Is it common to buy an old semi without bothering with any surveys at all?

HollySocks_2

They have just offered to reduce the price by £500, in effect to pay for my survey, which is nice of them..


And they have offered to send through all their land registry searches thingummys that were done 8 months ago. Would i still need to do my own searches with my solicitor, or would those done 8 months ago show up everything important?


Sorry for all the questions, all a bit new to me.

Carrot007

Non invasive surveys will do nothing except worry the casual buyer. If you have even half a clue you should be able to notice the things it might point out. Have a second viewing where you no longer have the rose tinted glasses on.


And as for invasive surveys. Except in special circumstances I doubt many sellers will allow them.

PhilE

Possible that they didn't have a suvey, and then found something wrong with the house.

Always have a survey done.

Mr.Generous

Personally we don't bother with surveys, but we buy dumps. My brother had a couple of surveys in the early days because his wife gets nervous, they were a waste of time. Stated the B...… obvious, and covered themselves on everything else … while no evidence was seen at the time of our visit we recommend a specialist survey ….

ThePants999

Carrot007 wrote: »

If you have even half a clue you should be able to notice the things it might point out.

Either we disagree about what having half a clue looks like, or I disagree with your statement. My last survey pointed out, among other things, inadequate loft ventilation (recommended adding eaves grilles), a lack of ventilation (other than windows) in a couple of bathrooms, and a few areas where ground level was too close to the DPC. I don't think I'm totally clueless, but those were things I wouldn't have thought to look for. Obviously they weren't "stay clear of this property!" findings, but they were useful guidance for things for me to sort out post-purchase.

Tammykitty

I didn't get a survey - a family member who was a builder looked at the house for me - and that was enough assurance for me (Although the house was only 10 years old)

Money_maker

Selling after 8 months could also be down to environmental factors, location, neighbours. You might just be looking in the wrong place.

pinkteapot

Just to add, we sold a house for £600k just before Christmas and our buyers only did a mortgage valuation - they didn't bother getting a survey report. :eek::eek: So some people don't!

I wouldn't dream of it personally. I know you have read between all the !!!!!-covering these days, but years back a friend bought their first house with no survey and moved in to find the roof had a bad leak.

Lespaul1960

For what its worth, I bought a 1920,s detached for 387,500,approximately 6 years ago and did not bother with a survey. Cash purchase. I guess I wont really know if it was a mistake or not until I come to sell it !!.

AnotherJoe

I've bought twice, for cash, without a survey.

In one case i took a builder friend round to give it a once over.