House survey question

[mrsmike]

When you are purchasing a house, at what point does the survey get organised? and who arranges it? And are there different levels of survey - which is the most commonly used? thank you wise mumsnetters

It depends if you are buying the house with a mortgage or not. If you are, the mortgage company will insist on some sort of "survey" but this could mean just a valuation that will tell them if the money they are lending you is being wisely invested (ie, you are not borrowing more than the house is worth).

Most people will want a bit of extra reassurance as well though and will organise either a homebuyer's report - which is a sort of survey-lite which is popular but fairly useless - or a full structural survey which should tell you everything you need to know about the house's condition. These are often very expensive if you are going through a lender's preferred firm so it might be worth just getting a cheap (sometimes free) valuation from your lender and finding your own, RICS-accredited surveyor to do a more in-depth survey.

If the house is old or needs work, I would definitely have full structural. When it gets done is one of the banes of house-buying. If you are using your lender's firm, it is completely in their hands, if not, you have more control. Obviously, it has to be done before exchange of contracts so that if there are any concerns about it, then you can negotiate on the price before that is finalised.

If you have any doubts about the property before you commission a survey, think very carefully about whether to proceed. They generally cost several hundred pounds so you'll lose a lot of money if you don't end up buying the place.

Hope that helps.

Book the survey when your offer has been accepted.Depending on the age of the house the bank will require either a simple valuation or something more detailed.If you are borrowing a lot compared to the value you should get a full survey as it will throw up problems

thanks v much - only just got the chance to look back at this. The house I am interested in is only 3 or 4 years old, so maybe not a lot to worry about, or am I being foolishly naive?

New houses can be notoriously badly built. Should be covered by NHBC or equivalent for ten years but absolutely impossible to get them to do anything if they don't want to. Things to bear in mind are poor sound insulation and poor joinery (joinery should be obvious and you can probably find out about sound if you visit at different times of day when neighbours likely to be around etc). The bigger the development that it is a part of, the more likely you are to have problems.

And, if you do make an offer, be sure to ask your solicitor to ask in writing whether the current owners have experienced any problems with it/had to have any remedial work done. If asked direct, they are duty-bound to give honest answer or can face legal action.