Survey - which one?

absolute0

I'm interested in buying a house but I'm unsure which survey would be best. It's an 3 bed ex-council semi-detached house (not sure what the age is), which has titled roof and pebble dash render. It looks in good order and is being lived in.

I'd like to extend it sometime - but not for some years yet.

Is it worth going for a full buildings survey, and can anyone advise how much this would roughly cost?

Or would I be better off with a home buyers survey?

Thanks

go_cat

Minimum homebuyers if any issues are raised you can get a structural one

Fire_Fox

Rough age, sounds possibly seventies?
http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/more-services/professional-services/home-surveys/

G_M

Is only the roof titled?

Not much point buying the roof if you can't live in the house beneath..

:rotfl:

Miss_Havisham

is it built of "standard construction" ? Some older council houses (following WW2) have metal frames and some sort of panelled walls rather than wood and brick. You might not get a mortgage on this sort of house.

olly300

If the outside is pebbled dashed get a full structural survey regardless of the cost.

The reason being is that you cannot see the brickwork and therefore don't know whether it's of non-standard construction. Homebuyers reports don't go into this level of detail as the surveyor doesn't look for things such as less obvious structural problems, and also misses things out they cannot see with ease.

absolute0

Thanks for everyone's responses.
I've managed to get a few quotes, average is £350 for home buyers and £500 for buildings survey.

I think I would go for the full buildings survey.

The selling is holding out for high offer - which is unrealistic, so in this case I'm going to need to wait.