home buyer report

shelly_grogan

would a Home Buyers Report (i tihnk thats what it is called) find any structural problems or would that HAVE to be a building survey?

cattie

Yes you'd need a structural survey to be sure any structural problems were highlighted. Many homebuyer's reports are pretty basic & full of generalisations and recommedations on getting specialists in to check everything from the chimney stacks downwards.

Doozergirl

If you are already aware of structural issues, you specifically need a structural engineer to look at the property. I would organise this before any more generic survey as you may not even be able to raise a mortgage on a property suffering structurally.

If you have a full structural survey at a cost of nearly £1000 and it needs work, they'll be telling you to get the structural engineer in to tell you how to rectify it. The structural engineer will hopefully cost more in the region of £250, tell you exactly what you need to know on the issue before you decide to go on to a full survey on the rest of the property... I'd rather lose £250 than £1000 iyswim

spunkeyrich

one of the main cause of structual problems is damaged drains or trees that have been removed quickly without having the time to get the ground used to the fact there is no tree to withdraw the water, could also be old roots of trees. What age is the property? is it reaslly worth you going for it.

also, if its on with an estate agent ask nicely to see if anyone else has had a structual survey, any good agent will tell you and offer infomation about the home. (if they know of something they are duty bound to tell you thesedays

cheers

rich

marybishop

Check out the RICS website to see descriptions of the two types of survey - full building survey and the homebuyers survey. Look at the Find a Surveyor section for names/numbers of surveyors in your area then ring a few for quotes. It would have to be a huge property to warrant a figure of £1000 for a survey!