Do you have the Basic valuation and a HomeBuyers report done?

poodledoodledoo

Apologies for my ignorance....do you have both of these done or is it just one? We want the HomeBuyers report done because the property we are hoping to buy needs a lot of work but then I wasn't sure whether they do a valuation as well.

Debt_Free_Chick

The valuation is for the lender - the homebuyers report is for the buyer (you).

Some lenders will use your surveyor to do the lender - especially if he is on their panel of surveyors. Otherwise, you could ask the valuer if he can do your homebuyer report. In this case you might save a little money, but not much, in my experience.

Personally, I prefer to select my own surveyor, even if it means that the lender uses a different person to do the valuation.

The application fee you pay to the lender usually covers the cost of their valuation and your Homebuyer's report will cost between £400-800 in addition.

If it's an old property, you might want to consider a structural survey, which is the most comprehensive survey you can get.

The RICS has a basic guide to surveys here and more detail here.

HTH

ascollen

We got a homebuyers report on a place which had been empty for 9 months and we knew had damp (you could smell it as you walked in). Was already a bargain and we bidded less than asking price and were accepted.
Everything looked fine until the homebuyer report came in and the lender decided to slap on a retention of £3000 due to the damp which we already knew about!

It caused us some delays, stress and anxiety, especially as my wife was 7 months pregnant and we wanted to have the work done and be in the house by the time "mini-person" arrived.
The good news was that we did manage to get another £1500 off the asking price after the vendor agreed to split the difference. (We also managed to get moved in and sorted before D-Day as well!)

The moral of the tale? If time was of the essence and I was reasonably confident that the house had no issues, I would just get a valuation report next time...

AndrewSmith

Try contacting a local surveying firm and ask them for a quote to carry out a homebuyers report. You may just be surprised at how cheap they can be if you arrange it yourself.

It is not uncommon to be cheaper to pay the lender for the basic valuation and have your own homebuyer's report carried out. Also, if you arrange it yourself they you are in no doubt as to who the surveyor is working on behalf of, if you get my drift.

Andy

Acc72

Just one other thing to consider ......

Just because you get a full Homebuyers Report (at additional cost), this does not mean that this is the only survey you will need.

I bought a house 2 years ago and it needed a lot of work doing to it (I could see that myself) so we did a Homebuyers Survey.

I guess it is a sign of the littigeous times we live in, but even on this report the surveyor covered his back.

In the report it said "signs of damp - additional damp survey required" and "signs of movement - additional structural survey required".

In the end we had about 4 surveys at extortionate costs.

Depending on the state of the property, it might be worth going straight in for a full structural survey as has been previously suggested.

poodledoodledoo

I've considered having the full structural survey done but it's so expensive. I personally wouldn't have even considered having the HomeBuyers done either but our broker strongly recommended it due to the fact that the property we are buying has a flat roof and we have also found out today that the mortgage company is insisting we have it done.

marybishop

Homebuyers report is a limited inspection i.e. the surveyor if he finds problems such as damp will recommend a further investigation is needed. This is because this report is a set format from the RICS and the surveyor has to follow this format. If you want a detailed report i.e. suggested remedial repairs, etc then you need to have a full structural survey done. For the sake of probably another £100 or so it's well worth it.

hardtimes

What you have to remember it that a basic survey which you arrange for your mortgage, is really a check for the bank to ensure that there is a property, so that if you default the bank have something to repossess.In saying that if there is something really bad wrong with the house it will probably be mentioned.
It is a good idea if the property is 80-100 year old to obtain a full structural survey,not cheap but could save you thousands if you bought a bad property

poodledoodledoo

This is the thing you see, the house is only around 40 years old and there is nothing that looks particularly troublesome.
The property does need some updating but this is just cosmetic work.
I think the mortgage company are just being extra cautious as they have not mortgaged a flat roof house in my area before.

marybishop

There can be major problems with any property whatever its age - it depends on the risk you want to take either spending a few hundred now on a survey or not bothering and then finding problems costing thousands later. It's up to you whether or not you want to gamble.