Level 2 HomeBuyers report - why did I bother?

jez9999

Is it me or do these reports basically constitute a load of pre-prepared drivel about how they basically had a look at the property and couldn't really check anything important, and you should get every tradesman under the sun in to check the property before purchase?

I just got one done and it recommends no less than an electrician, plumber, gas expert, roofing expert, and "invasive plants and weeds survey" be brought in to do thorough checks prior to purchase. Probably would cost thousands to get these checks done. The thing is, it's a bit of a tired property but it was built in the late 90s and doesn't seem THAT bad. I've had a survey like this done before and gotten a similar result. I feel like next time I buy a house I could just look back at this survey and (if I were following its advice) go straight to getting all the trades in to check everything, saving hundreds of quid on the surveyors.

knightstyle

Totally agree, lookat the report as just a realistic valuation. You need a propper surveyor for more detail.

daveyjp

Pre prepared drivel maybe, until that time the surveyor notices a serious issue, which an untrained eye would miss.

Chemistry777

I didn't bother and relied on my own inspection. Used the money saved to actually pay for some of the issues that would ultimately arise with or without a survey.

stuart45

It's a common complaint from house buyers that they pay out for a survey and get a list of further surveys to be carried out. Other common ones you get are damp and timber, wall ties, Structural Engineers report, drainage camera survey and testing of chimney flues.

A friend of my wife has moved over 20 times since she's known her and every time got a survey. However, she reckons it always at least paid for itself, as it was much easier to get a reduction in the price because of it.

To be realistic, a surveyor isn't going to know a massive amount about the house in the time allotted considering it's a non invasive survey. It's why nowadays they don't like to call the more expensive ones a Full Structural survey as it gave the impression that every part of the house had been thoroughly checked.

pinkshoes

We watched the Level 2 survey that our buyer had done on our property we were selling years ago, and the surveyor just commented on things, asked me some questions, didn't move any furniture, then wrote his report recommending specialists in certain areas. He commented that the electric box was outdated (obvious - buyer had already seen this), the facia boards needed replacing (obvious), a tile had slipped (obvious), the extension had a flat roof (obvious), the boiler was old (obvious) and a couple of other really obvious things. Nothing they didn't already know.

We saved the money and did our own survey of the house we bought, as we felt we could do just as well with a check list and clipboard. It was fine, other than we didn't spot the lack of thermostat for the boiler/heating, but then neither would the surveyor have spotted that…

jez9999

Money for old rope, isn't it. I'll seriously consider whether to bother getting surveys done in future, honestly.

Jaynorth_2

I am currently buying a property and I didn't bother with the survey for this same reason having "benefitted" from a level 2 survey report on previous occasions with the last occasion being the worst when a surveyor reported that the chimney breast was missing on one side of the house and that structurally the house was not sound. Only for me to get a builder to go and check it and confirm that the chimney breast was in fact present in the kitchen but was just not the standard size of a chimney breast because it was an external one and the kitchen extension had been built around it. However I should add that the property that I am buying was built around 1970 and if it had been a Victorian or Edwardian property built between 1890 and 1950 I probably would have got a survey.

I had a level 3 survey on the house that I am selling recently and the surveyor spent around 3 hours inspecting the outside of the house as well as the inside and he was also turning on taps, opening and closing doors and he opened the manhole to look at the drainage so maybe the level 3 survey is now the go to for a "real" survey…. But at the end of his inspection I spoke with him and he said that although no major issues his damp meter picked up high readings in the bathroom 🙄 as well as on the party wall in spite of the fact that there are no visible signs of damp so I can imagine in his report that he will say that it needs to be checked or investigated by a damp expert blah blah blah. The circus continues…

dinosaur66

i used to flip bungalows and can do most jobs that need doing / but am only an experienced DIY and always brought my mate who is now retired with me on a second viewing who built houses from foundations to finish for 40 years with me to see if there were any money pit problems that i would miss

he saved me on a few properties i would have bought and told me faults that would need rectifying that i would not have spotted on ones i did buy

i used to have 12 to 15k as my refurb costs for everything

never had a homebuyers report done

i use the govt website to asses for flood risk / never buy on a downslope

propertys i have bought in scotland have a home report done buy the seller and are free to the buyer / i actualy committed cardinal sin of buying a property without ever having even looked at it bar streetview based on a home report of all 1s

lucky when i did visit it for the first time it needed no work .