What type of survey

jangor_2

I am buying a house, probably built around 1955/1960. It has been empty for a few months. I am unsure what type of survey would be best. Due to it being empty all the services have been switched off/disconnected. This brings me to another question, what are the charges for reconnection? The only information available is that from the Estate Agent and because they don't much about the property, this is very little.

Any assistance, as usual, gratefully received.

callmelinda

There's a useful page here to help: http://www.home.co.uk/guides/buying/vands.htm

Sometimes a homebuyer's report is fine, though if the house has been empty for a long period of time especially through winter, this would raise more concern as to the structure of the property and in that case I may be more cautious and go for the full structural survey myself.

As for the reconnection of utilities etc, I'm not too sure of the cost and whether it could be dependent on your circumstances or not (ie, if you've been renting a house prior to this purchase they may act differently to if you had owned a property prior?) Can't help on that, sorry. You could probably ask the water provider that covers your region about it as I'm sure they could give you a quick and accurate answer.

Tiger_greeneyes

The fact that the services have all been cut off will hamper the surveyor on all but the basic Mortgage Valuation report - where the surveyor doesn't look into or report on any of the services - apart from "the property has mains gas, electric etc etc".

Whilst surveyors can't carry out full tests on the services, they can let you know if the boiler was working at the time of inspection by feeling the heat from the radiators and hot water from the taps. They'll turn lights on and off etc. Whatever they can do like that, they'll report back to you.

Personally, I'd go for a Homebuyers Report as it gives you more detail than the Mortgage Valuation would, but get all the services tested independently so you've got a thorough picture of the things you can't see. It's not a particularly old house - if it was in very poor condition, had major structural alterations or worrying cracks, then I'd opt for a Building Survey. As surveyors aren't usually CORGI/NICEIC registered etc, they can't go into great details on any of the services - no matter what report you choose to have done.

If the surveyor picks up any worrying structural problems in the house, then you'd have to get a report from a Structural Engineer anyway.

At least with the combination of reports you'd have every angle covered.

You could always ask to speak to the surveyor who your lender has nominated to carry out your Homebuyers/Building Survey for advice on which survey would be most appropriate for you.

There are companies who will carry out all of the tests on the services at the same time (therefore saving you money on getting multiple companies out to test for you) - if you ask the surveyor's secretary, they may well be able to help you with this.