House of Horrors - inadequate Survey?

mazzer13

Got a mortgage with Coventry and it came with a £300 free survey. Survey came back and advised to get the roof checked as they could not gain access. This was done and repairs made and I bought the house. Exchnaged and when I started taking up carpets and looking closer after kitchen units had been removed, it is evident I have bought a duff house.
Full rewire needed
Damp course needed (full tanking in the kitchen as its so bad)
Woodworm
Floor dropped front and back of lounge/dining room with Rotten Joists

This what I have discovered so far but am I stuck with this as I didnt get a full structural survey? I assumed that the Coventry survey would have picked all of this up?

Gutted as it's costing a fortune!

BitterAndTwisted

You assumed too much. A £300 "free survey" wasn't free: it cost you £300 to have a valuation done for the lender by the sounds of it. What precisely were you paying this three hundred quid for? If you didn't know at the time and still don't, you may have paid that money for not terribly much.

Anyone who doesn't have a full structural survey done could be taking a terrible risk. As you very possibly may have proven. For another £700 you might have had the opportunity to walk away from this money-sucking black-hole of a wreck or to have negotiated the price down by a very substantial amount.

Yorkie1

Did you actually get a copy of the report from the surveyor? What does it call itself (home buyer's, valuation, etc)?

No surveyor would have taken up carpets or kitchen units so it's highly possible that these issues would not have been spotted by any survey you obtained.

spannerzone

Surely that survey was for the mortgage providers benefit rather than yours? ie to ensure they weren't lending you more than the house was worth and to make sure they can get most of their money back should it all go pear shaped.

Often these surveys can be nothing more than a drive by survey, or a Google earth survey I suspect in some cases!