What was your homebuyer's survey like and how much notice did you take of it?

[Joeytribbianiz]

I think our guy might be being really cautious. He's put a red flag/level 3 for japanese knotweed, despite stating he didn't find any in the garden, just that it's known to be in the area (we are in London!)

The house is more than 100 years old, he's given us a level 3 for some loose/slipped tiles on the roof - surely not a terrible problem to fix?

Also some frost damaged bricks, something to do with the chimney affixed to the roof is letting in a little bit of water. Again all red flags/level 3.

To me this doesn't seem like a massive problem. I've booked a phone call to go over it with him on the phone. I'd love to hear some other stories though - what did yours throw up and did you decide it was acceptable?

So we had one on a property we were buying for 195 and was down valued 30k because of the work involved and swme hidden horrors we didn't see on the viewing, the vendor wouldn't budge on price because apparently the home buyer surveys are very cautious according to the EA and they wanted to see the valuation from our lender before even considering renegotiation. We walked away even if they are cautious its what you're paying for. Rather be cautious than have unpleasant surprises later on

It’s nuts. He’ll no doubt play it all down when you call him. It’s all basically arse covering so you don’t sue later on.

Yeah crazy . A few slipped tiles !!!!!!!!! If you lived next door to me I'd go up and fix them for you for a bottle of Pepsi Max 🙂

Looking through it again I see he's given us a level 3 for a loose floorboard 🤦‍♀️

Absolutely ridiculous. I had a full survey on the house I’m in now, and like pp said, it’s all arse covering. It didn’t tell us anything that we couldn’t have seen for ourselves. And cost about £750. We’ve now sold our house, and we did still have a survey on the new one. But, the new property is listed and needs converting, so we needed it this time.

Yes ours was like this. Total arse covering. They also got a couple of things majorly wrong. Said there was a rotten asbestos drainpipe (wasn't asbestos), and that the wooden fascia at the back was rotten (it was plastic!!)

Ours was comprehensive as we had the structural one, but there were only a couple of things in it that we wasn't able to see for ourselves.
We've since had issues with the house that wasn't mentioned on the survey at all. Still glad we had it, and we use it as a checklist to tick when we complete something on it

Ours was great tbh. Really clear, sensible and comprehensive. I guess it's like most things to do with house buying, when you come across a good individual, keep them for next time!

But, the levels aren't necessarily about how hard the work is to do, or how expensive. It's just that it probably needs doing sooner.

We were selling a house in 2003 - we had moved into it when new only 2 years previously. The buyers survey claimed it was £20k overpriced and had around £10k worth of problems - the worst of these was a cracked roof tile above a bay window where the window cleaner had stood on it unknown to us and the second worst - flashing around one of the windows was half a brick to far to the left.

We had all the non problems fixed for around £500 and had to drop the price £10k. When we employed the same surveyor on our next new build house (thinking that he's been so bloody picky on the one we were selling he would pick up anything) he was useless! Only picked up 10 faults and we ended up with a snagging list of 200 including unlevel floors which he missed!!

I can only think he had a vested interest in the other house somehow!

Ours was a bit over the top tbh loads of levels 3’s that were actually more cautions or things that were not up to current standards, and some things were not correct, he said there was damp in the chimney from loose flashings, had a roofer up there who said the flashings were absolutely fine. Also said there was damp in the bay window, likely to be penetrating as they’re one brick thick, it was actually condensation damp as the house had been sat empty for a year. Been here two years and no other than the initial condensation damp (which is gone now the house is heated properly and wallpaper removed) there is no damp anywhere and no issues at all.

It's amazing how cold / damp houses get when not heated for a year or so , ours was empty for almost 2 years before we moved in , it was so cold working on the concrete floors used to make my feet numb through my trainers 😀 And snow would stick to the windows and not melt It was definatly colder inside than out

We had the full one as we bought a project. It was useful but massively over the top. Urgent (red) works amassed £70k. It was useful mind as we had missed an issue with the drains. We negotiated a £4k reduction to asking price. It has not cost us £70 k to do the work, and we knew it wouldn't.