Level Three Survey?

rowan222

Our buyers recently had a level three survey done on our house that we are selling. A four bedroom semi detached house built in the 1930's. We were prepared for an afternoon of disruption but in the event we were surprised how quick the survey actually took.

Surveyor arrived and spent at most thirty minutes outside wandering around talking notes into his voice recorder. This included a very brief look at the roof with a drone, didnt seem to take more than a minute.

Then inside he wandered around each room again taking voice recorder notes. Put some steps up and stuck his head into the loft, i.e. shoulders level with  loft hatch. He didnt climb up (couldnt as his steps weren't high enough). This took two minutes max. 

And that was that, all done The survey took an hour and 15 minutes in total. For a level three survey we were expecting it to be much longer and invasive.  Is this normal? 

Albermarle

Not sure about the timing, but these house surveys are never really invasive.
They will not lift carpets, or move heavy furniture or anything like that.

Only if the survey flags up a potential serious problem, the buyers may ask if they can send in a specialist who may want to lift floorboards for example. 

rowan222

I thought it would be much more thorough than it was. 

twopenny

I think a lot depends on who they get.
My buyers for a survey he was thorough and I took his card for future reference.

Slinky

Ours was at the house we bought so long the estate agent was worried an accident had happened to him. It was an empty property. He did go and chat to the neighbours who alerted him to the previous, non visible, underpinning.

Bigphil1474

Ours was at the house we were buying for about 3 hours - L3 survey. The guy who surveyed our house we were selling was only there about 90 minutes. Probably L2 survey but not sure. 

Smalltownhypocrite

They obviously cannot do anything invasive. 

Did you think he was going to start knocking holes in walls and core drilling sample out of stuff? No owner would allow a random 3rd party to enter their home and damage/devalue it.

They can't even move furniture or lift rugs. If a loft isn't safely boarded they won't enter (imagine the danger to themselves and the lawsuit for damages if they fell through your ceiling).

They usually do a desktop search of the area for flood risks, building history, price checks etc... they do a visual inspection noting down and photographic anything they notice and wander round with a damp meter checking a few places at random and possibly placing a level on the floor (maybe against walls) if anything doesn't look straight. Then they write a report with suggestions of further tests to be done.

They don't test anything specific like electric, gas, drainage, asbestos, structural etc... those are specialist tests.