Scary surveys..where do we draw the line?

EvaC

and how will we ever know what the right price is? lots of guesswork in this game!

AdrianC

EvaC wrote: »

and how will we ever know what the right price is? lots of guesswork in this game!

The right price is the one at which the seller is happy to sell, and a buyer is happy to buy.

It's that simple.

(BTW, ignore Crashy. He thinks the right price for Buckingham Palace is a half-chewed Werther's Original with some pocket lint stuck to it. Even then, he probably wouldn't be happy.)

LHW99

Interesting to know how the surveyor could separate "rising damp" from a "leaking shower"

Being in our 5th house now, I have found:
Surveyors don't always pick up on what actually makes a difference to you (thoroughly rotten window frames, poor exterior pointing on walls) May pick up what is actually less important (the property has a flat roof which is understood to be x years old and should be replaced despite not leaking).
But generally notice the really catastrophic - house about to crack in half, lose the chimnet etc.

Unfortunately new is not a guarantee of no (expensive) problems, but old almost always has the fun of trying to discover exactly what the last six occupants combined to do with ... the mains stopcock (covered over with a kitchen cupboard), the mains water inlet pipe (concreted into the bedroom door post)...........

michael1234

Unless you're using a survey solely to justify further reductions from your offer (risky), I've always taken the view that its not necessary so long as buildings insurance can be obtained at normal rates. Colleagues and friends have shown me their homebuyers surveys which seem to restate the known, itemize the obvious (light switches, power points etc) and state that most of the things you'd like to know about haven't been inspected. They tend to come with lots of other boiler plate crap and bound in a nice folder to make you feel better about paying for it.

[Deleted User]

I'm no expert and can't help with the possibility of a damp problem but look carefully at the walls in the bathroom, is there peeling paint, mould, has it been very recently decorated.

I moved into a private rental with a bathroom in a very 'done by the neighbour, cheap' extension. The concrete floor was more like gravel than a solid mass. Cleared it up and we just put some self levelling compound on it which was fine four and a half years later. I'm not saying a professional would have done what we did, but the bathroom floor was perfectly ok.

We did find a leaking shower water pipe in the wall when retiling though - but there were obvious signs that something like that was happening i.e. the mould etc)! I was just relieved we'd found the cause.

Oh and BTW I replaced the bath, bought lovely black and white tiles in a sale, reused an old vanity cabinet, replaced the piping, got the replastering done by a builder friend.., and had a very smart shower bathroom for less than £400. Did most of it myself. Read some books, especially use Youtube like a bible and you can do a lot of things for much much less than you'd think.

It seems to me that surveyors are just covering !!! and as a side effect keep specialist surveyors in business. Find a builder who knows what he's doing (get recommendations from family and friends, beware of cowboys), and make him your best buddy.

lincroft1710

AdrianC wrote: »

(BTW, ignore Crashy. He thinks the right price for Buckingham Palace is a half-chewed Werther's Original with some pocket lint stuck to it. Even then, he probably wouldn't be happy.)

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Crashy_Time

AdrianC wrote: »

The right price is the one at which the seller is happy to sell, and a buyer is happy to buy.

It's that simple.

(BTW, ignore Crashy. He thinks the right price for Buckingham Palace is a half-chewed Werther's Original with some pocket lint stuck to it. Even then, he probably wouldn't be happy.)

Not sure how that differs much from "Anything will sell at the right price"?