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Estate agent telling us not to bother with a Homebuyers survey?

Hi All,



Recently had an offer accepted on our first home. The chain is complete in that our vendor has now had their offer accepted on the empty premises they are looking to buy.



we have had a mortgage offer (awaiting confirmation/details in the post) and we are ready to send remittance/instructions to a solicitor.



As part of the mortgage offer Nationwide did the survey for free. I'd imagine this is just a standard valuation report.



The property we are purchasing was built in the 70's and looks fine to the naked eye. Our vendors purchased in 2015 and they mentioned that they had new electrics/smart meter etc installed as a result of the survey they did.



I enquired with the EA about who's details to pass on if we wish to carry out a homebuyers report.



The EA then phoned me basically saying doing a homebuyer report would be a waste of money/time as the one that our mortgage provider have done would be more than adequate. Whilst I can appreciate she may have been trying to be helpful it felt more like she was simply warning us off from doing one to save them any more time/hassle.



She said if we wanted to do one she certainly wouldn't stop us but was just trying to save us money.



Does anyone have any thoughts here? I personally feel we should still go for a survey.



Regards,



Martin.
«1

Comments

  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Ignore the EA and make up your own mind.

    The EA might be trying to save you money, or might prefer you not to have a survey because they fear it will throw up issues which might jeopodise the sale, and therefore their commission.


    Remember the EA works for, and is paid by, the seller. He is not your friend.
  • phill99
    phill99 Posts: 9,093 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    So you are letting someone that works for the 'other side' in the biggest financial transaction you will ever make tell you not to have a survey done?


    That seems legit. Or is it that there is something to hide?
    Eat vegetables and fear no creditors, rather than eat duck and hide.
  • Bimbly
    Bimbly Posts: 497 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Listen to your instincts.

    Get a survey done. You are spending £xxx,xxx on this house. Get an expert to check it out.

    It's like buying a second hand car without looking under the bonnet (or if you're like me, getting someone who knows cars to look under the bonnet).

    If the report comes back clean, then that is still money well spent.
  • mpr87
    mpr87 Posts: 54 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    In fairness you all make fair points and I think we will continue and get a survey done.



    The EA haven't been great and I certainly don't trust them. They forgot to phone us back to tell us our offer had been accepted, It was only by me chasing I discovered this, Again it's only by me contacting them today after asking a few times for an update that I found out our vendor has now had their offer accepted up the chain. this has taken nearly 3 weeks.



    The estate agent has literally got both houses so I would have thought it would have been in their best interests to atleast keep us fully updated.



    I can't imagine getting a survey done should cause any major delays and given they've done nothing to keep us posted I find it a bit dubious that they phone me up within 10 minutes of me emailing enquiring about survey contact details.
  • TBagpuss
    TBagpuss Posts: 11,236 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Get a survey.
    The estate agent works for the seller. They are not on your side and don't have your interests in mind. They want the property to sell as soon as possible, for the highest price possible, so they get their commission

    One of the reasons to get a survey is to identify any possible problems, and you can then renegotiate the price of the property if necessary. Or pull out. Not all major issues are obvious to the naked eye.
    All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)
  • Bad_Ash
    Bad_Ash Posts: 56 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    In my experience the Homebuyers survey have not been worth it, costing in the region of £400.

    It seems almost like they have a template that they complete with an extremely quick glace at the house. They can't/don't investigate anything in great detail and when you read through it you really wonder why you paid for it. Almost every comment will be non-committal, suggesting that you engage a specific expert. They don't want to make any statement that could result in them being held legally accountable.

    You can probably download some example surveys as based upon this do your own, more thorough investigation. Ideally take along a trusted friend who's practical or better in the trade. You could even pay see if you could pay a builder for a few hours of their time.

    Maybe I've just been unlucky and had duff companies doing the surveys. In fact I did rip apart one report and get a full refund.
  • bertiewhite
    bertiewhite Posts: 1,904 Forumite
    1,000 Posts
    edited 6 February 2019 at 10:33PM
    ^^^^This.

    The last but one house I sold had an awful survey come back suggesting that the house was full of damp and every joist & floorboard MIGHT need replacing.

    Luckily the buyer brought along a builder who thought otherwise.

    The last survey I paid for was largely padded out with suggestions that I might want to replace the kitchen cabinets as they were of a dated design and information such as lack of local shops & bus routes which I was more than capable of deciding myself!!
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 7 February 2019 at 5:50AM
    The agent seems to be acting like the 'helpful' driver who flashes to encourage you to subvert a rule in the Highway Code. If they were genuinely professional they wouldn't try to influence decisions that are rightfully yours.


    As to whether a Homebuyers' Survey is worth it, that's a seperate issue, so I'm not going behave like the agent and tell you what/what not to do!


    I've never employed a surveyor, but I've always had experienced builders look at properties with me and confirm my assessment of them. If you're not confident about the structural aspects of houses and what might be expensively wrong, you'll be where I was 50 years ago and feel better for back-up of some kind, regardless of whether it's useful from a bargaining or changing your mind POV.
  • tori.k
    tori.k Posts: 3,592 Forumite
    Problem with home buyer surveys seem to be they often raise more questions then they answer, boiler old get it checked electrics old get it checked suspect damp get it checked.
    we found it better for us to skip the middleman and actual get the people in to address any concerns we had this house we had the boiler inspected due to its age, a older house a roofer had a looksee.
  • Home buyers reports should be banned, and replaced with something (between a valuation report and full structural survey in detail) that actually gives a factual report on the condition of a property, rather than an list of irrelevant and out-of context 'what-ifs', 'maybe's' and outright !!!!!!!!.
    Homebuyer reports serve more as an exercise in !!!!-covering by the so-called surveyor, than any kind of informative for the buyer.
    I would advise a full structural survey if you want peace of mind, or a specialist survey if you have any specific areas of concern (eg damp/timber)
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