RICS Homebuyer Level 2 Survey - Complaint?

Mildreds_Earrings

Hello there, I paid for a RICS Homebuyer Level 2 Survey and asked the surveyor to specifically look at the roof, gutters, fascias and soffits. The Level 2 survey gave quite generic cut and paste comments and marked the areas of concern: Condition rating 2: Defects that need repairing or replacing but are not considered to be either serious or urgent. The property must be maintained in the normal way.

I am no expert but I would appreciate your comments as to the severity (or not) of these areas.  Please look at the photos below taken this evening and let me know.  As I specifically asked for extra consideration to be given to these areas, I am considering filing a complaint but don’t know if this is normal. Oh and it’s raining now and the gutters are leaking!

Thank you.  

Martisha

O wow, how much is this house for, if you dont mind me asking?
looks like it need a roofer asap

hazyjo

Are you saying you've completed and are now in?

I'm no expert, but it's not looking great up there! It's possible the surveyor took photos. Were any included in the survey?

Mildreds_Earrings

hazyjo said:

Are you saying you've completed and are now in?

I'm no expert, but it's not looking great up there! It's possible the surveyor took photos. Were any included in the survey?

No photos were included in the survey. We went round there this evening to take our own photos to send to the surveyor, to ask basically, Condition 2, really??? We sent the email with photos attached this evening, hopefully he’ll respond tomorrow but given the amount of money the survey cost and the fact we asked him to specifically look at these areas, we are understandably miffed!

Mildreds_Earrings

Martisha said:

O wow, how much is this house for, if you dont mind me asking?
looks like it need a roofer asap

Yes, I think you’re right. We will get a roofing contractor to inspect the roof and provide a quote, thanks.

andy444

It may be a question of semantics but the boards at the edge of the roof is called the bargeboard and not a fascia. A fascia is a horizontal element located along the eaves of a roof. Is it possible that the surveyor failed to recognise that you wanted particular attention to the bargeboard as well?

In terms of the fascias and soffits themselves, they don't look terrible but the surveyor has already recognised that they need to be repaired/replaced. I just wonder if there's been some confusion about whether the bargeboard has been thought of as a fascia.

lookstraightahead

Doesn't help you but I've only ever had level 3s for our houses - does a level 2 actually cover what you wanted? 

FreeBear

Looks like the chimney could do with a bit of attention too. Right at the top of your last image, there appears to be a brick partially missing.

The ridge also needs some work doing to it - A roofer will be able to advise accordingly, and they might also be able to do a repair to the chimney.

Mildreds_Earrings

andy444 said:

It may be a question of semantics but the boards at the edge of the roof is called the bargeboard and not a fascia. A fascia is a horizontal element located along the eaves of a roof. Is it possible that the surveyor failed to recognise that you wanted particular attention to the bargeboard as well?

In terms of the fascias and soffits themselves, they don't look terrible but the surveyor has already recognised that they need to be repaired/replaced. I just wonder if there's been some confusion about whether the bargeboard has been thought of as a fascia.

Thanks for the clarification. I am a layperson, so I didn't know that. To my untrained naked eye, those areas looks like it needs Status 3 urgent repair and not Status 2 but that's why I came to this forum for advice. 

We wondered if the RICS Surveyor even got out of his car to inspect those areas that concerned us. 

Mildreds_Earrings

FreeBear said:

Looks like the chimney could do with a bit of attention too. Right at the top of your last image, there appears to be a brick partially missing.

The ridge also needs some work doing to it - A roofer will be able to advise accordingly, and they might also be able to do a repair to the chimney.

Thanks @freebear The roof is four floors up, so a roofer would need scaffolding. An expensive job.

We wanted to negotiate with the Buyer because of works needed to the roof, barge boards(😊) etc but the survey report gives us no wriggle room. The report gives the impression that everything is OK but it rained last night and the gutters were leaking badly. 

Mildreds_Earrings

lookstraightahead said:

Doesn't help you but I've only ever had level 3s for our houses - does a level 2 actually cover what you wanted? 

The Level 2 would have covered what we wanted, had the Surveyor not provided quite generic statements for each area of concern.