim should anything turn out to be wrong. They're quite clever at wording it so they're covered.