Structural survey - when?

Tallulah-32

Hi

Any advice would be much appreciated please. At what point when buying a house can you get a structural survey carried out?

The house I'm thinking about purchasing does not have a completion certificate from building control as the builder went into liquidation before last house on the development (the house I'm thinking of purchasing) was finished. The house is just a shell. I'd obviously want to know that the house was 'structurally sound' before purchasing.

A couple of questions please:

A couple of people have told me that you can't carry out a structural survey on a property until it is 'sale agreed'. Is this correct?

Does this mean that contracts have to have been exchanged (and you're then legally obliged to purchase the property or forfeit your deposit) before you can find out if the property is structurally sound? The solicitor I was looking to instruct said this was the case but I thought although it is 'buyer beware' and the seller offers no warranties you could at least carry out a home buyer survey or structural survey before exchanging contracts.

If we were permitted to carry out a structural survey (prior to purchase) could the structural survey also be used to satisfy building control that the foundations had been correctly constructed or would building control need to be there when the survey is being carried out?

Last question (Sorry) can a structural surveyor carry out a survey on pile foundations? I know it would be messy and difficult but is it still possible?

Any guidance would be much appreciated please.

Many thanks

kingstreet

I'm not going to answer your question now. I'm going to ask you one in return.

What guarantee are you getting with this property? NHBC? Architects?

You need to investigate this now, as mortgage lenders can be very fussy when it comes to the certification of newbuilds and a builder going out of business often means the property is uncertified and therefore difficult to mortgage.

In answer to the question asked, you can have a survey done whenever you want, as long as the vendor agrees. Some of the construction issues you mention would better be inspected by a structural engineer.

http://www.findanengineer.com/

Tallulah-32

Hi Kingstreet

Thanks for your response it's much appreciated.

The house comes with a 10 year structural defect policy from Global Warranties Ltd. This has enabled us to get finance. However as the house is only a shell we still want to pursue getting a completion certificate as it'll be easier to do it now and rectify any problems. We'll need certificates for electrics etc so we'd like to try to get the foundations and structure signed off too.

Although the house comes with insurance we still want to protect ourselves from problems in the future if we try to sell.

Many thanks

Fire_Fox

Ask Building Control at the local council what they will accept. Ask your chosen surveyor what they can offer - you might want a structural engineers report rather than/ as well as a full structural survey. What happens if Global Warranties goes into liquidation?