Nervous, bad survey - any contractor recommendations please!?

[ASR24]

Looking at buying our landlords house, as we don't want to move anymore with two little ones.
The surveyor has just come back with the results and its scary stuff! Want to get quotes for lots of work before exchange but I don't know where to start!
Can anyone help me with finding a reputable:

• roofing contractor
  
• plumber
  
• specialist damp / timber contractor
  
• general contractors
  

There are so many websites that claim to have highly rated guys - but are any of these any good! Help!!

Thanks so much.

[Hs2Issue]

Whereabouts are you? I could recommend plumber etc but would be in South Yorkshire ;-)

[Hs2Issue]

Plus how bad is the survey - does work need doing urgently? Or is it just that it will require looking at in the future?

[Hs2Issue]

Plus how bad is the survey - does work need doing urgently? Or is it just that it will require looking at in the future?

[ASR24]

Good point - I'm in South West London

[ASR24]

Some of it will need work urgently - so we want to get quotes so we can reduce the offer price

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Surveys always seem really scary.

One thing to do is to call the surveyor and ask them to talk you through it. When you do that they tend to back pedal a bit. We went through it and asked them to prioritise. Certain things they said we needed doing he then said well probably between 5 and 10 years time.

They need to cover their backs when reporting.

It may not be as bad as all that. Checkatrade is quite a good place to see reviews of tradesmen especially if new to an area/having to do the work yourselves.

[ASR24]

Thanks - great advice!

[Coverup890]

I sencond contacting the surveyor i type reports all day and things i think sound awful they say arent to bad. Its just covering themselves.

[MissDuke]

I would be very cautious about renegotiating the asking price - you have lived there for some time I assume and so would have known of any actual real problems? As others have said the surveyor will always say lots of things need done but actually it often is just usual maintenance stuff. What did the surveyor actually value the house at and how does it correlate with your agreed price?

You need to work out what the house is worth and make sure you do not overpay rather than assume that you should automatically reduce your offer by the amount of the works.