Survey on 3 year old house?

[owainsmum]

We’re buying a house that was built 3 years ago and don’t know whether to bother with a survey or not. It still has 7 years left of the 10 year guarantee from when it was new and we’re not expecting anything to be wrong with it. Part of me is thinking we should have a survey done as we’re spending a lot of money to buy the house, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. What would you do?

I would always have a survey. Just because it's fairly new doesn't mean it may not have problems. As you say, you are spending a lot of money, you need to be satisfied in your own mind that you are buying something totally sound.

I've never had a survey done, and never had any problems. (4 houses bought so far). IMHO surveys are not worth the paper they're written on. Usually vague and full of qualifications designed solely to protect the surveyor.

Full survey every time. New builds aren't necessary innocent 😉

We chose to have a survey done on our new build. You never know what might be hiding.

Yes that’s what I was thinking, there could still be problems even if it’s new. I think I’ll get it done, then I won’t be worrying about it!

I’d bet a survey. You’re very correct, you’re spending A LOT of money and this gives you some piece of mind/protection/perhaps foresight of potential issues etc. Yes, just because it’s new does not always mean no issues.

We have walked away from a fairly newish home purchase (just outside NHBC period), our survey indicated house should be underpinned (built on a hill).

Always do one. Some new builds I.e persimmon homes are riddled with problems

Fortunately in one survey we had done (old house) the surveyor didn't comment on the slightly lean on one of the window surrounds.
So the insurance paid up without argument when we developed subsidence a few years later.

Poor build quality may be the real reason the current owners are moving on quite quickly. Developers have a reputation for wanting to move onto the next project rather than deal with snagging on recent developments

I know the sensible thing is to have a survey. However, in reality I've bought 4 houses and only had one survey. All of the houses have been old but well cared for. The survey I paid about £600 for didn't tell me anything I couldn't already see so was a complete waste of money to me. I'm interested in a house that part of is new, I won't be having a survey

OP have you checked out Rightmove/Zoopla to see how many properties on the development have already been sold/are up for sale? That could give an indication of the quality of the build and design of the houses.

I got a snagging survey done on the new build we bought last year. Slightly cheaper than a full survey and specifically looking for the kind of things that go wrong in the first few years as the house settles. Then it's very easy to hand over to the developer and say "all this is covered under the 10 yr warranty, fix it!" Or you could ask the seller to get it fixed before completion.

It’s a very small development of about 8 houses, they look to be high quality builds rather than the flimsy made from cardboard houses you get in big cheaper developments! I’ve left a message with a local surveyor, when he gets back to me I’ll explain that we only want a light touch survey and see what he says. Hopefully it won’t cost too much, it’s not like we need a full structural survey!

When we bought the difference in price between homebuyer and full structual was £200-250.

If you're going to bother (and i think you should) do it right.

Should you ever need to claim on your buildings insurance your claim will be infinitely more likely to succeed if you have independent 3rd party confirmation that the defect did not exist when you bought (or at least that you could not reasonably have been aware).

An NHBC policy is not as good as people are led to believe. The house needs to meet certain structural standards. It does not protect against every and any defect.