Vendor to commission own Full Structural Survey? (England)

davidmcn

MrsP1974 said:

I must admit that I didn't realise that buyers of our house in future would still need their own survey (even if they had full access to our survey report if we had one done ourselves - and it's been approved *beyond doubt* as trustworthy by any buyers' lenders and by the buyers themselves).

They wouldn't need to commission their own survey, if somebody else's can be readdressed to them. But it's not normal, and if a seller is keenly waving a "clean" survey at buyers, that might in itself give rise to suspicion that you're trying to hide something.

[Deleted User]

Thanks @davidmcn; I can see that potentially commissioning our own survey is obviously a bad idea on my part; if/when we come to sell our house in future we'll leave the survey to the potential purchaser, as is common practice.  Thank you for your reply. 

youth_leader

I'd not bother having a survey done, save your money, it really backfired on me.
Before I put my listed building on the market I paid £1200 for a full structural.  It said that £175-200K needed to be spent on the renovations, the roofs, damp, rotten window frames etc.  I didn't have this sort of money and was especially worried about the roofs quote I'd had at £30K - without scaffolding.  Storms here are getting worse each year.  I realised I had to sell, and the house was priced low to reflect its condition.

I accepted an offer and the buyer's survey appeared to be far, far worse than mine.   The EA kept trying to justify to me his offer reduction of £50K because of 17 out of 23 'red ' traffic lights, quoting the 'urgent repairs in the loft,', 'the beetles', the VERY old boiler, blah blah.  The EA weren't listening to me when I said I didn't have live woodworm as I'd had a full structural survey - the buyer's methods had worked and he'd convinced them my house wasn't worth the asking price.

theoretica

Scotland has the home buyers report - very useful, you can check out a basic survey before deciding to view.   But trying to invent this for just one property doesn't seem promising.

[Deleted User]

Hi @youth_leader; thanks for getting back to me.  I'm very sorry to hear of what happened to you and very much appreciate your advice, having been there yourself.  All things considered (and it was never definite that we would do our own survey, it was just a thought), we'll have to let any future potential buyer do their own survey rather than us doing one, as is the usual practice.  Many thanks again. 

[Deleted User]

Hi @theoretica; thanks for your reply.  It seems that Scotland's way of having a basic survey done first is a good idea (we're in England); it puts everyone in the picture much sooner; both the vendor and the buyer.  Our buyers (who pulled out on us because of aforementioned staircase in February this year) waited eleven weeks to even get a survey done on our house...then pulled out anyway, as I say!  (We wish we'd been more assertive in them getting a survey done sooner but we were/are new to the process and know this for future reference now).  If they'd been quicker having it done, the subsequent FTBs who seemed genuinely interested in our house when we put it back on the market may have got their 95% mortgage in time before coronavirus took hold...95% mortgages are non-existent now, pretty much!  Ah well, it was obviously not meant to be.  Thanks for your comment. 

Smodlet

The whole home vendors' survey thing (which is the norm in Scotland) was tried in England a couple of decades ago, I believe, and lasted a couple of years:  It did not "take" for (imho) the same reasons there is no cure for the common cold even though one was invented decades ago:  Money.  The cold and 'flu "medication" market is worth millions every year; why provide a cure and deprive all the fat cats of their obscenely high annual bonuses?

Why be paid once for one report when very few properties sell to the first viewers?  Why not be paid over and over again to survey the same property?  It's a rip off but it is the system until or unless enough people care enough to change it and, even if they did, would you trust a vendor's report as much as you would trust one you commissioned yourself?

The system in England stinks but it is what it is.  The only way I have found to improve on it is to ask a builder you trust to view a property with you.  They tend to charge less than a surveyor and to do a much better job, in my experience.  HTH.

[Deleted User]

Hi @Smodlet, thank you for your reply.  I had no idea that the 'survey first' idea had been tried in England beforehand.  It seems odd that Scotland seem to have stuck with it and are (seemingly) ok with that system after all this time?  But there we go.  I also had no idea that perhaps different surveyors could interpret a house's condition with quite some variation, it would seem; in that one may be much more cautious than another and have a different perspective.  I still have a lot to learn about the whole buying and selling process, so your input is helpful, thank you.  Our current neighbour (and good friend) is a builder, so again, your advice on that is helpful and we will be mindful of that in the future.  (Perhaps I will train to be a surveyor myself; they seem to be onto a good thing with potential multiple surveys on the same property?!).  Thanks again.   

Smodlet

Glad to be of help.  Laws in Scotland and in England differ greatly across many areas, particularly those of property (and building regs - theirs are better) as far as I know.  I think their drink driving laws are a bit different too but don't know; just something I read.

Please be sure you trust the builder absolutely and know what his/her charges will be before agreeing to anything.  I know I wish I had figured this out long before I did and was very impressed with the guy we took on a 40-50 mile round trip with us; I had to persuade him to accept £10 for his fuel cost but think you need to read the situation:  Please do not abuse good will, always offer to pay at least their travel and time costs plus something for their expertise.  Some may be happy with a nice pub lunch; others may want their hourly rate:  It really depends on how well you can cultivate your relationship with them, in my experience.

I have taken a plumber and gas engineer to a viewing before now; I am still very glad I did so.

[Deleted User]

Hi again @Smodlet; apologies for the delay.  'Our' builder is our next door neighbour and good friend; we're good friends with all of his family.  My husband has known him for many years and they occasionally go out for a drink together (pre-Covid times, of course!).  They're the kind of people we'd have no hesitation in calling if we needed them at 3am in the morning and they absolutely know it's the same if they were to need us, so we do trust him/them and he trusts us.  It's not what you know, it's *who* you know from time to time!  Many thanks again for your input and have a good day.