Doing own structural survey of property?

Surrey_EA

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I think that the OP would want the structural survey to satisfy themselves that the house wasn't about to fall down.

I would hope that it would become obvious pretty quickly to a structural engineer whether a house was about to fall down!

G_M

I also wonder where and how OP qualified as a structural engineer?

As an 18 year old on the cusp of going to university this September, he must be very mature and advanced for his age......

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3956031

Surrey_EA

G_M wrote: »

As an 18 year old on the cusp of going to university this September, he must be very mature and advanced for his age......

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3956031

In fairness that post is 5 years old.

eddddy

I think people might be getting a bit carried away with the process and the terminology.

In your position, I guess I'd just go for the lender's standard valuation, and say to the seller "Do you mind if I come and have an extended look around the property to check it out, as I'm a structural engineer?".

I've done almost exactly that. Except I took a friend who is a structural engineer. We spent 1.5 hours looking at stuff and discussing it.

Unless you want to do invasive stuff like dig holes to inspect foundations, lift floorboards to inspect joists, drill cores from walls etc, I doubt that the seller would object.

Surrey_EA

eddddy wrote: »

I think people might be getting a bit carried away with the process and the terminology.

I'm not sure that's really the case.

The question was " whether a mortgage lender will accept a structural survey performed by myself?"

And the answer is almost certainly no. Probably because a mortgage lender very rarely requires a structural survey.

Given the op's occupation it is probably a wise idea for them to follow your suggestion, but this is obviously separate to the requirements of a mortgage lender.

kingstreet

Hermiod wrote: »

I am a structural engineer and do home buyer structural surveys at least 3 times a week to satisfy mortgage lenders. I am curious as to whether a mortgage lender will accept a structural survey performed by myself and checked and signed off by employer, who is a large civil and structural consultancy. It is going to bother me if I have to spend £500 for a structural survey that I could happily do myself, free of charge

No. It won't.

Lenders contract with panels of chartered surveyors to avoid the possibility of fraud.

As has been stated, only a mortgage report & valuation will be required.

If the chartered surveyor requires a structural engineer's report following the inspection I'm sure it would be considered a conflict of interest for you to do it yourself.

As structural engineer's reports tend to be required for specific issues, they tend to come in at less than £500 in my experience, unless things like trial holes are required then there is the cost of the actual digging.

wantonnoodle

To be honest, I have an uncle who is a retired RICS surveyor. When we bought our house, I booked an extended viewing and brought him along. He did a full survey of the property, short of drilling walls etc. and gave me a full written report afterward. As he is retired, he has no indemnity, so the report was only for my benefit, and could not be used in negotiation. But it was useful information to have.

From that, all we paid for were the 2 specific followup surveys the lender wanted. The valuation was free with our mortgage. Total cost = £375 for the two.

So in summary, I would carry out full checks yourself for your own benefit, however, I would use a third party if any specific surveys are identified as necessary. That way you get the best of both worlds. In an ideal world though, you would only need the lender's valuation survey.

G_M

Surrey_EA wrote: »

In fairness that post is 5 years old.

Ah! Fair point. Missed that!