Help me understand my survey report

[amyfowler]

Hello,
Thank you for reading my thread.
I am buying my very first house and just received my valuation report. It all looks ok and is valued exactly same as offer price. I am worried about surveyor mentioning that internal walks have been removed and remaining sections may be inadequately supported. House has a rear extension and a middle wall between reception and fining hall has been knocked off. Surveyor said you may need specialist advice to ensure compliance with statutory requirements. What does this mean? Also what are these specialist who can confirm the structural integrity of house. Planning permission was sought for extension in 2010 and granted. There is a garage to this property and surveyor mentioned flat roof has limited life and may fail without warning. This sounds scary.. Flat roofing was gone in 2009. Any help is greatly appreciated. I am thinking if commissioning the most detailed survey as first step.

Sorry for typos..flat roof for garage was done in 2009. I don't know what is limited life of a roof. A quick google tell me 20-50 years. That does not seem like a big problem but if it's mentioned in survey report could it mean end is nearer. House has been refurbished and extended in 2010 in south west london.

He is just covering his tracks - hence the words 'may' be unsupported and 'may' fail. All flat roofs have a limited lifespan and if it was done in 2009 its got plenty of life in it yet. If planning permission was sought and granted for the extension then there should be building regs approval too - ensure your solicitor asks for that copy and if they can't produce it then ask for indemnity insurance from the vendors. Otherwise you need a structural engineer in to check and is the house looks ok - has no major cracks in walls and ceilings etc, my guess is it is ok. The reason why the surveyor can't tell if the removed wall is supported properly is because he isn't allowed to know off the plaster board to check if there is a steel support. Try not to panic. surveys always cover themselves with phrases like this.

The extension should have a building control certificate which your solicitor should ask for as part of the purchase. The council building inspector should have come out to make sure it was all built according to regulations i think.

Roof just sounds like normal surveyor backside covering.

If you are in doubt, can you phone the surveyor and dig more deeply?

PS Am not a surveyor, just going on my own experience...

knock off the plasterboard

Hello Cocofonix and Nigelmolsworth. Thank you so much for your response. I feel more clear in my head now. Can I phone my surveyor and seek explanation or more details around survey report? (Sorry for noob question, it's my first house purchase and I am learning still).

yes, you paid the surveyor and you can call them as much as you like for clarification.

flat roofs last 20 years max and you should expect to be replacing that one within the next decade. They don't fall on your head but they start leaking.

Specialsubject thanks a lot for your response. I was worried thinking that roof might actually fall ?? so it's very very reassuring. I will get in touch with valuation company now and again thanks a lot of contributing everyone.

Any statement they make about anything being fine and OK could lead to you suing them if something bad happens in 3 years time. So there is so much arse-covering in every line it is ridiculous. The survey will highlight any problems they find but if they don't find problems they are not going to stick their neck out and say that there are no problems. Every house purchase I've done (yeah, all two of them) has been off a mid-priced (not full but not cheapy valuation) survey which has given a report full of "you'd need a specialist to tell you if XXX is a problem". In each case, you need to judge for yourself whether the likelihood of there being a problem and the cost to you to put things right if a problem is found add up to you wanting to pay for some more investigations now, or whether you'll just hope for the best and accept the eventual cost if the worst happens.

Wet rot/dry rot and subsidence are the things I'd be looking out for - if they have done their blah blah specialist blah blah about rot then it's worth getting a report done (£60 or so) because if you are ftb you could happily get a damp course installed before moving in with relatively little upheaval. if they have spotted anything that could be evidence of subsidence then definitely get it checked out before signing anything. As for the rest, you have to choose for yourselves for each potential issue.

Fishwithabicycle.. Thank you., sprinkling of "May" and "might" in survey report was just ridiculous. It's all so vague. Things will require maintenance (god knows what are these things).. Roof las limited life (thought it's dying anytime soon).. I was a bit baffled as it's relatively newly done house and I was confused with all these generalistic but scary sounding statements. Thanks again all for chipping in and though nothing sounds really earth shattering now, will still excercize some basic caution. I think I investes so much of myself emotionally in this process that each and every major /minor block seems very scary..,