To think surveyors are the most useless bunch of twunts ever fairly closely followed by my dh?

[lecce]

I already have a thread with all the details on property, but, basically, we have -for the second time- been the victim of a ridiculously over-cautious survey on our house. At the very least it has cost us £10 000 but it could be more, or the whole sale could still fall through because of it.

We have lived here 8 years. The house has lived here 107 years. It is not about to fall down. We have looked after it pretty well, it is not a money pit, it is/was well-priced for the area, we have two small children and they live here happily and healthily - not in damp conditions and, no, no wasps buzzing around from the nest in the loft .

The woman who is/was buying it loved it. It was perfect for her. Now she may not have it . Oh, but she is a bitch too - despite the fact that we have already agreed to a £10 000 discount she has still left us hanging all weekend instead of coming back and telling us whether that is good enough or not .

And every time I start, admittedly ranting, about fucking surveyors/buyers etc, dh snaps, "Oh can't you just be positive/constructive?" No I fucking can't, I am anagry and sad and it is their fault .

UM, Sorry but you YABU, if two different surveyors have flaged problems then there are problems.

So what problems are they listing?

Damp? Get a quote or 3 to correct it.
Wood Boring Insects = Get them Treated
Problem in the loft = get it fixed.
Re wiring get a quote.

Be proactive. People want to buy nice solid houses, and mortagage companies want to lend on Nice solid houses.

Your house could be lovely but if it is showing problem then they need to be address, or price quoted, or reduce the price to the property to reflect them.

I want brought a 16c cottage, I loved it but the vendor was a lieing cow and After the 3rd survey I had to renegotiate the price hard. She took it becuase I was in the strong position and she had had no offers over the 18 months it had been on the market.

Oh, and the purcherser may want a bit longer than 12 hours to think the ramifications of the survey through.

Selling a house is stressfull but you need to take aboard the surveyers comments and deal with them, or stay put, or reduce the price.

At completion of our last big international move everybody came out well, And 'by everyone' I mean the movers, the sellers of our new house, the builders who renovated it, even the estate agents.... everybody except the surveyor and he was meant to be working for me.

Anecdotal but there you go. I paid top whack for a full structual survey and what I got was a pile of useless twaddle. I won't bother next time. They were so careful covering their behinds that the end survey was useless.

Just saying.
I won't tell you to be positive or anything but perhaps a glass of and a bar of chocolate are in order.
Hope it's gets sorted

On the other hand, I sort of agree with mummysinpain too......

Yes, but none of the issues are big like you mention - except damp and sureyors ALWAYS recommended having that investigated because, as is my point, they know shit-all about any of this stuff. All they do is wander around looking at stuff and saying what MIGHT be a problem so needs a further report (£400,please) because they don't actually know! Their sole purpose is to stop people buying houses because, that way, if there does turn out to be a problem, they won't get sued.

There is a crack, whaich we have had looked at by an engineer and it isn't a problem, but the rest is a load of shit. Stuff like, "Period features make it look dated!!!" wtf has that got to do with a surveyor? Buyer has seen tham and loved them!

Cellar isn't sound-proofed - why would it be?

Utter shit.

Ok I'm with you on the over cautious rendering the information useless.

But damp is something they shoudo have checked with a damp meter and I would never buy a house with active damp. If you have had a crack checked and report written the show it to the buyer as evidence. But damp is usually caused by something, so find that something and fix it!

x lots and a cold flannel on the forehead. Rant away.

I have similar but different ishoos (I'm the buyer) and its not the surveyor in our case, it's the building society's valuer.

We have an estate agent who phones us with fictional problems at 5:25 on a Friday, leaving stuff unresolvable over the weekend, so our vendor probably thinks we are evil as well.

I do sympathise.

I personally think you're BU. You only have to watch an episode or two or Help! My House is Falling Down to see how not getting a survey can often end in disaster, turning a lovely period home into a money pit. In my line of work (insurance) you see a lot of issues that have lain undiscovered for some time, which eventually cause massive structural problems.

And that money is making one of the biggest decisions that she is likely to ever have to make in her adult life. I think she is allowed a weekend to mull it over.

*woman, not money. D'oh.

What have the surveyors brought up that has made you agree to a £10,000 price drop??

Nothing . It's all supposition and maybes. The one from her mortgage company has said the property is only worth the new, lower, price. Why?? Oh, I know, because he has no local knowledge, has looked on NEThouse prices or whatever at recent sales nearby and compared them with our price - despite the fact that we live on a street where the top half (ours) has houses that sell for about £20 000 more than the bottom half. That survey (the one called by the mortagage company) had NOTHING on it about problems with the house. Just some bloke randomly deciding, based on his own opinion nothing more, that our house is not worth what soneone has already agreed to pay for it. .

Why is it up to surveyors to tell people what they should pay (unless it is falling down)? If she wanted it and could afford it, what was the problem?

Still, we can just about afford it, have seen where we want to be and just want out as soon as possible - mainly because of schools.

YABU! It's not the surveyors fault if your house isn't up to scratch.

Do you actually know what a surveyor does . Have you ever lived in a 105 year old house? Yes, the house is 'up to scratch'. If a structural engineer, an actual professional person who knows what he or she is talking about tells us otherwise, we will have to suck it up, but that is highly unlikely as several such reports have already been done on the property, and the attached one next door, and none have ever found any problems. But none of that counts for anything so these people can rake in the money for nothing.

