Surveyors: Home Buyers Report

hukd.deals

Hello,

Halifax wants £695 for a HomeBuyer Survey done on the property I am looking to buy. I am First Time buyer and have been advised to get it done by some other registered surveyors. Problem is all the surveyors I called to get a quote are not available for at least few weeks.

My question is the property agent also have Surveyors. Is it a good idea to get it done by them? Can I expect a good proper report from them? Or not possibly due to a conflict of interest?

Another thing is same agent is dealing with the whole chain i.e. the property I am buying and the property sellers of my new house.

I know many advice against spending money on such report but I don't mind spending £300-£400 for my piece of mind.

Thanks

G_M

I would avoid the estate agency's surveyors.

The EA is employed by the seller, not you, so get someone independant who will work entirely in your best interests.

You want a surveyor who will honestly point out any problems with the property, not one with a vested interest, however remote, in smoothing the sale.

Have you checked the RICS?

tigsly

is this your mortgage company? They will only listen to their own surveyors - so either you - want their mortage and 'suck it up' or change for a diffferent lendor.

silvercar

Unless you are buying a relatively new property, I would get a surveyor to do a proper structural survey and the mortgage lender to do a valuation.

If it is a new property you may feel happy with a housebuyer's report and valuation from your lender's surveyor.

hukd.deals

silvercar wrote: »

Unless you are buying a relatively new property, I would get a surveyor to do a proper structural survey and the mortgage lender to do a valuation.

If it is a new property you may feel happy with a housebuyer's report and valuation from your lender's surveyor.

This one is a late 90's property. Are you suggesting a full structural survey for this? I was told fill surveys are recommended for 40-50 or more years old properties.

dominoman

If it is a late 90s property then very unlikely to have any serious issues.

I would pay for the basic valuation only and leave it at that.

If you want a more thorough inspection then get a decent RICS surveyor to do a separate structural survey. But that will cost £600-£1000.

Cheaper option is get a friendly builder (if you know one) to have a look around. For such a new property it is unlikely to have problems.

AndyGuil

The mortgage provider will send their own choice of surveyor to carry out a valuation and you will have to pay for this. As they are doing the valuation it can be worth having them do a homebuyers report too. You can ask the mortgage provider to arrange this and they will charge you a bit extra. It is convenient as it gets it all out of the way in one go.

benjus

When I bought my first place I had a homebuyer's report done at the same time as the valuation survey. tbh I found it pretty useless. It seemed to contain much the same content as the valuation survey, just written in a much more verbose way and with more caveats to cover the surveyor's back.

Based on this, I'd suggest either a full structural survey or just the valuation survey, depending on the nature of the property.

hukd.deals

AndyGuil wrote: »

The mortgage provider will send their own choice of surveyor to carry out a valuation and you will have to pay for this. As they are doing the valuation it can be worth having them do a homebuyers report too. You can ask the mortgage provider to arrange this and they will charge you a bit extra. It is convenient as it gets it all out of the way in one go.

Halifax wants £430 for basic and £665 for a home buyer report. But I've been advised not to get it done by the mortgage lender as though it is convenient it is usually not good enough. And you don't get an opportunity to discuss the findings with them. You get a report back and thats it.

CWSmith

hukd.deals wrote: »

Halifax wants £430 for basic and £665 for a home buyer report. But I've been advised not to get it done by the mortgage lender as though it is convenient it is usually not good enough. And you don't get an opportunity to discuss the findings with them. You get a report back and thats it.

Not entirely true - I guess it's down to who does the surveying. We've just had a Homebuyers Survey - the surveyor phoned us beforehand to tell us what he would be looking at and to ask us if there was anything specific we wanted checking.

When we received the report - 19 pages long complete with photographs, surveyor phoned again to go through the details with us; assure us that there was nothing dreadfully amiss with the property and so we could ask any questions.

It cost £475.

TrixA

hukd.deals wrote: »

Halifax wants £430 for basic and £665 for a home buyer report. But I've been advised not to get it done by the mortgage lender as though it is convenient it is usually not good enough. And you don't get an opportunity to discuss the findings with them. You get a report back and thats it.

Normally the bank will require you to get the basic valuation done by them. If you want the homebuyers or full structural survey you have the option to commission that yourself but it will be additional to the bank's valuation and you'll have to pay for both.