Would you buy without a homebuyer survey?

[Crunchiedelight]

I’m a ft buyer with my DH and have recently had an offer accepted on our dream house. We are booking the mortgage survey next week, is it necessary to book a homebuyer survey too? DH thinks it’s not necessary at all (he was an ea 13yrs ago for a few yrs) but I’m a bit nervous. The house is about 30yrs old, has been extended and renovated by the current vendors beautifully, they have lived there for 20yrs. It all looks great on the surface to me, is it a waste of time and money?

@Erictheavocado, I’m confused. If you’re talking about pre 2008 and you know that things are different now, how relevant is your husband’s pre 2008 practice representative of how things are done now?

Also OP is asking about a buildings survey and not a bank valuation (done by separate valuers). They are not the same thing.

My original post was actually in response to a pp who stated that valuation surveys were different to a valuation survey. I was agreeing with that poster. And whilst regulations have indeed changed, when we moved to a new mortgage provider about ten years ago, so after 2008, the company concerned did not come into our house to carry out their valuation. In fact, when I called them to try to arrange the appointment, I was told they had already done it, so I would imagine that was also a drive by, probably with the added benefit of a google search on prices in the area. Other posters have also said that tgey had similar experiences.

I would as a standard survey looks at very little. Also if there are issues you can negotiate. Having said that ours didn't pick up on the rotten joists and floorboards! But it is of some comfort and you can then walk away if it's really bad

please do we didn’t on this house biggest mistake I’ve ever made . It’s costing £1000s to rectify . Can’t believe we cocked up so badly

I had a full building survey done, it was only a couple of hundred more than a homebuyer survey.

They are good to get done not just for finding out if there are any big problems but to understand if any small bits need to be done in the coming years.

For example ours told us we would need a new roof on the conservatory in a few years as that type of roof only really lasts for 30 years (it's about 28years old). So at least we know that now and can plan for it.

They just help you see the full picture. They also point out things you may have missed when viewing like cracked tiles.

We had a full structural survey on our house, building was 300 years old.
It found damp in the floor in part of the downstairs and rotten window frames. We reduced our offer accordingly and when we looked into the floor after purchase, the previous owner had an extension built and the builder had left a tarpaulin under the floor on the earth. There is a 4ft drop from floor to ground but the tarpaulin was full of water. The air vents in the walls had also been covered so we had to revent to under the kitchen cupboards to dry everything out.