Ever bought without a survey?

[downtothesea]

Over the years of housebuying we've always had homebuyer's reports or a couple of basic valuations and one full structural survey. Only once did we ever not buy a house because of the survey and in that case, someone else bought it a couple of weeks later. It was supposed to have roof issues. I drive by every now and then and the original roof is still there and still looks fine and the house has been sold a couple of times since.
I guess we have surveys for peace of mind (leaving aside the mortgage requirement) but given that only a full structural survey carries any real liabilty for the surveyor - what's the point?
Surely, if you're happy with what you can see and as long as you can get buildings insurance on the property, you may as well not bother with a survey as you won't be able to sue them anyway, even if the front wall falls down 2 years after you bought it.
Have you ever bought without a survey and what happened?

No - 1 postwar semi and 2 newbuilds - standard HomeBuyers' survey
1 16th century property - Full on Building Survey - apparently the surveyor was there for 8 hours with only a small break for lunch (according to the vendors). The surveyor also answered my queries directly and in detail regarding his report. Expensive - £700 but worth every penny in retrospect BUT... had to haggle it down over the phone from £1250!! (didn't realise e-serv had diversified over to double glazing)

We did twelve years ago, when we bought this house.

We'd previously put an offer on a house and had a survey done on it, it came back that we'd have to spend about £15K to put it right within a few years time (twelve years ago, it was a fairly significant amount in comparison to the asking price), so we withdrew our offer and looked for another house.

We came across this house and we did get our friend (who had qualified to degree level as a surveyor, but was working for the council, so couldn't offer us any guarantee or anything) to take a look round, he mentioned a few points but they were not massive, so we went ahead and bought it.

He did mention that there had been movement in the walls, due to a wall being knocked down to make two rooms into one, and to get that checked out. We had a builder look at it and the joists were supporting the wall upstairs, so there was no need to do any remedial work.

Not sure if I'd do it again, it does play on my mind that we didn't have one done on this house. Plus houses are much more expensive these days, so there's much more to lose.

I don't know why we didn't, but I think we'd spent so much with all the things in the first house we put an offer on, we were running out of money.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get a full structural survey especially when buying an old home, please guys I would not want anyone to go through the turmoil that me and my family went through.
Asbestos Roof tiles, leaking roof Main, flat, bay and garage, lost roof tiles which water ingress had caused timber rot in lats and main timbers, loft floor joists cut to lay wires across, rats nests of wires, lighting curcuit not earthed but yet had new wiring junction boxes, shower running on 6ml wires, damp, mould growth, issues with condensation, boiler unvented and cracks pretty much on every plasterboard which only occured once we moved in; had I have know these issues (well pretty much the roof alone) I would not have purchased it; faced with the fact that the bank would only lend us 11k to renovate which is what we had only factored in for a new kitchen and boiler replacement :(
I had little choice and resulted in my having to part exchange with a house builder who luckily gave us full market value. We were completely scammed by a house flipper and I will forever regret not getting the survey completed until the day I die. Please always ensure you get a survey regardless of anyone says recommended seeing someone independent and not someone who is working on behalf of a bank.

just to clarify, a building surveyor is utterly different from a QS (quantity surveyor) so not surprised he didnt have a clue...

QS is concerned with pricing, value engineering (cutting costs!) and payments for new builds, largely commercial.

Building surveyors (residential) is concerned with the defects and costings of materials within existing old new build homes.

Surveyor in title, but in reality very different.

Travelling Devon with a baby?
have Huey will travel

Just in the process of deciding myself on level of survey to get for a period terrace house.
Having decided on a survey, now im wondering whether to stump up the additional £200 and get a proper survey as opposed to a visual box ticking exercise.

we got no survey for current house, and no official survey for house we are buying BUT I had seen cracks and knew a home survey would say get them investigated. And similarly for electrics and heating, so got these three surveys done by appropriate professionals instead.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/2819517-I-cant-do-anything-here-can-I