When the mortgage company instruct a basic mortgage valuation they advise the surveyor of the purchase price as stipulated on the application for mortgage form.

A basic mortgage valuation is simply for the valuer to confirm that the property is worth what it is being sold for and to check if there is anything obvious, that if it isn't attended to, would have a detrimental affect on the value of the property.

Only a more indepth report, of which you pay significantly more, would actually 'value' the property.

I could be missing something but I'm really confused why it's the surveyors fault that you have agreed to drop £10,000 if, as you say, there is nothing wrong with the property.

YABU and I say this as someone who bought a damp house in September. We bought it with our eyes wide open, we had several surveyors and damp companies report on it and several thousand pounds worth of damp work done the week after we completed. None of which has worked and we are still living in a damp house, with bits of bare plaster and the bits we did expensively redecorate, completely ruined within 6 weeks. It is hell on earth and I will personally never, ever, go anywhere near a damp house ever again.

Tbh, I'm not sure because dh has been dealing with this - badly, I think . I think the buyer has said that because the mortagage company has said that's what it's worth, she doesn't want to pay more than that herself - despite the fact that we have been led to believe she has a sizeable deposit. I think she has said that she doesn't want to increase her deposit to make-up the shortfall now that she can borrow less because she feels she will need that money to pay for work suggested by her survey . This is despite the fact that none of that 'work' has been confirmed as essential, much less costed .

I blame the surveyor because if he hadn't raised all this petty crap she wouldn't be saying that and I believe the mortgage surveyor is plain wrong. However, now that I have written it out like that I am starting to think she is just trying to fleece us .

We just want to be out though, so if it gets us where we want to be...

edwinbear I feel for you, that sounds awful. Tbh, not sure how your story makes me unreasonable, though. Our house is not damp. We were told when we had our damp-proof course that they wouldn't guarantee it unless we covered up the exposed brick chimney brest. We didn't want to because we love it - our 'buyer ' loved it too. In the 8 years we have lived here we have never seen, smelt or felt damp yet everytime there is a survey it comes up. So some company can make another £2000 for nothing. Yet your situation still occured. .

lecce have the damp readings come back high or is it just that your buyer is stressed out because of the lack of guarantee?

'Period features make it look dated' is mad. A surveyor really wrote that?!

I'm really sorry lecce but I feel like I'm really missing the point.

You are saying the surveyor has raised petty crap but if I was buying a property I would want to know about the petty crap and make an informed decision myself - surely, you would be the same or are you saying you would be happy for the vendor to decide what they considered to be petty?

Clearly the work you have had done that hasn't been guaranteed is a concern. As there is no guarantee the work is in effect useless. The reason the guarantee wasn't issued is because you haven't finished the work i.e. covered up the exposed chimney breast as recommended by the specialist. This is why it gets brought up and will continue to be brought up.

Oh yes, his exact words are, 'a number of period features have been inadvisedly retained, giving the property a dated feel.' Tosser.

Edwinbear The reading was high but we think this is because of the issue mentioned above. The house does not smell, look or feel damp. All our decor is intact. It is not damp - or maybe it is 'officially' but not in any way that has any impact on anyone living here.

If you believe the property isn't damp why don't you get a damp report done - they don't cost a lot and it would either confirm your thoughts or confirm there is a problem and you can get it rectified so the problem doesn't keep getting brought up?

lecce we ultimately got an independent damp surveyor to look at ours, not one affiliated to a damp proofing company as they really are just salesmen. It cost us about £200 but he did write a comprehensive report saying where there were issues with the damp proof course and where there were some issues with a historical leak which needed to dry out. Maybe your buyer would feel reassured if you split the cost of hiring one of those?

Oh, ffs, any old property will have this sort of stuff on it. We had a very similar survey when we bought it and, as ftbers, were terrified and nearly pulled out. We didn't, largely because my mil, the most cautious, pessimistic person on the planet, took one look and said, "That's nothing - exactly what you'd expect from an old house!" I nearly fainted, her response was so out of character.

We have loved living here - it looks good (twice we have nearly sold to the first viewers) and does not have endless issues occuring, costing money. The gutters etc are well-maintained, we have revarnished the wooden windows twice in 8 years and they are in excellent condition.

It's a bit creaky and hasn't got 'clean lines' (I don't think - not 100% sure what they are ) because it is old and characterful. If I'm wrong and an engineer brings up real issues, I will have to eat my words.

But the point of this thread is that surveyors are useless twunts who don't know anything and write down lots of 'maybes' that scare people. One thing that always comes up with this house is that there is a drain/man-hole cover in the garden and they always say it shoud be investigated by CCTV. When we had a survey ourselves done on another property 2 years ago it raised the same issue. We spoke to the surveyor on the phone and he said, "Oh we always put that but we'd never really suggest anyone did it if they actaully asked us outright!"??!! Wtf? Useless twunts.

Sorry, didn't mean to direct a 'ffs' at people who have offered consructive advice . I type too slowly.

Buying and selling houses, the most stressful damn thing in the world. I grew up in a c.15th, listed, farmhouse, my parents had a full structural survey done on it before they bought it. Made War and Peace look like The Tiger Who Came to Tea. I kid you not. This was 25 years ago and as far as I know, the house is still standing. I genuinely hope you get it all sorted.