How to pick which survey

Zeebs90 · 28 April 2016 at 2:20PM

Hi everyone

Hoping to pick people's brains on this..

We have had a mortgage offer on a 1960s mid terrace which on the surface appears to have been kept in good order - we also know a new combi boiler was installed around 18 months ago so hopefully we shouldn't have any issues there.

For our peace of mind we still want to have a survey done, but we are torn between have a home buyers survey or a full building survey.. how did other people decide which one to go for? The quotes I have received are only about £200-300 difference, which in the grand scheme of buying a house isn't that much.. but as we are FTB and have a whole house to furnish we definitely can use that money somewhere else.

Thanks!

Browntoa · 28 April 2016 at 2:30PM

I'd go for the full survey , the cheaper one is basically a valuation with a brief look round . Full survey will look at damp , roof condition , window condition etc , mine spent over a hour in the property

It MAY throw up things that could allow you to bargain the price down , 1960s houses often have asbestos

lewishardwick · 28 April 2016 at 2:38PM

I had a Homebuyers report carried out on a 1960's GF Maisonette.

I found it was full of caveats and worst case scenarios. Subsequent survey revealed the issues were less serious than described.

I felt it was a waste and I should have upgraded to a full building survey.

A few hundred now, might save you a few thousand in the future...

Brightspark87 · 28 April 2016 at 3:54PM

Hi we are buying similar and mortgage adviser said home buyers should be enough any other recommended surveys then do. Also the guy we are using for the survey will do others at a discount (ie only ever pay max of full survey) if needed.

Ithaca · 29 April 2016 at 7:59AM

We had a Homebuyers' from a trusted local surveyor. He had done loads of similar houses so knew the main areas to look for in this type of property- we agreed that if during the course of the Homebuyers' survey he saw anything which he felt warranted further investigation we could pay to "upgrade" to a Full Structural" survey without having to pay for a whole second survey.