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Does a building survey check the roof?
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Idiocy! There is no "standard" charge for repairing a gutter. Difficulty of access, material used for guttering (wood, cast iron), extent of damage, repair or replace, subsequent damage to fascia, penetration of damp into brick/render.....
Repairing and replacing are two different things.0 -
Does a homebuyers report (i.e the middle one) involve anything more than looking at the roof from the ground ? and maybe poking there head in the loft ?
Just wondering how anyone would be able to judge loose tiles etc
When we were selling our last house in 2011, our buyers had a Homebuyer's Report and their surveyor did get up on a ladder and spent best part of an hour looking at our roof with binoculars as well as taking photos.
Overall he was at our house - a bit of a weird one as it was a very old (Tudor) building that was dismantled in the 1930s, moved to a different part of the county and rebuilt with large Arts & Crafts style extension - for in excess of three hours. The footprint was quite large and the roof (terracotta 'rosemary' tiles) covered quite an area. Despite the amount of time the surveyor spent at the property, he made many a schoolboy error - including dating it as a 1930s-built house :eek:
Going back to the roof - we had cleared gutters, replaced a few slipped tiles and a very tall chimney stack had been repointed, but despite the effort he went to study it, the surveyor's report failed to notice an area of erosion of the tiles and stated that the chimney needed repointing
Our attic was quite large - apart from one area above a large vaulted-ceilinged reception - and empty except two large water tanks, but despite coming equipped with his own ladder, the surveyor refused our invitation to venture up there. He didn't even bother to poke his head up, but instead looked inside a couple of eaves cupboards......Mortgage-free for fourteen years!
Over £40,000 mis-sold PPI reclaimed0 -
Thats a good point, thanks hazyjo. And I'm glad to see I've sparked a bit of a debate on here....! But I think I will go with the full structural survey. Now, does anyone have any tips on how to pick a surveyor, other than based on recommendations and being RCIS registered? I am receiving a vast variety of quotes, ranging from £250 to £600 for the full survey. Any tips?0
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does that include the valuation?Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.0
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Who asked the most questions about the house and what you wanted out of the survey BEFORE quoting?
(If they asked nothing, how are they figuring out how much work is involved?)
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Mostly it is a visual inspection including the roof.0
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To be honest, this is just email quotes at this stage. Was going to contact a few individually but received so many quotes, I didn't know where to start!
Not sure about the valuation, but need to check if my lender will even accept their valuation, anyway. The lender as quoted me £300 for the valuation which seems steep but guess it is a fee-free mortgage so they have to get their money somehow!0 -
This is of interest to me too, because I'm buying a loft conversion flat. Am worried about the flat dormer roof - I've heard that these rarely stand the test of time, and usually start leaking about 10 years in. This conversion was done 9 years ago. I'm only getting a Homebuyer's Report and not a full structural, as I'm buying a flat and not a house...0
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jadecarter wrote: »Mostly it is a visual inspection including the roof.
Yes our survey was as basic as that.
And even so he missed plainly obvious (to a roofer) problems that cost us thousands the winter after we moved in (insufficient lead, insufficient overlap of tiles - basically the last but one owner had DIY'd the roof with his mates, as we later found out from our neighbour :mad: we're still paying for repairs 8 years later).0 -
Thats a good point, thanks hazyjo. And I'm glad to see I've sparked a bit of a debate on here....! But I think I will go with the full structural survey. Now, does anyone have any tips on how to pick a surveyor, other than based on recommendations and being RCIS registered? I am receiving a vast variety of quotes, ranging from £250 to £600 for the full survey. Any tips?
Yes, don't go with esurv - IMHO they're rubbish
Mortgage-free for fourteen years!
Over £40,000 mis-sold PPI reclaimed0
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