House buying

Frankgolden

We are in the process of buying a property that is 50 years old, trying to book a survey, having taken Martin’s advice I am requesting to accompany the surveyor during his inspection.  Unfortunately we cannot find a surveyor who will agree to this, it appears that they don’t allow it.  Can you suggest anything as 40 years ago (on our last move) we had a real cowboy who missed the serious defects that house had and concentrated on the cosmetic trivia.  

babyblade41

I'm not sure why  you want to accompany the surveyor whilst doing his job ... you will know the outcome of his survey when he's done, 

In my experience with surveys they cover everything with generic replies hence not using one for many years 

cattie

Why would you want or expect to accompany the surveyor, if you fear they won't do their job properly then ask around for recommendations. Just because you feel you were let down 40 yrs ago, it doesn't mean the same will happen again.

If there are areas you'd like the surveyor to pay particular attention to, them ask them when you commission them, this is what I tend to do.

As previous poster mentions, the majority of survey reports tend to be pretty generic anyway especially as there are many areas that they are not qualified to advise on, such as electrics, gas etc. You need to get your own specialist in for things that are outside a surveyors remit. 

davidmcn

The last surveyor I used did offer me to join him at the end so he could point stuff out (didn't take him up on the offer as I was several hundred miles away), but I doubt anybody really wants a punter breathing down their neck during the whole thing.

PJBRFC

When we had our survey in Feb, we met the surveyor at the property the following week so he could show us around and explain the points he had made in the report. I wouldn't imagine any surveyor would want you there whilst they are doing the survey. 

greatcrested

Surveyors hate nothing more than anxious clients peering over their shoulder and plaguing them with questions while they are doing their job.

I tried to do this while my partner's surgeon was taking out her appendix, and he was not best pleased either.

Speak to the surveyor before hand with any specific requests you have ("Can I easily remove this internal wall?"), and afterwards todiscuss his report if you have questions on it.

I'm surprised If Martin is indeed advising people to accompany surveyors, but then even Martin is not infallible......!