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Red And Amber Survey Warnings

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  • Surrey_EA
    Surrey_EA Posts: 2,047 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    I don't think surveyors have done themselves any favours with this colour-coded 'warning' system, as many prospective buyers don't seem to understand the report.

    It is not intended to be a list of faults within the property for the vendor to rectify before they hand over the keys. It is meant to give a reasonable indication to a buyer of the present condition of the property, useful for confirming you are buying what you thought, and an idea of what works might be required in the future.

    It is inevitable that in a 75yr old house there are things that need attention. It is not necessarily reasonable to expect the owner to make repairs/upgrades before they sell to you. If you want to buy a property that requires no work go and go something brand new.

    Unfortunately, due to the litigious world we now live in, surveyors are forced to cover their backsides to protect themselves from being sued at a later date.
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 3 February 2017 at 6:33PM
    I agree the colour coding used in surveys is balmy.

    An item should only be 'red' (in my opinion) if
    a) it has been fully examined AND
    b) it requires urgent work/repair AND
    c) it is a significant item (in terms of cost/disruption to repair)

    Amber would then be where
    a) it has been fully examined and
    b) it may require work/repair some time in the future, or requires some minimal work now

    There should then be a totally seperate section (blue?) for items wich were not examined for whatever reason. Since these items might well be in tip-top condition, coding them as red is balmy.

    To answer an earlier Q ('What is the point....?'), I believe there are 2:

    1) to highlight issues that might make me want to withdraw or renegotiate price
    2) to give me a useful 'to do list' I can refer to once I own the property.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    G_M wrote: »
    I agree the colour coding used in surveys is balmy.

    An item should only be 'red' (in my opinion) if
    a) it has been fully examined AND
    b) it requires urgent work/repair AND
    c) it is a significant item (in terms of cost/disruption to repair)

    Amber would then be where
    a) it has been fully examined and
    b) it may require work/repair some time in the future, or requires some minimal work now

    There should then be a totally seperate section (blue?) for items wich were not examined for whatever reason. Since these items might well be in tip-top condition, coding them as red is balmy.

    Good points but never gonna happen, too logical.
    BTW G_M, Its "barmy" . balmy is the weather we aren't having at the moment :D

    To answer an earlier Q ('What is the point....?'), I believe there are 2:

    1) to highlight issues that might make me want to withdraw or renegotiate price
    2) to give me a useful 'to do list' I can refer to once I own the property.

    Except they bury it in so many caveats and spurious warnings its hard to discern what the real issues are.
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    AnotherJoe wrote: »
    BTW G_M, Its "barmy" . balmy is the weather we aren't having at the moment :D.
    Ah! You spotted that then? Just testing......
  • Thanks for all the advice! It certainly puts the survey into context. The surveyor has gone to ground since he submitted the report and is not replying to emails or phone calls so it was hard to get a sense of perspective.

    Maybe he thinks his job is done and he doesn't want to be giving any advice or clarification for free. The last three houses I've bought have all been new builds so I haven't come across this kind of detailed/confusing survey before.

    I wasn't sure what was reasonable to expect from the vendor, what was basically down to me and what was up for price negotiation.

    I'm going to re-visit the property to look more closely at the areas the survey has identified as 'red' and see if I can apply some common sense to them.

    PS. Ithaca, the damp and asbestos warnings seem to be based on 'Houses sometimes get damp. I am not a damp expert. I recommend further investigation by...' rather than anything specific.
  • ThePants999
    ThePants999 Posts: 1,748 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    tomatta wrote: »
    Genuine question - what's the point of a survey then? I'm in the middle of buying and I was planning to have a survey done, but if it's just a document covering themselves then is it really worth £500 or so??
    You're paying because sometimes there's a key piece of information nestled among the caveats. They're rarely keen to say that things are definitely OK, but they're happy to point out when something's definitely a problem.
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    tomatta wrote: »
    Genuine question - what's the point of a survey then? I'm in the middle of buying and I was planning to have a survey done, but if it's just a document covering themselves then is it really worth £500 or so??

    Easy to spend £500 on property maintenance. Similar to buying a used car through Autotrader. Buyer beware.
  • Mr.Generous
    Mr.Generous Posts: 3,967 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I think in general surveys are a waste of money. We have done refurbishments for BTL landlords who did have a survey (we don't) and have asked what did the survey say about the huge crack in the rear wall / the big drop in the floor upstairs / the lead gas pipes etc, every time they say it wasn't mentioned but things like a missing end cap on plastic guttering which cost next to nothing and are very easy to fix are highlighted. Of course they also get the huge list of specialist checks they should get done such as roof, wiring, plumbing, heating, and damp.
    Mr Generous - Landlord for more than 10 years. Generous? - Possibly but sarcastic more likely.
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