property survey , which one is more suitable ?

shelby_

here i am again gathering as much information as i can , to help me along the journey to buying my first home

home surveys !

what are you experiences ?

im buying a faily older property , im looking for a survey to reach the critrea to follow ....
to check for woodworm , dry rot and wet rot , BEYOND the floor boards and walls

to look into any structural repairs and damage

to look into electrical side of things too ...
i try not to read too much online but from my understanding , a home buyers report does not cover looking beyond floorboards and walls , however a full building survey will do

i would like some proper safety checks conducted to the wiring , plug sockets ect also !

may sound like i have my work cut out for me checking everything , however once this mortgage is completed i wont be left with alot of extra cash straight away , before saving hard again

i want peace of mind , that im not moving into a infested property of woodworm and that the property im buying isnt about to catch fire or electricute me .... thoughts ??

davidmcn

Are there particular concerns about the property i.e. does it already give the impression of needing a serious amount of work done to it? A full building survey ought to look under floors / in the loft etc, but bear in mind that getting access is something the difficult bit - if that involves lifting up floorcoverings / shifting furniture / making new holes then the vendor's cooperation will be needed.

Electrical checks need an electrician.

shelby_

the prooerty does not look in need of significant work doing , its clean and tidy , this is purely for my peace of mind to save any added expense down the line , there is no furniture currently in the property except white goods

AdrianC

shelby_ wrote: »

im buying a faily older property , im looking for a survey to reach the critrea to follow ....
to check for woodworm , dry rot and wet rot , BEYOND the floor boards and walls

Ain't going to happen. To give you a solid answer to that requires floorboards to be lifted and plaster to be removed. No vendor is going to allow that.


If you want anything more than a fairly cursory "I suspect there might be because my little electronic box goes buzz", then you're going to need a specialist damp/rot survey - and that's a world of salesmen pretending to be surveyors.

to look into any structural repairs and damage

Structural engineer. Again, non-intrusive only.

to look into electrical side of things too ...

Electrician. And, yes, you know it...

i try not to read too much online but from my understanding , a home buyers report does not cover looking beyond floorboards and walls , however a full building survey will do

Nope. No survey will look BEYOND floorboards and walls. Imagine in a few years when you come to sell... Would YOU allow a buyer's surveyor to start ripping plaster down and lifting carpet and floorboards?

i would like some proper safety checks conducted to the wiring , plug sockets ect also !

may sound like i have my work cut out for me checking everything , however once this mortgage is completed i wont be left with alot of extra cash straight away , before saving hard again

You won't have any money left by the time you've spent on all these surveys, especially once the salesmen-pretending-to-be-surveyors twig how scared you are.

i want peace of mind , that im not moving into a infested property of woodworm and that the property im buying isnt about to catch fire or electricute me .... thoughts ??

Basic valuation survey - the surveyor slows down as he drives by. He might even stop long enough to turn the ignition off, if he's feeling really diligent.
Homebuyer survey - the surveyor walks round the whole house once.

Structural survey - the surveyor pokes a lot of things and looks thoughtful as he drinks the cup of tea the vendor makes him.


All of them - a lot of backside-covering waffle about how this, that and the other haven't been checked because they're specialist.

Cakeguts

If you are a first time buyer and you are short of cash do not buy an older home. Buy a nearly new one. Something about 10 years old. Older homes have problems. Once you start to try to cure one you do not have any idea of what you are going to find.



You are not going to get a survey that will give you peace of mind on an older house. To do that they would have to take the plaster off the walls and lift the floorboards and remove the kitchen and bathroom. It just isn't going to happen.



If the house you are buying appears to be "good value for money" then you are already buying a house with lots of problems that is why it appears to be cheap. Something like this is not the house for a first time buyer who hadn't got much spare cash because a house like that will take all of the cash you have now and a lot more that you haven't got. It will work out cheaper in the long run to buy a nearly new house for a slightly higher price than to spend a lot of money on a black hole.

shelby_

thank for the feedback so far !
ironically i have heard from many sources that there are restritctions with lifiting floor boards , for what purpose to these surveys exsist for then ?
just trying to keep myself safe i guess

FreeBear

Lifting floorboards come with risks - Boards are often laid the full width of a room and are often tongue & groove (especially on the ground floor). Assuming no carpets (or other floor coverings) are down, and a suitable board can be found that has been lifted in the past, it may be nailed down. Getting a pry bar in will cause some damage with the chance that the nails will pull through the board...
Nailing the board down again, there is a risk of cracks forming in the plaster of the ceiling below - If it is a hamfisted merchant swinging the hammer, it is possible to put a nail through a pipe or cable.

Lifting a chipboard floor - Forget it. Not going to happen without damage...

Davesnave

You're not going to get what you want, so settle for a full buildings survey and an electrical condition report, just like all the other cautious and over-cautious people.

Most houses are pretty simple things, so if there's something seriously wrong, it will typically manifest itself to the trained eye without the need for dissection. This is especially true if property is empty.


Put it another way; if you were buying a 'fairly old' car, you'd know just by looking if it had been cared-for or not. However, mechanically, you'd maybe have doubts, so you could ask for a mechanic's report. This might give it a reasonably clean bill of health, but it wouldn't be perfect. For this reason, you couldn't ask for assurances of no breakdowns in the next 5000 miles.


It's the same for a house. No one can give you the level of assurance you need, so don't spend up to your max and leave something for contingencies.