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Original poster

Anyone bought a house WITHOUT having a survey?

35 replies

CobsAhoy · 29/09/2017 20:38

just that really, we're first time buyers and our broker has said there's no point getting a survey as the quality of the survey our mortgage lender will get is sufficient.

Broker is an ex bank manager and has nothing to gain from us not getting a survey, but I was under the impression the bank's survey was just a valuation and not particularly in depth.

Anyone got any advice or experience with this?

OP posts:

Mrsmadevans · 29/09/2017 20:44

Yes we have bought 3 houses and never got a survey done. We went by the general appearance of the house and the mortgage report, with the view that the 1k we would shell out for a survey would go a long way to sort out any trouble we may find. Perhaps we have been lucky but we haven't had any problems with ours . We also got builder friends in to have a look for us so we did delve a bit but not the full survey.

iggleypiggly · 29/09/2017 20:48

Don't risk it. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind. I've know a couple of people that have had awful problems and needed to spend out £20k and £50k. A survey would have shown this. The mortgage survey is just to show the house is standing and worth what you are paying.

Rollercoaster1920 · 29/09/2017 20:54

Are there still three types?

Mortgage valuation. Required by lender.
Homebuyer survey
Full structural.

We had the middle one. It was a waste of time. Lots of surveyor arse covering (may, might, should check etc) and missed loads of stuff.

They wouldn't touch anything so didn't even look in the loft for example. I wouldn't do more than the minimum in future. Better getting a good builder round if you have a friendly one.

LillyLollyLandy · 29/09/2017 20:56

It really depends on the age of the property and the area. We tend to buy Edwardian/Victorian properties and there is no way I would buy one of those without the full structural survey. Likewise if you're in an area that has mines, rivers etc nearby then you'd be a fool not to get a full survey done.

HorseDentist · 29/09/2017 20:56

I didn't. But I had already lived in the house for 5 years as a tenant. There was nothing anyone could have told me that I didn't already know.

If I was buying a house that I didn't know the history of I would without a doubt get a survey. Unless you have a healthy pot to spend on repairs it will probably save you £1000's in the long run.

DubiousCredentials · 29/09/2017 20:58

We didn’t. Broker said no point as house was only 3yrs old at the time. Obviously we had the lenders valuation one done.

BarchesterFlowers · 29/09/2017 21:01

We have just had a survey in a very renovated period house, it has shown up many things we wouldn’t have discovered - remedial work estimated at £20k. Seller in denial, we are ready to walk away.

BarchesterFlowers · 29/09/2017 21:04

Agree that the only one worth having is the building survey (was called full or structural but apparently the RICS terminology has changed).

Original poster

CobsAhoy · 29/09/2017 21:29

Thanks everyone,

Some real mixed experiences then, as expected! I was hoping a surveyor would come on and admit the whole thing was a racket so I could just save myself some cash without worrying!

For people whose surveys have identified issues (or those who have undertaken work which would have been picked up in a survey), were these not things that would be covered by insurance?

OP posts:

Mama234 · 29/09/2017 21:35

We bought our last house without a survey it was only 10 years old at the time.
When we sold it our buyers had a full survey, The surveyor when he came round was saying how easy they are to do on houses of our houses age as most of the time they don't have any problems, Alot of the time in our house felt like he was just trying to waste time, He was saying how doing them on older properties was more work as they have more potential problems he had deemed our house an easy one before he came.
I would only ever get one for a relatively old house.

RosyPony · 29/09/2017 21:36

We didn't but DH is a tradesman so has a good eye for these things, house is only 30 years old and needed totally gutting so as long as walls were standing and roof (mostly) didn't leak we were good to go, plus we had money spare should something crop up.

fucksakefay · 29/09/2017 21:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SingingMySong · 29/09/2017 21:43

We've always gone for a homebuyer's buying 30-50 year old houses. Our last buyer didn't have one done at all when she bought for cash.

Our mortgage broker recommended I ring the surveyor to chat through the findings. Over the phone they'll often give you a better indication than the written report of whether there are any real concerns.

It depends a lot on cash flow really. Worst case (well, ish) you need to find say £10k to fund urgent remedial work. Can you afford not to have a survey?

hellybellyjellybean · 29/09/2017 21:44

Don't do it! We got a mid level survey and it hasn't covered the £10,000 of damage the owners knew about. It's not worth the risk!

