Buildings survey - how much to pay

[noarguments]

We've decided we need a buildings/structural survey on the house we're buying. Quotes I've had for this seem to vary wildly from £500 to £1200. The lower end are companies who were listed when I used a "find me a survey" website, and the higher are local firms of chartered surveyors that come personally recommended. Is it a case of you get what you pay for? Any experiences gratefully received.

I've just paid 500 inc VAT for a survey in the NW. Found them online and they were amazingly excellent.

IME you get what you pay for to a large extent, but over £1000 is too much. We paid £600 in Hants 3 yrs ago, £750 in wilts last yr.. Both large 4 beds. We chose a local surveyor attached to an estate agents.

A lot will depend on the house you're buying. We're getting an old, big (5 bed) house and have just paid around £1600 for a recommended local surveyor to do a full structural survey. There are different levels of survey too, so make sure you are comparing like-for-like.

Nothing's ever simple is it! I think I'll get more quotes locally, I'm not that confident going with an online option - old dinosaur me! Thanks.

I went with an online find me a survey website one and it was fine. We had a full survey done. It was actually a local surveyor attached to a local estate agents who came and did it.

We paid £450 + VAT for full building survey (more than just the home buyers one) for a 3 bed semi that needed modernising (there was a lot on the survey). Took the guy half a day to survey it, then time to write up the report.

Sorry that should have been £450 incl VAT