All potential buyers pay for a survey

agrinnall

rogertb wrote: »

Ahhhh Edinburgh ... the home of 'Bellhaven' bewery.

It's Belhaven - and it's in Dunbar, not Edinburgh (and is owned by Greene King, so not even Scottish any more). Perhaps you meant the Caledonian Brewery which is still operating in Edinburgh (but owned by Heineken).

G_M

Of course, with a property being sold at auction, each bidder has to have completed their research, including the condition of the property, before the auction date.

So yes, there may be 'a line of surveyors' surveying the property before the auction for different potential buyers.

Though many buyers choose not to do a survey for various reasons.

AlexMac

Good luck with the purchase Roger from Christchurch (lovely part of the world, by the way; and no danger of earthqaukes in Dorset- unlike the other one!)

Momentarily returning to topic; use the forum search bar above and you'll find masses of opinion about full structural surveys - v Homebuyers - no survey at all.

Lots of people argue that for the biggest purchase of your life, a full survey (costing a few hundred quid which is a small % of the toatl lay-out) is essential, especially as (caveats aside) you may have some professional indemnit protection against major unnoticed problems. But I've chosen not to bother on my past dozen or so purchases over 40 years. However, I have sometimes taken a trusted builder round with me.

Similarly, I've tended to judge that the Homebuyers reports I've seen are so superficial as to be a waste of cash. But again, opinion varies.

And if contemplating a leashold flat as opposed to a freehold property, remember that the surveyor probably won't even address biggies like roof, damp and structural integrity of the building as a whole, as any problems like these will be down to the freeholder to fix, albeit at cost shared by you and the other leaseholder-owners in the block.

It is worth asking how old the boiler is (£2k to fix) and if it's been maintained, and looking to see if the electrical Consumer Unit (aka fuse-board in the old days) is modern; but few are up to the latest regs.

But it only cost me a grand last month for a spanking new box and a full electrical inspection and a bit of tidying to bring a 1980's 4-bed house up to perfection. An older house can still have perfectly safe electrics, even though a survey will say they don't comply .

Anyway- look also at views here on the forum on the tactics of using the inevitable faults thrown up by surveys to screw - sorry - negotiate -a few quid off the agreed price after the offer - it can backfire!

Good luck

AnotherJoe

rogertb wrote: »

Thanks Dave ... but if someone has had a survey it's not available to anyone else ? ... pity really seems silly to have to go through the process again. Oh well the way of the world.

Its about liability.

Although these things are full of caveats anyway and thus IMO not much use, if there is any comeback, thats between the person who paid for the survey and the surveyor and not any random third party the survey has been passed on to. If it was that open ended the surveyor would charge even more for it and also add even more caveats.

bullinn1

Well agrinnall, thanks for putting me right, I'll correct the Edinburgh born 'steward' in my local legion ... anyway ... whoever owns it and wherever it's brewed the 80/s is excellent.

Excellent appraisal Alex, good of you to take the time. Yes Christchurch is splendid but we're moving to the Hastings/Rye area to be nearer the grandkids !

And that's a good point Joe.

What an excellent resource this place is !

Roger