House surveyor - Is it it worth it for 11-12 year old house with no visible signs of problems?

Savingforahouse123

Would you recommend a surveyor or is it a pointless waste of £500ish? The house is 11-12 year old and I couldn't see any visible cracks, damp/mold etc on my three viewings and nor could the other people I brought along.

I've seen comments like the following online which puts me off to some extent on using them:

"I got a RICS survey on my first property, will never get one again.

They are very careful to cover their own asses so will have statements such as, and I quote "chimney looks to need repointing but unable to confirm from ground level."

We got blasted with recommendations for additional damp and timber surveys which we fell for, both of which came back with more definitive answers but once again were totally unnecessary.

I'm in the building game but was green behind the ears buying my first property at 20yrs old, it was a victorian terrace and a fixer upper so was prone to have some work required."

donutandbeer

I would think it’s still worth it especially if you then find something after completion you might be able to go back to your surveyor for compensation (if they said it’s fine in the report but then it turns out not). 

You say you didn’t notice any crack/damp .etc but did you check the roof? Did you know what to look at for the exterior? I do not know personally so will always get a survey done.

canaldumidi

Depends on you attitude to risk and your confidence in your own abilities tospot stuff.

I'm buying a 20 year old house which looks tobe in good condition from a 10minute viewing. I'll not be getting a survey, but will do a 2nd, detailed viewing and crawl all over the property checking roof, attic, walls, air bricks, lifting manhole covers etc etc

Section62

Savingforahouse123 said:

Would you recommend a surveyor or is it a pointless waste of £500ish? The house is 11-12 year old and I couldn't see any visible cracks, damp/mold etc on my three viewings and nor could the other people I brought along.

The point of using a surveyor is for them to see the things you didn't see.  It's a question of how confident are you that you saw and understood every defect in the property?

Most buyers suffer from a degree of rose-tinted specs - the surveyor doesn't, and will tell you how it is with no sugar coating.

A 12 year old house is a bit like a 3 year old car - long enough for some serious problems to emerge, but not necessarily visible to the average buyer.  Would you buy a £10k car at 3 years old and not insist on it having an MOT first? How much are you spending on the house?

Zerforax

The surveyor will just do a visual inspection so probably won't find anything but it's just the peace of mind isn't it? The way I considered it was that the price was a fraction of the total house price.

K_S

Savingforahouse123 said:

Would you recommend a surveyor or is it a pointless waste of £500ish? The house is 11-12 year old and I couldn't see any visible cracks, damp/mold etc on my three viewings and nor could the other people I brought along.

@Savingforahouse123 I very recently had a client buying a 15-20 year old house which fell through after survey as it turned out to be a steel-framed property. It was a very low LTV mortgage and the lender did a desktop valuation so it never came up.

This is not to say that the property was unmortgageable at mainstream rates, especially as it's relatively new. But it was non-standard enough for the client to pull out of the purchase.

Unfortunately, you can't depend on the EA or vendor being upfront about these kind of matters.

housebuyer143

I don't do surveys on houses that are 20 years or newer and I have never had an issue. .I used to work in a surveyors department though and know the kinds of stuff to look for. 
If you are confident in your ability to see defects then I wouldn't bother. 

Savingforahouse123

Section62 said:

Savingforahouse123 said:

Would you recommend a surveyor or is it a pointless waste of £500ish? The house is 11-12 year old and I couldn't see any visible cracks, damp/mold etc on my three viewings and nor could the other people I brought along.

The point of using a surveyor is for them to see the things you didn't see.  It's a question of how confident are you that you saw and understood every defect in the property?

Most buyers suffer from a degree of rose-tinted specs - the surveyor doesn't, and will tell you how it is with no sugar coating.

A 12 year old house is a bit like a 3 year old car - long enough for some serious problems to emerge, but not necessarily visible to the average buyer.  Would you buy a £10k car at 3 years old and not insist on it having an MOT first? How much are you spending on the house?

Thanks. The house offer was accepted at £168k. It's because I heard surveyors often try to cover their back and deliberately be super vague that won't tell you anything. I've read things like:


"I got a RICS survey on my first property, will never get one again.

They are very careful to cover their own asses so will have statements such as, and I quote "chimney looks to need repointing but unable to confirm from ground level."

We got blasted with recommendations for additional damp and timber surveys which we fell for, both of which came back with more definitive answers but once again were totally unnecessary.

I'm in the building game but was green behind the ears buying my first property at 20yrs old, it was a victorian terrace and a fixer upper so was prone to have some work required."

And

"I think RICS surveyors need to be regulated more to be held accountable. Some of the surveys I've seen are so wishy washy and full of "maybe"s that they're practically useless. Suggestions of damp from completely normal things, highlighting random things of the house without saying it's a cause for concern - and if you ask they say yes just to cover their !!!!!!. Everything is deliberately kept vague and indefinitive just to avoid any legal repurcussions.

My advice for anyone buying a home - don't use a large surveyor firm, because they're the ones that'll keep everything vague to avoid legal trouble and have strict limits on what surveyors can say and talk about. The smaller independents, as long as theyre RICS certified, will be just as good but be alot more open about discussing their report and be more definitive in their findings. Probably cheaper too."

Section62

Savingforahouse123 said:

Thanks. The house offer was accepted at £168k. It's because I heard surveyors often try to cover their back and deliberately be super vague that won't tell you anything. I've read things like:....

What about the online comments/reviews from people whose surveyor spotted non-standard construction, or copious amounts of asbestos, or a door frame which wasn't square... and saved them from buying a property which could have been a money pit?

Generally you won't see those kind of reviews because a) people who bother to do online reviews often have an axe to grind and b) people infrequently praise others for just doing their job (it is just expected they do).

The way surveys work is the surveyor tries to spot everything they can, and writes it down in a legal backside protecting manner.  The job of the client is to interpret what the surveyor says and then ask them about the bits which are unclear. On the phone they may be a bit more explicit about a particular issue.

People doing some of these negative reviews probably don't understand how surveyors work, and expect everything to be handed to them without needing to put in any effort themselves.

donutandbeer

Just to add even though I said I’ll always get a survey done, our buyer’s surveyor was so useless he insisted our garden is north facing, when it’s completely south facing. He brought a plastic compass that he claimed was “military grade”, and did not believe any of our phones or even google map. He wouldn’t budge. At some point (when he’s in a different room looking at different stuff) I realised the sun was setting (6pm) and I pointed out that if our garden is indeed north facing then the sun is currently setting in the east. He looked at the sun and said, “hmm I see what you are saying.” And that’s it. He’s still convinced his compass was correct and not broken. We later thought probably he had done so much work at least on that day with the broken compass that if he now admitted to himself that his compass was broken he’ll have to go back and amend who know how many reports 😂

Section62

donutandbeer said:

....And that’s it. He’s still convinced his compass was correct and not broken. We later thought probably he had done so much work at least on that day with the broken compass that if he now admitted to himself that his compass was broken he’ll have to go back and amend who know how many reports 😂

A strange one.  A traditional magnetic compass can't really break as such.  So long as the needle is free to rotate it will always point North.  The exception is if there is something external (e.g. electric cables or metal objects) which alter the local magnetic field.

Something like a damp meter could be incorrectly calibrated and give incorrect results... but a magnetic compass doesn't need calibrating.