4yoniD · 29/09/2017 21:57

I previously had a job which involved reading surveys before approving mortgages. However there was a massive variety in cost and detail. You could clearly see the dead expensive ones with pages of thick fancy paper and giving details of minutiae. The basic ones still covered the important bits. And yes, we did - occasionally -come across properties with shocking and unexpected problems and we rejected a few applications, and also had people pull out themselves after receiving their survey. So I'd say get one done. But definitely shop around.

Choosegopse · 29/09/2017 22:02

Depends on age of house i think. I got just the minimum on my last one, which managed to miss a huge crack down one wall (only visible from neighbours garden so we never saw it) which let in huge amounts of water. Ended up costing thousands and delayed our next move. I'm always going to get a survey now.

Choosegopse · 29/09/2017 22:04

Also you can now get a new level of survey which is just below full structural. If there are major problems they then recommend you upgrade. I got this on next house and it brought up stuff which meant I could negotiate £50k off the price.

JoJoSM2 · 29/09/2017 22:10

I don't think insurance will cover things you miss in a survey.

We didn't get surveys on our last 2 places but that's because DH gave them a once over (and he's got a property background). We knew we'd gut the places and start again so subsistence would have been the only deal breaker and there wasn't any reason to suspect it.

If you're a first time buyer, and buying sth less than 10 yo and covered by a guarantee, you'd be very cavalier not to have a survey. It's things like roofs, guttering, damp, rot, old electrics etc that you probably have no clue about but it could cost you tens of thousands.

JoJoSM2 · 29/09/2017 22:11

*not buying sth less than 10 yo

hellybellyjellybean · 29/09/2017 22:12

Insurance doesn't cover you, believe me!

cantkeepawayforever · 29/09/2017 22:14

We buy period houses in slightly run-down states and so go for the full structural works.

As our mortgage is pretty low, the mortgage company wouldn't bother with anything too fancy, but to us the multiple tens of thousands off the original offer, based on detailed estimates of the work identiified by the survey, has absoklutely repaid the cost of the survey many times.

We're about to do the last item identified by the survey on this house - replace the roof - at almost exactly the 10 year time point the survey stated. If you get someone sensible they don't chat about the stuff you know - no cavity wall insulation...well no, of course not, not in this age of house ... but picks up the important, expensive stuff and gives you a timetabled programme of works.

I wouldn't have one done on a modern box house, though.

CotswoldStrife · 29/09/2017 22:15

When we've bought a house with a mortgage, we've just used the survey the mortgage company require. If it has shown up any issues then we've got an estimate on them.

The one time we nearly bought a house without a mortgage we did shell out for a fairly comprehensive survey because we were risking our own money. Of course, that was the sale that fell through so it was an expense we didn't recoup unfortunately.

MiniAlphaBravo · 29/09/2017 22:17

Our first house we did and it just came back with stuff like 'the roof is in the condition that would be expected for the age of the house'. Didn't tell us anything as the house was 100 years old, so was that 'literally about to fall in' or 'fine for another 100 years'?? We didn't bother this time around and I'm fine with it. Any problems will become obvious in time and we did look carefully going round plus it's not that old.

LilaoftheGreenwood · 29/09/2017 22:24

I'd always have a full structural on a non-new house. It's a drop in the ocean in context (and much more worth it than paying for a broker imo, unless you're self-employed and really need to). You WILL need to do works, the survey is just the difference between nasty expensive surprises and a reasonable idea of what to expect. Our survey on our first house highlighted things like, if you put in louvre tiles on the roof now you can head off the damp problem in the attic, and the roof will probably be good for another 5 years if you patch it up round the chimney.

AnnabelleLecter · 30/09/2017 09:10

We bought our holiday cottage cash and didn't get a survey. We had all the searches and a retired builder and architect friend had a good look. The place is over 100 years old but had been done up from scratch by previous owners who gave us copies of all certificates etc. It is like a new house. I think it's more state of the property than age and if you are prepared to walk away. We paid full asking price, which was a bargain and didn't want any money off as we really wanted the place and had funds to put things right if needed plus they had tons of interest in the place so we took the view that if we started haggling we might lose it.
We had a homebuyers survey on our home which is 1970's and quite a few things we had spotted ourselves were missed or not included. Pretty much waste of time/money. Another one we really wanted.

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