Basic survey didn't spot roof problems - help please!

EllieWelly

My fiance and I purchased our first home in October. We only had The mortgage valuation report completed via nationwide. Turned out to be tons of problems with roof and it needed completely re roofing. Not only that but the main chimney was completely structurally unsound and had to be stabilised wth a steel beam. This all cost us £7000 which was not appreciated as we need to do up the house and we put so much money into purchasing it (plus we want to get married soon!) We really aren't sure where we stand with our rights in claiming anything back as we only had the mortgage valuation report done. In the mortgage valuation report all it says about the roof is that it is pitched and tiled. Can anyone shine some light on this please? Many thanks.

AnotherJoe

You got what you paid for, a basic survey that was useless telling you what you knew, it had a pitched and tiled roof.

A full survey that might have discovered such problems would have been very expensive and that's not something you paid for, so why expect to get the benefits of it?

Lungboy

Caveat emptor, I'm afraid. You didn't carry out the necessary checks to make sure the roof was sound before purchase so I'm afraid you have no rights to claim anything back.

Robin9

An expensive lesson in "saving" a few £'s.

Next time have a full survey.

Ripped-Off

I'd have to agree with the previous posters, never buy a property more than 10 years old without having a proper survey done beforehand. That is either a full structural survey or the lesser homebuyers report.

Does your home insurance cover you for the structural repairs?

Can you prove that the previous owners knew about these defects but failed to disclose them to you, and that you asked the relevant questions?

dunstonh

we only had the mortgage valuation report done.

Three options were available to you. Basic mortgage valuation. Home buyers report and full structural survey.

You went with the free one that does no checks on the property other than to look at its value.

We really aren't sure where we stand with our rights

As you didnt select a homebuyers report or structural survey you have no rights.

I'm afraid you took a gamble, probably to save money, and its ended up failing and costing you far more money. That is life.

EllieWelly

Thanks for the super fast responses. This is of course what I expected but was getting confused with everything that I was reading online so thank you for the clarification.

Laskan

From your guys experience...

Whats the difference in price between a Basic and Full survey?

kingstreet

Varies from lender to lender, property value to property value and surveyor to surveyor.

Potentially £0 to £10k I'd guess.

amnblog

Bad news for you Ellie but useful learning for other borrowers.

All borrowers should take 82 seconds to watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LER9SPvdmRs

antrobus

dunstonh wrote: »

Three options were available to you. Basic mortgage valuation. Home buyers report and full structural survey.....

Technically speaking, they had more than three options. The RICS offer three levels of survey, whilst the MAS refers to at least two other options.

http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/home-survey-suite/rics-home-surveys/
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/a-guide-to-homebuyer-surveys-and-costs

Not that it matters of course. The OP selected none of the above, and relied on a mortgage valuation report which tells the buyer nothing at all about the condition of the property. As you so rightly point out.