Structural survey

Cariad71

Hi- my daughter is buying her first house- a lovely 1960’s semi. Should she go for the level 3/full structural survey or risk level 2? Where’s the best place to source surveyors and how much is she looking at on average. Thanks 😊 

youth_leader

I had a L3 RCIS survey and still had caveat emptor because the floors here were completely rotten - 1930's bungalow.  If it was my daughter I would advise L3 and if any mention is made of woodworm/damp, pay for an additional damp/timber survey.  I would source a good surveyor through RICS Find a Surveyor (ricsfirms.com)

Slinky

We had a L3 on our 1960s house. There's a lot can happen in 60 years.

pieroabcd

L3 is a builder survey, that is completely different from a structural survey (and is non Intrusive, unlike a structural survey).
L3 looks at the surface of things and hints at the next survey to run :-) but it has some use, like use identifying the alterations to the house potentially to check with the owner, the state of the roof, presence of dampness, etc.
L3 doesn't even open the subfloors to inspect the joists 
I think that even a structural surveyor doesn't look at the joists/subfloor, but I'm not sure. It looks at the structural soundness if the building, hence  it's much more in depth but also much more specific.
Better wait for someone else.

Bigphil1474

The price between a Level 2 and Level 3 isn't much. We've been quoted between £700 and £990 for a level 3 survey and the Level 2 prices have been around £100 cheaper from each supplier. As above, check out the RICS website. We did get a recommendation from our solicitor and our EA - both were at the top end price wise. The price seems to be relative to the property price, and the above quotes were based on a £325k property purchase.

The advice I was given is you need a L3 if the house is old (over 100 years), or had structural work done on it, or you were planning structural work, or you had concerns about it structurally. Otherwise a L2 is fine. Given there's not much in it pricewise we are going with L3. Difficult to tell whether a surveyor is good or not as most seem to have mostly good reviews but the occasional bad one. At least if you get via RICS you know there's some professional standards.

Cariad71

Thanks everyone