How long should a homebuyers report take? Think we have been done!

ri17

So we paid for a homebuyers report. What they did not know was we live next door but 2 from the property we are buying.

We saw a suited man arrive and carry a trowel, spirit level and a small set of steps into the property at 9.40am.

I checked again at 10.25am and his car was gone!!

There was no way this man could have gained access to the roof/chimney as he didnt have ladders long enough and also there were none in his very flash car.

Not sure what to do with this info. Is that normal for it to take 35mins to do this report? I swear they sold it as a 5 hour inspection...

LEJC

The guy who came to do our epc had what seemed like a very small set of step ladders.....but they were really clever and extended to give him a very good view of our loft space....couldnt believe how small they were but certainly a brilliant gadget...


Also I guess if the property is empty and he has no one interupting him its perfectly possible to carry out the checks in a concise manner within that time

ri17

The vendor was in. Its such a high house not a normal height. Maybe he had a magic bag!! Not sure how he checked the chinmey stack from the outside...

kingstreet

You weren't actually expecting a chartered surveyor to climb up to roof height on a homebuyer's report were you?

I'd expect them to check the roof from inside the roof void and roof covering visually from across the road using telescope/binoculars.

teneighty

35 minutes? surely just the mortgage valuation inspection.


If it was for the Homebuyers Report you should ask for your money back.

kingstreet

10 - 15 mins for a mortgage report and valuation.

60 - 90 minutes for a homebuyer's report.

3+ hours for a chartered building survey.

09:40 to 10:25 is 45 minutes, not 35. Still on short side though.

ri17

God no...and get his suit dirty :rotfl:

Yes on the short side it appears still then. Not sure where this 5 hours came from when he sold it me though!

Yes is was a homebuyers report we paid extra for.

May just leave it then and suck it up. Last thing we'd want is him having to go back round and delaying this sale longer than its already been!

Oh and it may have been shorter than 10.25am as thats just the time I checked if his car was there again so its anyones guess when he left after 9.40am

dannim12345

As previously said as home buyers will not cover viewing the roof at 'roof height' just from inside (if possible) and with binoculars from ground level.

When I signed the 'contract' for my home buyers reports it explained clearly what was & was not covere. That was with Colleys (for a Halifax mortgage).

kingstreet

FWIW the surveyors I've worked with all had overalls and step ladders in their cars for when they were in lofts and cellars.

phoebe1989seb

The surveyors that carried out the Homebyuer's Report for the buyers of both our current property (last week) and previous house (three years ago) were in each case there for between two and a half and three and a half hours.

Funnily enough, the first house was smaller (1600 sq ft) yet the Homebuyer's Report took longer, whilst the current house (at 2500 sq ft) was done in just over 2 1/2 hours.

The first guy brought his own ladder and spent ages - an hour or more - scanning the not inconsiderable roof from his vantage point on said ladder. Nonetheless, he incorrectly reported to our buyers that the chimney needed repointing.....when it had recently been done

The guy that came to our current house came sans ladder, and stated that he was there to report what he could see "on the day" but couldn't venture higher than 3m......which was done by means of our step ladder He, by contrast, spent roughly five minutes looking at our - recently fitted - roof.

Obviously it does depend hugely on the property size (when DS sold a 600 sq ft flat the Homebuyer's survey took less than an hour, for example) or if the person requesting the survey has asked for specific things to be looked at - which I know our current buyers did, as the surveyor explained it, whilst not going into *what* exactly.....

DaftyDuck

Five hours may well be the time to view the property, travel to and from, prepare the report, identify comparable properties for pricing, and type it up.

Oh, and lunch. There's always a long lunch.

Mind you, the surveyor who did this place fell in the pond (it was overgrown so badly even we didn't know there was one), and he'd forgotten snorkel & flippers.