home buyers or full survey?

idontknowdoyou

Hello,
just a short one. We are looking to purchase a semi built in the early 1960's, with a suspended floor. Is a home buyers survey enough? what does it include? Or do we need a full survey. We currently live in a new build so excuse our ignorance!!!!
Thanks

Curly_Girly_2

A homebuyers survey should be sufficient for the style and age of property you are buying. It will cover the structure of the building, but fairly superficially i.e. the roof will be viewed from ground level, no-one will go up on the roof to closely inspect the tiles/chimney. It will make recommendations as to further investigations e.g. damp readings high, get a damp company in to quote on any necessary work etc.

I think they come in a standard format - ours certainly did - and 'action' points were all clearly listed as urgent (i.e. do now or the house will fall down) and non-urgent (there's a sqeaky floorboard). Ours cost around £350.

stuart30

Go for a full survey...if you don't you could really regret it if not,when i bought my first house we were talked out of having a full survey by the estate agent (yes i know very silly to listen to him) and just had a home buyers (which turned out to be a single piece of paper with very little on it).

So far ive spent £14000 and were still not finished doing the place up...the electrics were not safe to be used and the plumbing was a complete diy bodge job,none of which we were told about (previous owner liked DIY but didn't have a clue) so personally id go full survey just for piece of mind.

marybishop

stuart - there's no way you should have only got a single sheet for a HB survey - it's a standard format from the RICS with headings for each aspect of the property. You should have complained about the lack of detail! Was this recently?

scope

marybishop wrote: »

stuart - there's no way you should have only got a single sheet for a HB survey - it's a standard format from the RICS with headings for each aspect of the property. You should have complained about the lack of detail! Was this recently?

I was going to say.. I went through the home buyer survey we had done here the other days and I would say its atleast 10 pages, talking about every aspect of the house, and the area we live in..

The mortgage valuation is 1 page with very little information, but the HB survey is much more detailed.

shell2001

I wonder whether Stuart just had the basic mortgage valuation survey done. I know our homebuyers report was about 10 pages long with a summary sheet of all recommended work. but again its the word recommended not required.

Our last house when we bought it was recommended to have the fascias and guttering replaced. We remortgaged when we were there it was mentioned again. We never got round to it and just decided that if it came up on our buyers survey as an issue we would renegotiate the price to reflect it. Was not an issue.

I think surveyors have a list of general comments they can make (especially to bulk out the homebuyers report), such as if not DG then comment of windows, if not upvc fascias and gutters comment on that etc. Got to justify the fees somehow I guess.

[Deleted User]

I was told that a structural survey is recommended when the property is over 100 years old or if it's an usual building. Having said this and having bought 3 properties, I'd always go for a structural if I could afford it because Homebuyers come in a standard format and WILL recommend that you investigate further with regards to damp, timber, electrics, roof, ventilation etc. to cover their back and you may end up spending more money having to do so...

olly300

Van1971 I think you meant "unusual building"

However I agree with you. You should have the most detailed form of survey you can afford.

idontknowdoyou

Thanks for the replies everyone,
I really appreciate everyones advice and experiences, think we will go for full survey as not having much luck with whole selling and buying process so dont want to tempt fate!
Thanks again