AIBU to think when you are buying a house

[SilviaSalmon]

You arrange and pay for:

Any survey, electrical test, central heating test etc.

You do not demand that the seller carry out a whole raft of expensive tests and provide you with the results?

Happy to be corrected, but would like other’s experience.

I wish we had the same system as Scotland. I lost £400 on a survey plus solicitors searches in December and have only just found a house again now

Yep on Scotland the seller arranges a survey. My home report was 12weeks and 2 days old and rye buyers mortgage company made us have a new one as it was over 12 weeks. It was identical to the original report (it was actually better as the first one mentioned mould in the shower sealant and said we should replace the sealant. I sprayed it with mould spray and it disappeared so it wasn’t mentioned 2nd time around) was raging at having to pay again though!

Survey is the buyer, but servicing on boilers etc I would expect the vendor to do on an annual basis.

I'd expect you to have a recent gas safety certificate. But survey, including gas and electrics would otherwise be paid for by the buyer.

We bought our house 4.5 years ago and we (the buyers) paid for the survey.
That's normal.

Its so much easier house hunting here in Scotland when you can see the home report up front! When I was looking at houses I saw loads that I liked the look of but didn’t view, because the home report showed issues that I wouldn’t have had the money to deal with - it saved so much time and money.

I would expect the seller to provide a copy of an up to date boiler servicing certificate. If it were a recent newbuild (within the last 10 years) they should have all the installation certificates. And am EPC is a legal requirement. Other than that - the buyer can ask, up to the seller what they agree to.

As a tenant of 17 years, I cannot believe all the added costs involved with buying I realise it's still a thousand times better sense than renting and is an investment but still - stamp duty? Crazy

The seller pays for EPC and then buyers pay for building survey if they want one.

Whatever happened to the law about having to put together a "sellers pack" to avoid successive potential purchasers having to pay for a survey each time ? They crowbarred environmental concerns in there (there's nothing a coat of greenwash can't disguise) to ram it through.

At the time, lawyers pointed out that it would be meaningless to any purchaser, since the "customer" (and thus any obligations on the surveyors part) would be the vendor not the purchaser ????

House buying is so frustrating! I thought I'd found the ideal house. Totally ready to put an offer in. Needed a bit of cosmetic work that the owner agreed to do for an increased price. All happy. Went back for a second viewing and realised it needed serious work doing. Gutted!

I wouldn't trust a survey produced by the seller, I'd still want to do my own. So to me it make's sense that it's the buyer's responsibility.

If the vendor pays the buyer may have no legal comeback if it turns out the electrics are about to start a fire. The report is normally for the benefit of whoever commissions it only.