Do we need a survey? 15 year old house.

dottytooke

We’re buying a 15 year old house and need to decide if we’re going to have a survey. My mortgage broker said he always recommends his clients get a homebuyers report but also said as my partner is a builder, it probably isn’t necessary. Our estate agent selling our house and a family friend who is also a builder said a homebuyers report is a waste of time and they wouldn’t bother, as the house is new-ish. Any advice? Thanks.

LoveSauce

If there isn't anything you can see that needs a closer look then I woldnt bother. The engineer won't be able to knock-down walls and open floor boards. And the report, from looking at what other people have posted on this forum, will only suggest, to find other people to take a closer look as they are limited to what they can do.

I would suggest doing a thorough viewing of every room/attic/checking for problems

Acorn22

When i was going forward earlier this year with the purchase of a 13 year old house i got a full buildings survey done. Like you i was thinking is it really needed on such a new property ,but all i can say is thank god i did!! The amount of defects and poor workmanship throughout the entire build (some of which was not obvious or apparent to an untrained eye) came as a total shock....especially as this was a smallerand supposedly more bespoke builder and not one of the huge names we often here of as having problems. If that wasnt enough it then came back as having no building regulation conpletion certificate for the entire house build so that coupled with all the things the survey showed up made it a non starter and i pulled out of the purchase. I pity the person who bought that house thinking ahh its only 13 years old so it will be fine and thus doesnt have a survey on it. Boy wil they be in for a big suprise. As my solicitor said to me,not many people would have had a full buildings survey on a house only 13 years old,  but she said that by doing so saved  me from a whole lot of heartache that would have been a financial nightmare had i signed on the dotted line and not had a surrvey therefore not knowing all the problems. So for me it might seem like a lot of money, but not compared to what it COULD cost you if things are not as they seem.  I would have a survey EVERY time!! Good luck.

Semple

I can never understand the concept of people paying hundreds of thousands for a home, but will scrimp on a few hundred quid for a survey. 

Your partner may well be a builder, which would at least cover the labour cost of any works. But if there was any serious issues, remedial works for materials and equipment could still costs tens of thousands. 

Slithery

Semple said:

Your partner may well be a builder, which would at least cover the labour cost of any works. But if there was any serious issues, remedial works for materials and equipment could still costs tens of thousands. 

I think you misunderstand. The point of the OP's partner being a builder isn't that it would cost less to fix, it's that they would be able to spot the same problems that a surveyor would.

lika_86

We just had a homebuyers report on our 20 year old purchase. Total waste of money in my view, it didn't really point out anything we hadn't spotted ourselves as reasonably observant people. Unless there's something of concern, I don't think I'd bother again.

md258

lika_86 said:

We just had a homebuyers report on our 20 year old purchase. Total waste of money in my view

We had a full structural survey (on a 50 year old house) that didn't find much that an observant person would have found. In contrast to you though I feel that it was money well spent as we knew that (as far as possible) there were no hidden nasties.

In the grand scheme of a house purchase it's a pretty small part to protect yourself from buying a money pit