Buyer's surveyor wants us to vacate the property during survey

user1977

moneysavinghero said:

user1977 said:

They're not likely to be long, do you really have to take time off work rather than just e.g. call it a lunch hour? Why do you have a problem with the surveyor being there when you're not? They're professionals, they're not going to be nicking stuff or going through your underwear drawer.

Weird stuff is not just the domain of non-professionals. Hidden cameras have picked up so called professionals doing some very disturbing things in houseowners underwear drawers.

So hide some cameras. I expect everybody half-expects that sort of precaution these days anyway. Unless the OP is going to be breathing down the surveyor's neck all the way around the house, I don't see that makes much difference.

Thrugelmir

moneysavinghero said:

user1977 said:

They're not likely to be long, do you really have to take time off work rather than just e.g. call it a lunch hour? Why do you have a problem with the surveyor being there when you're not? They're professionals, they're not going to be nicking stuff or going through your underwear drawer.

Weird stuff is not just the domain of non-professionals. Hidden cameras have picked up so called professionals doing some very disturbing things in houseowners underwear drawers.

People are people. Vocation in life is irrelevant.  

juliedee4663

When our buyers had the survey done on our property we were told the same thing by the survey company but when the surveyor turned up he was perfectly happy for us to stay in the house (we all wore masks) and just kept out of his way.

Mazza48

I was told the same recently but when surveyor arrived he was fine with me being in the house - I stayed out of his way. I think its precautionary.

Irishpearce26

youth_leader said:

That's great your buyer is serious and things are moving forward.  They do need to go into every room as well as the loft.  If it's a full structural is will take more than an hour - my 264 sq m house took six and a half hours.

Six and a half hours! What were they testing, the sleeping arrangements?

amandacat

I second that they tell you to vacate but don't actually require it- well they didn't in my case. That was just before Christmas when I was selling. I had planned to sit in the car but when he arrived I asked if he wanted me to leave and he said no. He was in and out in 10 mins, I really hope the buyer didn't pay for a homebuyer's and it was just a valuation survey or they were well and truly ripped off. 

AnotherJoe

verytired11 said:

I have just had a call from my buyer's surveyor to book in the survey.  They have said that we need to vacate the property while they do the survey due to covid restrictions.  Apart from being inconvenient and meaning I will have to take time off work to accommodate them, I don't really like the idea of the surveyor being in my house without me there.  They are saying that they may review their policy the following week when restrictions are further lifted, but there doesn't seem to be any guarantee about that.
What are people's thoughts?  I suppose it won't really matter if the surveyor is here alone, but I don't like the idea of it at all.  Perhaps we just sit in the garden (so long as it's not raining....)?

I was in my house whilst the surveyor was there, this was maybe January just past, he took 90 min to 2 hours. IMO this is a made up restriction by the surveyor. 

youth_leader

I agree about the weirdness, my survey was in 2018, so pre Covid.  Don't think he'd have gone through my big knicker drawer though!  Surveyor actually owned the estate agents, I don't think he did them very often, took him a long time to get his overalls/hard hat on.  

Half way through the survey around lunch time I offered him some lunch/refreshments, which he refused.  But he did ask to 'go for a wee' which I found repulsive, why tell me what he was going to do? Urgh. 

I eventually sold at auction and was fed up to see him turn up again to do a survey for an auction viewer - first time he'd opened the second loft hatch above my bed and all the debris fell on my coverlet, the second time he managed to tear down the curtain rail.

moneysavinghero

But he did ask to 'go for a wee' which I found repulsive, why tell me what he was going to do? Urgh. 

Even if he just asked to use the bathroom it only reduces it down to one of two things he was going to do. And a wee is probably the least worst of the two. 

iampetesmith

moneysavinghero said:

But he did ask to 'go for a wee' which I found repulsive, why tell me what he was going to do? Urgh. 

Even if he just asked to use the bathroom it only reduces it down to one of two things he was going to do. And a wee is probably the least worst of the two. 

There could be a third thing that's even worse, but we won't go there.