Buyer accompanying surveyor?

MelodyBelle

I'm sure I've read somewhere, perhaps on this site, that it is a good idea to accompany the surveyor (while keeping out of his way) to see things for ourselves , ask any important questions while on site, and also check important things he doesn't check, like do the taps and loo flushes work.

Our surveyor is not at all keen on this, citing health and safety and wondering where we could have got that advice.

What do others think?

harshitguptaiitr

You are paying for the surveyor, you have full right to be at the property.
If the surveyor doesn't agree, change the company,

Rambosmum

asking them questions will get annoying for them, and they are unlikely to answer them.

I've been there whilst my surveyor has, but only to have a second look. Other than 'hello' and 'goodbye' I didn't speak to him.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

I've never heard of anyone following the surveyor round. I am not saying it has never happened but I have never heard of it.

ComicGeek

harshitguptaiitr wrote: »

You are paying for the surveyor, you have full right to be at the property.
If the surveyor doesn't agree, change the company,

You don't have any right, you don't own the property yet. The current owner would need to give permission for you to attend as well - I wouldn't give permission if it was me as I wouldn't want you and the surveyor to be there all day.

n217970

Health and Safety? To stand in a property you are buying and hopfully will be living in? !!!!!!.

Likely he doesn't want you there are you would see just how little he actually does for his money.

00ec25

there is no right, similarly there is no wrong to your question.

normal to accompany the surveyor: no

sensible: For you? yes undoubtedly. For the surveyor to have you there? totally not (likely to be very disruptive and make the day inefficient and expensive for them). For the vendor: irrelevant to them one way or the other.

checks by you: you should have done those already. In the presence of the surveyor is not the place to do those as it just makes the surveyor look as though you are doubting his competence (because you are!)

answer questions on site: surveyor may do so, you may see something to ask about. Both sides will be very disruptive of each other and likely to annoy each other with possible knock on to how well the surveyor actually does what he needs to do and how well he reports on it after.

davidmcn

It's not normal, and (professionally) I've never heard of it happening. If you want another viewing to do your own checks then ask for it.

LEJC

We have recently had a survey done on a property we are purchasing,and was asked if we would like to be there with the surveyor....we used a smallish company so I wonder if it is more to do with who surveys the property whether the option is offered.

We did decline and were happy to just receive the report.

Other properties we have purchased we have never been offered the option ....this was a first....but I can confirm it certainly happens.

societys_child

n217970 wrote: »

Health and Safety? To stand in a property you are buying and hopfully will be living in? !!!!!!.

Unless of course you start following the surveyor up his ladder into the loft etc.

MrsNubs

Our surveyor was on site for 7 hours, I would never have wanted to follow him around for that long. If you're after an informal summary before you receive the full report you can always ring him when he's done and have a chat about the property, but I would consider following him around to be both tedious for you and possibly disruptive for him. As for checks like taps/toilet flushes - our surveyor checked all of these things and detailed things like slow-draining sinks, dripping taps etc. However, we did have a full survey, not a homebuyer's. I wouldn't expect that level of detail in a homebuyer's report.