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Buyers skipping building survey to save costs
Beachview_2
Posts: 498 Forumite
Saw this on the BBC news site today:
'More families are shunning full building surveys so they can raise enough cash to buy a home.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warns that they risk huge repair costs after finding nasty surprises later.
One in five of those who did not bother with a survey later uncovered faults, according to research involving more than 1,000 buyers conducted by ComRes for Rics.
Remedial work cost £5,750 on average.
Rics said 17% of new owners ended up paying more than £12,000 to make their homes habitable.
Kelly Case, from Romford in Essex, told BBC News how she had been left with tens of thousands of pounds of work after not having a survey done.
"We've spent around £35,000 already," she says, "And it's ongoing."
Her mock Tudor house looked sound and seemed to be a bargain. But the dream dwelling has turned into a nightmare.
"It's estimated that we'll have to spend another £50,000 to £60,000 to get to a position where we're happy and it's structurally safe to live in," she explains.
"I don't know where we are going to find the money to do that."
The central heating pipes were leaking at the joints and had to be replaced. The electrics were dangerous and the downstairs floors had wet rot.
On the upper floor there was damp and a set of stairs which contravened building regulations.
Drive-by valuations
A full building survey costs as much as £1,000. Even the briefer homebuyer report, at up to £400, should pick up serious problems.
But like many buyers, Kelly Case relied on only her mortgage provider's valuation. Estate agents say it is a growing problem, the result of family budgets coming under pressure.
Valuations do not include a full inspection. In fact, some are done from a desk miles away or after a drive past the property.
A third of the sample of buyers questioned by ComRes had failed to commission a survey. Of those, nearly 20% found faults in their new property.
Some are suspicious of surveyors, believing that they can hide behind get-out clauses and disclaimers if they fail to detect problems.
Others feel forced to scrimp on the cost of a survey because of the pressure to save for a deposit and cover other moving costs.
"They may not want to spend £1,000 on the survey but they're prepared to spend £200,000 or £300,000 on the property," complains Graham Ellis of Greenhouse Surveyors in Lancashire.
"That £1,000 could tell you an awful lot about the house and it could give you the opportunity to renegotiate the purchase price."
The government is resorting to extreme measures to try to revive the housing market.
The Bank of England is channelling cheap money to banks to get mortgage interest rates reduced and the chancellor has promised special guarantees to bring homes within the financial reach of more buyers.
But the last thing families need if they are financially stretched is a barrage of bills for unforeseen repairs.
Rics says neglecting to commission a survey creates a "home-buying time bomb".
The new owners could be stuck with a property which they cannot afford to put right and which no one else wants to buy.'
So what's anyone's thoughts on this? Are any of you not bothering with a survey?
'More families are shunning full building surveys so they can raise enough cash to buy a home.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warns that they risk huge repair costs after finding nasty surprises later.
One in five of those who did not bother with a survey later uncovered faults, according to research involving more than 1,000 buyers conducted by ComRes for Rics.
Remedial work cost £5,750 on average.
Rics said 17% of new owners ended up paying more than £12,000 to make their homes habitable.
Kelly Case, from Romford in Essex, told BBC News how she had been left with tens of thousands of pounds of work after not having a survey done.
"We've spent around £35,000 already," she says, "And it's ongoing."
Her mock Tudor house looked sound and seemed to be a bargain. But the dream dwelling has turned into a nightmare.
"It's estimated that we'll have to spend another £50,000 to £60,000 to get to a position where we're happy and it's structurally safe to live in," she explains.
"I don't know where we are going to find the money to do that."
The central heating pipes were leaking at the joints and had to be replaced. The electrics were dangerous and the downstairs floors had wet rot.
On the upper floor there was damp and a set of stairs which contravened building regulations.
Drive-by valuations
A full building survey costs as much as £1,000. Even the briefer homebuyer report, at up to £400, should pick up serious problems.
But like many buyers, Kelly Case relied on only her mortgage provider's valuation. Estate agents say it is a growing problem, the result of family budgets coming under pressure.
Valuations do not include a full inspection. In fact, some are done from a desk miles away or after a drive past the property.
A third of the sample of buyers questioned by ComRes had failed to commission a survey. Of those, nearly 20% found faults in their new property.
Some are suspicious of surveyors, believing that they can hide behind get-out clauses and disclaimers if they fail to detect problems.
Others feel forced to scrimp on the cost of a survey because of the pressure to save for a deposit and cover other moving costs.
"They may not want to spend £1,000 on the survey but they're prepared to spend £200,000 or £300,000 on the property," complains Graham Ellis of Greenhouse Surveyors in Lancashire.
"That £1,000 could tell you an awful lot about the house and it could give you the opportunity to renegotiate the purchase price."
The government is resorting to extreme measures to try to revive the housing market.
The Bank of England is channelling cheap money to banks to get mortgage interest rates reduced and the chancellor has promised special guarantees to bring homes within the financial reach of more buyers.
