Should we get a survey?

[Mariposa123]

We are in the process of buying a standard 3 bed house, built in the 60s. Our mortgage offer took about 2 months to come through, but they have stated in the offer letter that no physical valuation survey took place.

My dilemma is now whether to get a survey done independently. My head tells me this is the sensible thing to do. However I worry, after the delay in getting the mortgage offer through, I don’t want to hold up proceedings if it takes a while to get a survey booked. We are selling our current home and I know our buyer is keen to move, and we are keen to move quickly too.

When I have asked people I know, replies have been split over the need to get a survey done. On one hand, it’s a solid house; the vendor was up front with some issues when we viewed the house (boiler and wiring old but still working, for example), but on the other I don’t want to take the easy route now and pay for it later.

Any thoughts?

Fuck yes.

I wouldn't contemplate spending that much money without an expert giving it the once over .

Plus every survey I've commissioned has saved me thousands above it's price by flagging faults that let me negotiate a price drop.

Of course you should. No brainer.

^^ What they said

We didn’t but we were ripping the whole lot out anyway. Looked for obvious signs of subsidence and damp etc.
If we were moving in and not planning on renovating we would have done a full survey

Definitely!

We knew the house we’re currently buying needed some work but there were other things we couldn’t have know from a viewing.

We’re 200 miles away from the house we’re buying but we still managed to book a survey for a date within a week of phoning and the report was emailed four days after that.

I arranged a survey on thr Thursday for the following Friday and we had the report by Tuesday. They don't take that long to arrange or get the results through

Yes!!

Yes! It won't delay your mortgage - they've already done a valuation and agreed to lend. This is so you know that you'll need to spend £2000 on a new roof, £1000 on a damp proof course, £5k replacing the windows,
£5k to replace the floor timbers etc etc etc.

The vendor is there to sell.
By being upfront oh the ele trics is old you are being lulled into thinking you know all the issues. You do not.
The surveyor is there to have unbiased view . Better to know everything

.then you have comeback on surveyor. Buy as seen it s all your problem.

Definitely. We didn't and regretted it.... a lot.

Yes get a survey!

wiring old but still working are you an electrician? Even if you don't negotiate a price drop if you don't have a survey now, when will you assess if the electrics and boiler are safe? It is worth getting the house checked over and if there is something major at least you have the chance to pull out or renegotiate. Better than finding out when you then sell or worse, when something fails catastrophically.

Without a doubt.

Thank you, this is what my brain was telling me. I’d just heard horror stories about surveys taking weeks to be arranged. I’ve also no idea how to arrange one, do I do it through our solicitors or independently?

Yes!! Always get a survey. Even if the vendor is honest there may be issues they’re not aware of.

Ask for recommendations and phone a few up. Or google 'surveyors'. Make sure they're RICS registered.

You arrange your own survey by finding a local surveyor.

Be aware that they will list a whole load of things that require further investigation, to cover their backs. If you have a chat with the surveyor on the phone after you've got the report, they should verbally clarify of there is anything you actually need to worry about.

We’ve found some local guys so hopefully get can get one done quickly! Thank you everyone