Question about surveyor coming to our property

[marykat2004]

This may be a silly question but I have never had a surveyor round. We have accepted an offer on our flat, and the surveyor is coming Friday. .

Because of the school break, we will have some family staying with us. I will make every effort not have dirty washing up lying around etc, but will it be a problem that people are here, with a few bags of luggage? This is a very small 2 bedroom flat. We have zero storage space so 2 people staying do make the place more cluttered. But the survey is about the structure of your property, right? not about how tidy or uncluttered you are? It's not the same as people viewing as prospective buyers? i can send everyone outside to the playground if the physical presence of the people is a problem. But a couple of overnight bags will still be lying around.

Thanks for any advice or experience

I have my first-ever surveyor coming this week too, and an unbelievably messy house, so am watching with interest... :)

They don't care about stuff like that. Yes it's more structural. They're looking for stuff like damp, dodgy roofs, falling down extensions.

If you have anything to hide, just bob the bags in front of it.

We have a huge patch of ruined wall but we had a surveyor round already, who had one of those machines that test for damp. The damage was from a leak in the flat upstairs. The surveyor reported 'no damp'! The patchy wall looks worse than it is.

We took the flat off the market for a few weeks while we (I) freaked out about the leak and stain, but thankfully the damage is purely cosmetic. And someone who had wanted to view the flat before it was taken off, was glad to see that it came back online. The few viewings we had post-leak were not bothered about the wall surface damage. In fact having had the survey from the insurance company, I am fairly confident. Only problem may be some moss outside though. That wasn't near the leak, so that wall was not tested. possibly from an old leak? Also, not drying laundry indoors makes this flat much much less damp. Which is good.