But the last thing families need if they are financially stretched is a barrage of bills for unforeseen repairs.
Rics says neglecting to commission a survey creates a "home-buying time bomb".
The new owners could be stuck with a property which they cannot afford to put right and which no one else wants to buy.'
So what's anyone's thoughts on this? Are any of you not bothering with a survey?
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Comments
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We are having a homebuyers report as the house we are buying was only built in the 1960s it is the one the surveyor recommended. We just factored the survey into the costs of buying and we are FTBs, you have to research things and places like MSE have been a great help.0
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A "Full structural survey" dosent necessarily cover you for everything, have you ever seen one, full of "Getouts"0
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As above , a full structural survey sounds nice , but what will it actually tell you that a homebuyers doesn`t as i have also been told it will just be full of if , buts and maybes ?
as for the article itself , its a bit misleading , it refers to a certain individual spending 35k on repairs ,but the title intimates that to even afford the house people are shunning the survey, surely that particular case , isnt relevant!Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.0 -
I had a homebuyer survey done on my 1990s built house, and I shouldn't have bothered. The surveyor flagged up gas and electrics because he hadn't tested them. Same for water and sewerage. The report is full of standard paragraphs and get-out clauses. The major thing that is wrong with this place he did not point out: paper walls (no, really, two layers of plasterboard with not even a cavity in between), shoddy party wall construction to the neighbours' house which means noise travels very easily.
The only good thing about having had the survey done is that I met the surveyor at the property at the time, and he gave me his general opinion that the house is a good buy. He also confirmed on the spot that he valued the house for mortgage purposes at purchase price (which was stamp duty threshold).0 -
Of course, the RICS are going to be perfectly impartial about all this, aren't they?
Or, am I being cynical in thinking that they've got an ulterior motive in saying that people should always get a survey done on a house they want to buy even if it costs a lot of money?0 -
RICS press release here:-
http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/news-insight/press-releases/the-home-buying-time-bomb/
It says;
73% of people who did commission a survey said it provided them with peace of mind and over 50% felt it was value for money.
So 37% of people who "did commission a survey" thought it wasn't up to scratch, and almost half of them thought it was too expensive? Doesn't the RICS realise it has a problem? Maybe that's why some people don't bother with surveys.0 -
It's a bit like insurance isn't it, if you pay the premium and don't need to claim it seems like a waste of money but if you don't have it and need to claim......Most surveys probably don't find anything major wrong but I have seen quite a few (according to the above, one in five) where a significant fault was found.
It's understandable if you have a survey which says test the electrics they may be out of date, test for damp it may be present, check the wall ties they can fail in a house of this age etc etc you might be a bit cynical and think that the survey was a waste of money. However if your surveyor finds something that was not easy to spot and is a major concern then you haven't wasted the money.
It all comes down to the fact that people are struggling and any way to save money will obviously be popular, hopefully in the majority of cased there won't be a bad outcome.0 -
Our survey was really good and detailed, and worth the money we paid for it. It went into a lot of detail and it exceeded our expectations.
But we know of a few people who paid quite a bit for their survey and it was a waste of money - vague, not very detailed, etc.
And I think that's part of the problem. Whilst RICS homebuyer's reports are meant to be standard and regulated, some surveyors seem to go the extra mile whilst others almost treat them with contempt and do the bare minimum.
At approx £400, I feel our survey was worth the money. But some of the homebuyer's surveys that have been done wouldn't even be worth £50..
That's interesting... you'd expect them to massage the figures to make things look good. That's a high number of 'uhappy' people.RICS press release here:-
http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/news-insight/press-releases/the-home-buying-time-bomb/
It says;
73% of people who did commission a survey said it provided them with peace of mind and over 50% felt it was value for money.
So 37% of people who "did commission a survey" thought it wasn't up to scratch, and almost half of them thought it was too expensive? Doesn't the RICS realise it has a problem? Maybe that's why some people don't bother with surveys.0 -
I personally would always get a survey, I do not think it's a risk worth taking. I do need to look into the difference between home buyers & full structural as we are looking to buy now, but I would have thought I would go the full strutural as I need that peace of mind.
But I do agree that they are full of get out clauses, they should be made to do a more thorough survey and actually do the work they are paid highly for.0 -
RICS press release here:-
http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/news-insight/press-releases/the-home-buying-time-bomb/
It says;
73% of people who did commission a survey said it provided them with peace of mind and over 50% felt it was value for money.
So 37% of people who "did commission a survey" thought it wasn't up to scratch, and almost half of them thought it was too expensive? Doesn't the RICS realise it has a problem? Maybe that's why some people don't bother with surveys.
27% perhaps?
Peace of mind or not doesn't equate to up to scratch or not.
And yes, you know what, paying someone best part of £1000 is a lot of money but ours did point out things we hadn't seen. Shame he didn't understand septic tanks AT ALL but hey, they can't be experts in everything0
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