Not having a survery/home buyers report

[suzie421]

In the process of buying a house that's 12 years old. Have spoke to a few people and say said they wouldn't bother with the survery/home buyer including estate agent as it's still relatively new. I'd never considered not having it until now, but it sounds good to have the extra money and when sister had one on a old house it never picked up any of the many issues she's had. It seems in very good condition and I doubt there's any major issues. Would I be stupid not to have one?

Oh this thread has left me wondering what to do!

I would never do this is a million years.

It's the most expensive purchase you'll ever make and you don't want to spend £500 to make sure it's actually worth what you're paying?

We’ve bought with and without. Depends how risk adverse you are. We are a bit meh about them especially if we plan on big works. A lot seem to say possibly this could be this and to have further tests. I think if we were buying an old house or one near trees that would could cause subsidence or anything that stood out we would but other no not for us.

We spent over a thousand pounds on a structural survey on a house last summer only for the vendors to pull out a few days later. The survey was about 30 pages long but most pages sounded very generic like from a template and the actual stuff about the house was quite superficial. After the vendors pulled out it felt like we had just thrown a thousand pounds into the bin.

We found another house soon enough, and, still stung by the previous expense on the house we didn’t get we went for the cheapest survey there is. We just wanted to find out if there is anything major stopping us from buying the house, but without the detailed descriptions.

I think if we did it again I would find an independent structural surveyor who can do a thorough job. The buyers of our previous house sent in a very detail oriented surveyor who spent hours in the house testing all sorts of things and noting the tiniest of issues. So they must have gotten a very detailed report and thus knew exactly what they were getting themselves into (and managed to get money off the purchase price as a result grrrr).

@Puffthemagicdragongoestobed so sorry to hear about the money you spent was wasted! What is the difference between getting a structural survey vs. an independent structural surveyor? i.e. aren't all surveys carried out by independently? I asked because we are in the middle of deciding how to appoint one + homebuyers report vs. structural!

Thanks in advance!

We had a home buyers report that flagged up some slight damp issues, we then had to get a damp and timber report which showed issues with the floor joists and would have meant thousands in remedial work. We pulled out of the purchase, so well worth it in our instance.

@littlecontis what I meant was find a personal recommendation for a structural surveyor. I had gone to a large surveyor firm who then sent one of their surveyors and it all felt quite generic. Maybe we just got unlucky, or the house we were supposed to buy just didn’t have many issues!
The structural surveyor used by our buyers seemed to be an independent one and he came across very good and thorough.

We didn't have a survey. We had separate electic, central heating and damp surveys.

On a previous house a really huge problem wasn't picked up and guess what we had no come back.

A house we were selling fell through because a full structural survey suggested practically knocking half the house down, including ripping out a brand new, hand made in frame kitchen 'to look for damp that could be behind the units although there is no evidence of it'. The next buyers also had a full survey and none of the issues that made the first buyer pull out were mentioned!!!

It's like £500, why wouldn't you? Never know what might come up!

find a personal recommendation for a structural surveyor

It's possibly worth highlighting that a structural surveyor, more commonly referred to as a structural engineer, is different to a general practice buildings survyeor.

What many people still refer to as a 'full structural survey' is not a term generally used by survyeors any longer as it was felt the term was confusing because it isn't really a report assessing the structure of a building, it is a very general inspection of the overall condition and to highlight areas that may require further specialist investigation.

Our first house, got a homebuyer’s report for £500, negotiated £10k off the price

Just moved. House we were going to buy, spent £900 on survey and £800 on structural engineer. Revealed all sorts of things. Pulled out of purchase.

House we bought, spent another £900 to find it was as we thought sound. Got a few things serviced from it, so saved about £500.

In total we have saved ourselves from a disaster and the overall benefit is huge. These were Victorian houses but problems even with new build, look after yourself