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Rogue Survey

1 reply

Puppylucky · 18/10/2019 22:28

Hi
I wanted to share my experience with a surveyor to see if anyone else could shed some light on what may have happened.
Our house is (was) under offer and the buyers commissioned a home survey from a local surveyor.
Our house is of standard construction and is a 1920's terrace in a sought after area of East London. It's a bit tired in parts (80's conservatory and tatty but non leaky roof), but is in good decorative order, with a refurbished kitchen and newish bathroom.
The survey that the buyers commissioned completely destroyed our house. The identified faults ranged from dated wardrobes to underfloor leaks, defective roof, evidence of break in attempts and rodent infestation.
None of the claims are in the survey actually hold water and some of them are clearly subjective opinions.
To make matters worse, when our poor shell-shocked buyers asked the surveyor's opinion as to the cost of the remedial works required, he quoted £80 - 100k - about the cost of rebuilding the house from scratch. We have today had an estimate of £2,000 to address the main issues highlighted in the survey, so some discrepancies in pricing exist !
Not surprisingly the buyers have now pulled out and the entire chain has collapsed.
I'm philosophical about the whole thingz but curious to know if anyone else has experienced such a strange survey experience and what the motivation was behind it. I'm still struggling to understand why this guy decided to trash a completely normal house.
TIA

OP posts:
MoonlightBonnet · 20/10/2019 13:34

Sounds like a pretty normal survey, though the cost of putting things right may sound high. There’s no way you’re getting a new roof for £2k and that will be included in his costs. An eighties conservatory will be at the end of its life, so that would also be included in his costs. He won’t be saying that there is definitely a rodent infestation, just that there are potential signs of one. If your house is priced as though it has a conservatory and doesn’t need a new roof, then you need to be prepared for this stuff to come up again in the next survey.

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