Who decided NOT to get a survey on a purchase?

ijrwe

Yorkie1 wrote: »

The lender will not see a copy of the more detailed report done for you.

Anything significant will be passed on to your lender under the valuation 'survey' so you're not going to keep the major stuff from them in any event.

Anything major would put me off as much as the lender, anyway.

From all of your posts on this thread, you clearly don't want to get yourself a survey anyway.

I'm fishing for reasons for get one, basically trying to be persuaded that it's a good idea - but so far yes the opinion I had at the start of the thread is largely unchanged. It seems to be essentially a coincidence that some people who get a survey then manage to avoid a disaster. As many people probably get a survey and do not avoid it, or don't get a survey and do, or don't and don't.

I was going to get one until very recently when I realised nearly everyone promoting them stood to profit from it, and only a minority of people actually get one.

andy.m_2

if you take your builder mate to the house, and he suggest that there are issues, then you may be wise to then get a survey done to renegotiate the price down.
No vendor in their right mind will discount you because your mate said something was wrong.

I always get a full structural survey, but then my MO is 1920's property and lots of them have hidden issues that can cost dear. I also have a surveying practice that I always use and they tend to sort me out with a RICS backed report for £500.

9ja4life

We did not get a survey done when we bought early this year. However, they had extended the house and had no building regs certificate which we insisted on them getting or we'll pull out. So it was checked, certificate issued and we felt there was then no need for a survey. The house is 13 years old though

The_Earl_of_Streatham

ijrwe wrote: »

<snip>I was going to get one until very recently when I realised nearly everyone promoting them stood to profit from it, and only a minority of people actually get one.

If they didn't promote, they wouldn't profit. If they didn't profit, nobody would bother to train to be a surveyor and you wouldn't be able to get one if you wanted. People will promote the thing they do for a living, this doesn't have any effect on the risks associated with using or not using their services.

Your assumptions about other people's motivations should not enter into your calculation, you must make the decision based on your perception of the risks and rewards not on what can only ever be guesses about what's going through someone else's mind.

I have no dog in this fight, I am unconnected with any aspect of the property business.

ijrwe

The_Earl_of_Streatham wrote: »

If they didn't promote, they wouldn't profit. If they didn't profit, nobody would bother to train to be a surveyor and you wouldn't be able to get one if you wanted. People will promote the thing they do for a living

I've noticed, yes.

Your assumptions about other people's motivations should not enter into your calculation, you must make the decision based on your perception of the risks and rewards not on what can only ever be guesses about what's going through someone else's mind.

But what I feel about it has to originate from outside of myself, from other people's behaviours and opinions. There was a point in my life when I had never even heard of a survey and would have had no understanding of what one was, and even a time when the concept of things being wrong with houses was something I had never considered. All my opinions (and anyone else's) on the matter are based on what I've "learned" and picked up from exposure to other people's influences. We can't help it, that's just how these things work.

ijrwe

andy.m wrote: »

if you take your builder mate to the house, and he suggest that there are issues, then you may be wise to then get a survey done to renegotiate the price down.
No vendor in their right mind will discount you because your mate said something was wrong.

Yea, if I noticed anything that I thougt was a big problem I'd pay a surveyor to notice it as well, definitely. I think in the first instance I'll have to close inspection of the property myself and see what I can see.

Ivana_Tinkle

If we ever move again, I wouldn't pay for a survey (although I might get specialist reports if a particular aspect worried me). But then we've got a fair amount of experience of doing up houses and enough equity that we can afford to gamble a little. This wouldn't be the case for most FTBs.

I've never had a survey find anything significant that I hadn't already noticed, but I have had them miss fairly significant things (bits of damp, a massive infestation of Japanese knotweed) and say that things were wrong that weren't (eg that all the wooden window frames in one house were badly rotted and should be replaced with uPVC, which was completely untrue - the "rot" was just flaking paint).