Survey unnecessary? Whats its purpose?

ladyabouttown

From what I've read online a building survey is for old, non-traditional, conversion, dilapidated etc.

A homebuyers points out defects and what repairs that are needed.

A condition report is barely looking round and pointing out obvious cracks which probably don't really matter.

I saw no damp, no cracks, no exposed wiring, no plumbing problems. The property has been a family home for 10 years and been well looked after. Less than 40 years old and clearly not going to fall down.

If the purpose of a survey is to find problems to get the seller to drop their price then I don't think I'll bother. Even if a £10k-£15k problem was identified I would still buy.

benjus

The main purpose of a survey is to know what you're getting into so that if there are any issues that need to be addressed, you're aware of them.

If you're a cash buyer then what you do with your cash is up to you... if you think that your viewing was enough to appraise the condition of the property, that's fine.

If you're buying with a mortgage, obviously the mortgage lender isn't going to take your word for it and will always commission a valuation survey.

dominoman

My Aunt bought her current house for 1.5M in cash three years ago and didn't get a survey done at all. I was surprised but her view was if there was something wrong she'd fix it.

I'd always get a building survey personally. It lets you know what you're getting into, and it can easily pay for itself if you can use it to knock a couple of grand off the price.

cloo

It's always advisable to get a survey IMO - you should do a homebuyer's report even in a place that looks fine to all appearances, and if there are problems there will be suggestions as to how to deal with them.

theEnd

I only got the valuation survey on the advice of parents, plus a few others (all builders).

The general consensus was that the surveyors really don't do much. Have a poke around and send out a standard letter which told you very little and made it impossible to ever blame them.

In hindsight, for the money, I'd rather have got one. Most stuff was obvious, but would have been good to have a full list of stuff that needed doing.

[Deleted User]

This thread reminds me of the episode of Property Ladder in which a pair of feminists bought a house to renovate without getting a survey: "How difficult can it be, even men can do it".

It turned out that the roof was collapsing and taking the walls with it, because some bright spark had cut all the rafter ties out.

ConfusedofYorkshire

It's not all about getting money off. It's so you know about potential problems that may rear their ugly head soon. I have a last of things that needed doing straight away, some that need to be done over time. If I had previously been a home owner and knew a lot about houses, their upkeep etc etc then maybe I wohlsnt have bothered. Personally I like knowing what Im getting in to!

patricia..xx

I found it telling that our buyer's dad was a surveyor and they just got a basic valuation. Her dad came for a look, but didn't even look in the loft. Definitely didn't bring a damp meter, which was the reason we lost a previous sale, just ran his hand over the wall (it wasn't damp but the other surveyor's little machine beeped and the buyers got scared)

Although as mentioned above, we used our survey as a checklist of little jobs to do on the house that we otherwise would have left till something went wrong.

G_M

Do you drive?

Think of buying a 2nd hand car from the classified ads.

Obviously you'd go and look at it before buying.
Almost certainly you'd take it for a test drive.
You'd check the paperwork (MOT and Registration document).
If you have an understanding of cars and mechanics, you'd lift the bonnet and poke around, listen to the engine noise, examine underneath for rust/loose exhaust etc.
If you don't have an understanding of cars, you might take our dad/sister/friend who does and (s)he'd poke around for faults.
Or you might pay the AA/RAC to do a vehicle inspection.

House buying is really just the same except the stakes are higher.

Better_Days

When you look at the cost of a survey in relation the the amount spent on a property then it seems to me to be unwise to not get a professional opinion when you are spending probably well over £100,000.

If you find a good local surveyor who knows the area and has a reputation to maintain then you are more likely to get your money's worth.

Last year we had an offer accepted on a bungalow that turned out to be non standard construction. We pulled out and the property went back on the market for £100k less. With our current property a long chat with the surveyor gave me the confidence to reduce our offer as he felt that we hadn't given sufficient consideration to the location.

Those two surveys cost £800 but saved us many many thousands.

ladyabouttown

Getting quotes ranging from £450-£1100 for homebuyers...