What kind of survey to have on a house

[OhMyTummyMummy]

Hello.

I am confused by surveys.

The house is Victorian and in a terrace of other houses, and it looks in great condition - a property developer friend gave it the once over - but Buyer Beware as they say so I want to make sure I get value for money in my survey!

My mortgage lender is offering me a survey (although they are at pains to say it is not the same as a full survey) for £250 on top of the obligatory £500 I have to pay for the valuation of the property they are lending me money to purchase. The sales rep in the bank couldn't tell me what their £250 survey entailed or how it was different to an actual survey.

And for a full survey, I have been quoted 4 times this amount by an independent surveyor.

Another surveyor has told me I dont need a full structural survey, and has quoted me £375

Any thoughts or advice as I am totally lost with prices varying so much? Many thanks

They are quoting you for a Homebuyers report. It is a general report - gives you the valuation of the house and a general overview of the property but is not very detailed.

A ful survey will cost more as it takes normally at least 4 hours and looks into the building in a lot more detail.

A thousand sounds a lot for a full survey though it may be to do with where you are in the country. We have one booked for next week at £ 425 inc VAT.

We have used the surveyor previously (purchase fell through) and he is very thorough. We found him through a website which will give you free quotes. May be worth looking there to see what they quote you if you want a full survey (they also explain the difference in surveys).

www.reallymoving.com

We also bought a Victorian terrace and had a full structural survey.

However we didn't get it through the mortgage co - we got just the valuation from them, and then our own surveyor did a full survey. Turned out to cost no more in total than getting the bank to do the full structural.

I do think a full survey will find things that a homebuyers' report won't - if you get a good surveyor. For example our surveyor spotted repairs from previous subsidence, and he also spotted a drains issue - I don't think a less thorough survey would have picked either up.

I think you need to double check. There are 3 types of survey - a mortgage valuation survey (very basic, the building society just wants to know that the house is adequate security for the loan), a Homebuyer's survey (slightly more involved, will do a cursory check of electrics / plumbing / roof etc) and then a Full Structural Survey. The £250 will be the cost of the mortgage valuation.

As I said, thats for the bank purposes and even if you get a copy (most lenders won't give you a copy), you'll need your own survey to know whether you're getting value for money or whether there is anything costly that you need to factor in. Some mortgage companies offer them, some don't. You are perfectly entitled to get your own surveyor but you should check with the lender that the company you instruct is acceptable - I think our lender recommended we use surveyor X but when I asked whether we could make our own arrangements, they said yes. They sent me a list of surveyor companies I was allowed to use and I just did a ring round to see who was local and the most competitively priced.

Most people will get a Homebuyers survey (I think ours cost about £600 when we bought 2 years ago) but if you have any doubts or want to have the most thorough survey, then you need to have the Full Structural Survey. I think most people recommend them for older type properties (100 yrs old etc). They cost upwards of £1000.

Sorry, should clarify. Lender requires a mortgage valuation (the £250 one). If you want more than that, lender says it will arrange it for you - so your quotes of £250 (their mortgage valuation) and £500 (your homebuyers survey). We arranged 1 surveyor that did both - thats why it had to be a lender-approved surveyor - surveyor came round and did Homebuyer's survey, then did effectively an add on which was sufficient for a mortgage valuation survey (which he subsequently sent to lender). We just paid the one fee of £600. Sorry - read my 1st post back and realised it wasn't clear.

If I was buying a Victorian terrace I'd get a structural survey done.

Shelling out initially could save you thousands if they discover any problems. What is visible to you and your developer friend could hide a multitude of hidden problems, especially in an older house.

I am a bit cynical about full structural surveys...I am a solicitor and when I was a trainee I did a lot of work on professional negligence claims against a client who was a large surveying firm....suffice to say, not much stuck on them. Lots of small print which usually got them off the hook.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but in France they don't do this type of survey. We bought an old house in a poor state and our architect jumped up and down on the floor boards...

And another risk averse friend recently bought a flat, spent £1500 odd on a full survey, only for the ceiling to fall in on her about 3 months later...no recourse.

