Un-named structural survey?

badger09

I agree with those who say they would be encouraged by this. To me, it suggests vendors are aware of some problems and are trying to avoid every potential buyer spending money & time, then pulling out because of those problems.

I would have a look at their survey, decide if I was totally put off, or if I still wanted to proceed, I would instruct my own surveyor. But at least I would know what I was getting into!

stevenway

Steve the Surveyor here - we get asked to do vendor surveys occasionally. Normally so the vendor knows what to expect.  These surveys are also bespoke and allow the client to specify what they do and do not want to be inspected - for instance, "no need to mention the decorations we know about them", or, "the windows were only fitted a couple of years ago so we know they work".  I know from experience the tricks that vendors pull to steer us away from problems they know about.  (Here's a clue - surveyors know most of them and we aren't stupid, we can spot oddly placed furniture, mirrors over cracks, clothes over leaking radiators, packing boxes carefully stacked in a corner...).

How do you know whether the surveyor is independent or whether they and the vendor play golf together?

Most of the time we do not simply reassign surveys to a third party thereby transferring the liability because this could give rise to potential conflicts of interest - "you told us this wasn't a problem and now we have lost our buyer because of it". If we were to consider reassignment there will be a reinspection and a fee.  If more than three months have passed since the inspection it will be a completely new survey.  

My firm professional advice would be to commission your own survey, no hint of conflicting interests and straightforward wholly independent advice that you can rely on. 

badger09

stevenway said:

Steve the Surveyor here - we get asked to do vendor surveys occasionally. Normally so the vendor knows what to expect.  These surveys are also bespoke and allow the client to specify what they do and do not want to be inspected - for instance, "no need to mention the decorations we know about them", or, "the windows were only fitted a couple of years ago so we know they work".  I know from experience the tricks that vendors pull to steer us away from problems they know about.  (Here's a clue - surveyors know most of them and we aren't stupid, we can spot oddly placed furniture, mirrors over cracks, clothes over leaking radiators, packing boxes carefully stacked in a corner...).

How do you know whether the surveyor is independent or whether they and the vendor play golf together?

Most of the time we do not simply reassign surveys to a third party thereby transferring the liability because this could give rise to potential conflicts of interest - "you told us this wasn't a problem and now we have lost our buyer because of it". If we were to consider reassignment there will be a reinspection and a fee.  If more than three months have passed since the inspection it will be a completely new survey.  

My firm professional advice would be to commission your own survey, no hint of conflicting interests and straightforward wholly independent advice that you can rely on. 

Thanks Steve, always good to hear the professional's opinion.

What you said chimes with our very recent experience. In order to speed up purchase, we agreed to vendor's suggestion that we buy searches & survey from previous buyer who pulled out. We're buying searches (with our solicitor's agreement) but when we spoke to surveyor they said a reinspection would be needed even though previous survey was less than 3 months old. That defeated the object, so I instructed our own surveyor. 

lookstraightahead

Thank you everyone for your help. We have had our offer accepted today but will go down the normal route of full structural survey - I might ask to see the one they are talking about or to see if anything untoward is on it that we need to know about.

I'm also guessing that they think that if we accept their survey it will speed things up a bit, but I'm not in a rush. They are buying another property and won't vacate the premises if the chain breaks (we are in rented) so we can take our time and do things properly.