House buyers having additional timber and damp survey done - should I be worried

[Mrsdp123]

Our buyers have had the survey back on the house we are selling and I am not sure if it has sent the frighteners up them. We've requested a copy and tbh I think it is OK (in fact if the survey of the house we are buying comes back that good I'll be happy). It is a Victorian house we are selling so I would have thought not everything would be without risk but they have requested a timber and damp survey and I am now worried that the new surveyor may uncover all sorts of things that we had no idea existed! The original survey mentions "possibility of this"..."in the future could be at risk of"....
What I am concerned about is a surveyor quoting for a zillion things none of which are actually necessary (just things that could be done, like a million things in every house) and the buyers using this to try and bring us down on price which we can't afford to do as we are finding every penny possible to buy the new house!
Has anyone had any experience of this? What was the outcome? I've been on google for 48 hours and all the information I can find contradicts things...

"there is a possibility something is wrong that I haven't noticed, and there is a risk that in future something could go wrong."

Sometimes Ii think that's all surveyors need to write, apart from the bill.

We had a timber and damp survey done on the house we're buying because there was standing water in the cellar and woodworm. The report was very sensible and said there's damp, to be expected in ahouse of this age but it's not really a problem. We asked for money off because of other stuff (external structural stuff) and the woodworm (not v expensive) but not the damp or timber.

So yes, I would expect there may be some negotiation on price but it depends on how sensible your buyers are, how much they want the house vs your keeness to sell!

My last move was with my job and as part of the package the relocation company instructed all sorts of additional surveys to be done, not particularly because they thought there was an issue but to cover their own backs. If your buyers are in a similar situation this might be the reason for it

Nope they are just moving from a flat to a house. We had a builder pop over yesterday and he said he could see no damp or woodworm and that the surveyor (having read the whole report) was in his words "fucking mental"....So there is hope! Thanks all.

Arse covering exercise. That is what it sounds like to me.

D&T report is a stock phrase in houses of that age along with any other caveat going.

Our mortgage company is making us get on as we're buying a Victorian property.

Our mortgage company made us get one as we were buying a victorian property too.

We are selling a Victorian house too and our buyers had a normal survey done which recommended a damp and timber survey too. It seems to be quite standard. We had never seen any signs of damp in the house and the survey didn't find any either. If you haven't noticed any damp it is probably all fine.

I have spent more time than is good for me on my knees with a torch in the last few days on "damp inspection"...I've probably worn the bloody floorboards away, so whilst there won't be any damp the surveyor will probably fall through the floor...

We're buying at the moment and the survey was so full of caveats and back covering as to be entirely useless. I'm not really sure what the point was as it was only for our benefit and it told me nothing. We even specified up front that we wanted to know if 2 walls were supporting or not and the surveyor said he would do that, when the survey came in he's said he's not qualified to comment and that we'd need a structural engineer - so why say he could do it in the first place? And he had a fairly good string of letters after his name, including Mb Eng. Pointless, entirely pointless.

I wouldn't worry unless you've seen/smelt damp.

I have a friend who's worked as secretary for a surveyor for nearly 30 years. She reckons in that time she's seen surveys go from being a useful document to being something that is 90% legalese that says " I don't think the house will fall down tomorrow but who knows and don't sue me if it does".