Good luck!

deployment I think full surveys are only worth it if you get a recommended surveyor who you know will do a very thorough job. Our (independent) surveyor spent 6 hours surveying our house and wrote a really detailed report, right down to identifying patches of loose plaster etc. I am not sure I'd bother with a full survey from a big firm like the mortgage cos use.

Types of Survey

I'm an ea and I would say always go for the full structural survey. You would be surprised what issues come up that you hadn't even considered and forewarned is forearmed so they say.
Put it this way, if something major comes up after you buy the house you bear the full cost. If something is discovered at survey stage it is often used to renegotiate the selling price. This doesn't always work as some buyers are unreasonable in their demands and equally some owners are not prepared to budge.
I'm not talking petty things here and get annoyed for the house owner when people use this as a tactic to drop their offer. If you view a house that obviously needs work then you factor that into the offer you make, similarly if an issue arises subsequently then you have to think about what you would have offered for the property if you had been aware of the problem beforehand.
Ask your mortgage company which surveyor they are going to use, in 90% of cases it will be a local one and they will be approaching the estate agent for access to the property. Approach the surveyor directly and ask to pay the difference between the obligatory valuation survey and a full structural - otherwise you will be paying twice.

Runty what do you think a 3bed flat which was on for 250k at the peak but after 2 yrs taken off as completely impractical bachelor pad style in a family area would be worth now? It is back on same sellers for 299

I think that totally depends on where it is noddy and impossible for me to answer. Sorry if that sounds vague but some areas do buck the trend and will have increased in value in the last 2 years.

but after 2 yrs taken off as completely impractical bachelor pad style in a family area would be worth now?

This sentence completely confused me! Do you mean it was previously in the style of a bachelor pad but has now been made more family friendly? Or do you mean it was on the market for 2 years but didn't sell because it was too "bachelor pad like"? What was the timeframe between coming off the market and going back on at £299K?

Probably better to start a new thread for this question in any case as it's a bit off topic :)

Sorry runty terrible grammar on iPad. Yes it was on for 2yrs at 250. It is in a very stark but stylish bare brick bachelor pad style. It is in the middle of lots of family houses with an excellent school. It never sold between 2007 and 2009 and has come on this week at 299. Anyone wanting the area would prob want a garden and anyone not wanting a garden could get a flat for 220 ish.

Many thanks to all for all the very helpful advice. I have bitten the bullet and booked a full Buildings survey with a guy whose name came up a few times when asking for recommendations and who had 10 mins to talk me through things on the phone. Now, I just need to find someone for the loft conversion!!

ensure to get infestation i.e. DRY ROT survey included /done>it is utterly essential on an older property and trust me , money very well spent !!!

Please have a full structural survey and importantly talk to the neighbours.

We had a full structural done on a house that had been redeveloped by builders (who we bought from). They hadn't built it to plans, retrospective planning had been thrown out, council forgot to tick the right box on the search questionaire from planners and we ended up with a demolition order in place. All done before we moved in but we were then liable and it cost £30,000 to put it all right.

Survey would never have found that, the problem with buying a house in this country is that there are so many holes you can fall through.

If we had simply said to the neighbours "Looking at buying next door, hi" they would have told us what was going on and it wouldnt have taken 18 months of our lives and a massive legal bill.

So please do not try and save money now by doing the minimum survey, you want the whole thing and go and talk to the neighbours.

bump

Types of Survey

Good advice here and I agree with the other posters that it's well worth having a survey. Although spending a few extra hundred now might seem an additional cost you could do without, you can save yourself thousands in the long run.

It's worth remembering too that if you have a survey and it finds any problems you can always use this as a bargaining tool to renegotiate the price.

You should ensure that a Homebuyer Report or a Building Survey is carried out by a chartered surveyor (a member of RICS). You can find a local one here: www.ricsfirms.com/

And this might be of interest in clarifying the different kinds of survey www.rics.org/site/scripts/press_article.aspx?pressreleaseID=549&categoryID=509