First Time Buyers - Stuck and in need of advice

[samanthalou]

Me and HTB are looking for our first home and we think we may have found 'the one'. We have trawled the internet for inspiration and guidelines on the questions that we should be asking when viewing a home and also follow up questions but we aren't getting anywhere with some of them. So, my questions are:
the age of the roof of the house: the current owner doesn't know anything about the roof other than it's not been touched in the 3 years he has lived there.
insulation/cavity walls - he also isnt sure if it is insulated and he thinks that only the attic may be, but he has never been up there (we would like to know as it is an end terrace and i've heard they are notorious for being cold when not insulated).
Last question - when you put an offer in, and the surveyor is arranged, what exactly do they look for? Will they be able to answer my above questions or do they turn up and make sure the house is in one piece and then leave?
I'm sorry if this seems vague and you may have read the same thing over and over again, i'm just really stuck and haven't a clue what i'm doing. We are reluctant to blow our budget (the whole of our budget) on this house if we are going to have to pay an extra wad of money to get it sorted if there are any issues with money pits like insulation/roofs etc.
Thank you for reading and hopefully someone, somewhere will be able to help :)

Insulating the loft and getting cavity wall insulation put in are not expensive jobs. You can probably do the loft yourselves. Surveyors like to hedge their bets with regard to rooves ime - boilerplate statements about the age of the roof and how long it can be expected to last. Between me and DP over the years we've had several surveys tell us the roof needed replacing in around five years time. It's never been necessary.

Thank you wowfudge I think i am panicking over nothing. We have fallen in love with this house, and i just don't want to end up regretting or rushing into anything.

It all depends on the age of the house. Recently built houses have been built to quite tight regulations regarding insulation. But as has already been said upgrading insulation is not always costly.
Roofs are always mentioned by surveyors, ours had an amber warning as probably needs replacing. It’s been up there for 95 years and looks as it did originally!
If it’s an older house it’s best not to just rely on the mortgage company building survey. It just reassures the lender that it’s worth the money.
An independent surveyor, instructed by you will give you a more detailed idea of the condition of the house. They can be quite scary, but most things are just because it’s an older house.

Thanks JT05 - I've had a chat with the estate agent and we are going back on Monday for a second viewing (and taking a builder friend as we haven't a clue in all honesty).
HTB is keen to get an offer in, but I would feel better going back and just making sure my gut isn't lying to me (I have crohns disease so never trust my gut first time round anyway haha).

I have also emailed our mortgage advisor (we are THAT clueless that we need someone to sort it for us) and she has recommended an independent surveyor.

I think we are just going to put an offer in and go from there :)

I tend to ask about the boiler- is it a combi? Last time it was checked etc...Also fuse boxes- does it have a circuit breaker. Your solicitor will cover these if you go ahead but its good to have a vague idea of what your dealing with in advance

OnlyFoolsnMothers that was one of the first questions we asked on the viewing. I'm paranoid about boilers because my parents boiler nearly killed us a few years ago (long story - gassy emissions and a permanent open window in the room that the boiler was in saved us!)
Fuse box was on the list as well.
Its just this bloody roof / insulation that I'm panicking about because the asking price is the top end of our budget and we have a couple of thousand £ saved for stuff, but I don't want to be in a position where it's wasted on stuff that we didn't pick up before we made an offer.

oh i see- worst case (not that it should come to it)- any roof problems you maybe able to claim on insurance if not flagged by your survey.
Best of luck

The energy certificate should tell you about insulation.