Homebuyers Surveys. Do people have them to highlight big stuff or do they use them to nitpick over price?

[beatie]

I'm a little nervous. We're in the midst of selling our house and our buyers suddenly decided to have a Home Buyers Survey done. It's understandable since we have a Victorian house.

I was in when the Surveyor had finished. (It's difficult to be out for 3 hours when you've got a toilet-training toddler!) He was nice enough to tell me what he had found. He himself said there was nothing major and he was nit-picking but there was a list of about 6 minor things - mostly things which would be expected in any house this age.

So, is it likely our buyers will try to haggle on the price? They're not paying asking price anyway. Is it up to the Surveyor to report on whether the house is valued correctly and if he says the price is reasonable for the ££££s they're paying, they don't have a case to fight on?

I just have a bad feeling about it. I'd appreciate anyone's opinions/experience over this.

structural survey could ultimately save a lot of money in the long run, step dad is a civil engineer and he always advises getting one.

I can sympathise beatie-we are having our buyers mortgage valuation surveyor come around tomorrow.I was talking to our conveyancer about it & she said,that depending on the amount being lent,the mortgage company surveyor sometimes won't even go inside the house-they just drive by & check that there is a house at the address given & that it isn't falling down!

We had a homebuyers survey done seperately from the mortgage survey on the house we are buying & the surveyor found only minor problems,but said that we would need to spend £7k to update the kitchen & bathroom,get the house repointed ect & so should renegotiate the price.

As it happens,we didn't,as we are buying the property from a family friend,know that at least 4 other people are waiting to buy the house if we pull out & two have already offered the vendor cash if she will sell to them.Plus we have beeen looking for a house in the area for nearly 10 years & this is the only one to come up for sale in all that time.

We didn't expect the house to be perfect-after all,its last owner was a very elderly lady,so we expected to have some work to do.We also have family & friends who can help out.

We did give the vendor a copy of the survey,and to our surprise,she has started getting a few of the jobs mentioned done for us.So not everybody is out to knock the price down or get niggly over little things.I suppose it depends on how much your buyers want the house!

Good luck

As my BIL is a building surveyor, we have gotten him to do full surveys on both houses we have had offers acceppted on. It was as a reault of his first survey that we ended up pulling out. There was a list of problems, a few pretty major bits of work to be done. We didn't haggle at all - just pulled out and told them why.

Second house had one or two minor things, which were things expected on a house of its age. Again we haven't haggled on price - we have accepted that they are things we need to do in the next two or three years.

Beatie

I am going through this at the moment.

We put an offer in on a house that was all up together and when the HBS came back it said there was damp in one room. We just asked to see the damp proof course garuntees so my advice is to sit tight until your buyer gets the survey results, if they have a problem they will let the EA know and they will be in touch in due course.

Depending on the results, you can then negotiate whether to get the work done or give them an allowance for the work.

Replastering a small patch and possibly damp poofing that area will not cost much.