Should you get a homebuyers survey when buying a modern purpose built flat?

hettyGreek

I have in the past when buying a house and it hasn't been that useful. Just says obvious things or get an expert to check out X and Y.

But for a purpose built flat that's 80s built is a survey essential?

Several flats in the block have sold in the last 3 years so I assume the building is ok and it does have buildings cover for anything important

Jimmy54321

Hi,

I recently purchased a flat that was built in the late 80s and had a home buyers survey done. I was a first time buyer so am by no means an expert and can only give you my opinion on the report and how useful it was to me.

To start with, my mortgage provider had to do a basic valuation which was like £150 and offered to me the home buyers report for £400 (total). I thought that I might as well go for it considering it really wasn't much more even if it was purely for peace of mind.

When I got the report back I was initially quite shocked at the amount of potential red flags however after speaking to the surveyor about them and reading between the lines, all but one of them were over cautious and the surveyor told me that there was absolutely nothing to worry about and if there was he would have recommended that they be looked at further by the required expert. The one that required my attention was a fairly simple fix that didn't cost me much. If you do get one done, I would advise having a chat with the surveyor afterwards as you will probably get useful information and their own personal (off the record) opinion.

My overall impression of the whole buying process is that there is a large amount of paperwork that is generated from various surveys and reports (including the home buyers report) that is not really worth the paper it is written on. A lot of it seems to be based on a very risk averse, worst case scenario premise that if you followed to the line you would struggle to buy anywhere probably. One such example was that my property was rated a high risk to subsidence based on geological survey data. I looked up said data and the whole city I was buying in was on the same formation so if you took that into account seriously nobody in that city would buy. There was however no indications of historic subsidence on my property or any in the local area.

However, I think you have to really ask yourself can you afford not to get these reports done (or at least some of them)? For me I was a first time buyer that after putting my deposit down, my disposable income would be very little and I could not afford to invest in something that I would have to pump more money into in the short term. So purely based on having peace of mind that what you are buying has nothing majorly wrong with it I think a few hundred quid spent on a home-buyers report is money well spent. If you are prepared to take the risk of saving ~£400 at the potential pitfall of a serious problem then go ahead but personally it seems like a bad idea to me unless you are satisfied with your own observations on the property.

MovingForwards

Get a RICS surveyor in. A hell of a lot more useful.

Yes, for a purpose built flat, nearly 40 years old, I would have a better survey done on it.

TELLIT01

As has already been said, that flat is between 30 and 40 years old, so not 'modern'. I would certainly never purchase a property without having a more extensive survey done than a 'homebuyers report' which generally seems to say little more than it has a roof and 4 walls.

Jimmy54321

Aren't all Home buyers Reports done by an RICS surveyor? Mine was anyway.

Fire_Fox

hettyGreek wrote: »

I have in the past when buying a house and it hasn't been that useful. Just says obvious things or get an expert to check out X and Y.

But for a purpose built flat that's 80s built is a survey essential?

Several flats in the block have sold in the last 3 years so I assume the building is ok and it does have buildings cover for anything important

I wouldn't see Eighties-built as that modern either.

Surveys and reports are most useful if you understand and you communicate what you want to know with the appropriate professional(s) and the vendor. If your professional(s) do not have express permission to enter restricted areas or look 'behind the scenes' (eg. lift carpet) they cannot do a thorough job.

If leasehold, have you owned a leasehold flat before? Buildings insurance often won't cover issues that result from poor maintenance - be that by the freeholder/ managing agent or a leaseholder. I would be more interested in how the building is managed and the 'sinking fund'.

Also consider what you would want or need to do to the flat, whether these works would mean involving the freeholder or managing agents and how stringent the current applicable Building Regulations are. I am particularly thinking of 'high rise' blocks (only five stories or 18 metres tall IIRC).

HTH!