Should I get a homebuyers report?

[Cloudhopping]

After some advice. The house we are planning to buy is 20 years old with no obvious issues. Our mortgage company are due to do a valuation survey but they don't offer the option of a homebuyers survey. We've just got some quotes for the latter which are around the £600 mark- is it worth getting one?

Even 20 year old houses have problems such as damp and subsidence, so I'd get a full survey.

I'd get a homebuyers

Shop around my parents got a full structural survey for £250. I'm going to use same people, i pm you the details thus weekend in case same area.

To be honest a survey is only as good as the surveyor and only as trustworthy as far as you trust the surveyor. Finding an experienced builder you trust who can poke around and drill some holes will tell you far more. Most surveyors reports are so full of caveats they're generally not useful for protecting you. They are useful if the house has any obvious outstanding issues (like obvious damp or subsidence as PPs have said). On a relatively new house like that I probably wouldn't bother, I'd be more inclined to get my FIL who is an experienced builder to give me his opinion.

If you don't know anyone you can trust then a home builders report is probably your best bet, but keep in mind it's just their opinion based on what they can see. If they're not able to/allowed to investigate foundations and make small holes in the wall to check for covered over damp then they won't be able to tell you about anything.

drill some holes

You would be very unlikely to get a vendor to agree to your mate the builder drilling holes! Unless there was some issue to be resolved like a removed wall without building regs or similar.

the vendor who sold to me let us remove the boards around the shower in order to inspect some damp damage and we made it good before we left. It satisfied the only concern with the property (making sure the leaking shower hadn't damaged the floor underneath). Took about 30 minutes all told and told us more than a surveyor would have been able to because they won't actually get to the inaccessible places where such damage is more likely to be obvious.