Full building survey - should we worry?

[Cloudesley]

Our buyers are arranging a full survey on our house as opposed to a homebuyers report. It's a big house but I'm certain they are planning to extend it further and generally upgrade, knock through, etc etc. There's nothing wrong with the structure of the house as far as we know. Anyone know what the surveyor looks at in more detail here compared to if he was doing a homebuyers report?

I guess I'm just feeling paranoid and DH is saying we shouldn't yet pay for searches on the house we want to move to, until we have had feedback from the survey on our current property. So that we don't waste money if it all goes wrong. My feeling is this is a bit mad because searches take a long time to come back and they could end up holding up the whole process. Incidentally, our buyers who are having the full survey, HAVE put in for searches for our place. And obviously they are shelling out for the full survey.... so they must be serious!

Can anyone give me a heads up on what are the main issues that would put a buyer off after having a full builders survey? We ourselves have never done a full survey on any house we have bought - we've only ever done homebuyers reports (which aren't worth the paper they're written on IMO but mortgage people always made us do one).

Full buildings surveys cost about £800 and take about 4 or 5 hours to do.

They are especially helpful for older or extended properties.

The issues looked for are similar to other surveys but in greater detail - for example our surveyor looked at the roof but also tested the timbers with a damp meter.

For us, the main things that would have put us off were

Subsidence
Japanese knotweed
Rising damp ie not due to poor ventilation
Dry rot in roof timber
Dodgy extensions / RSJ (some of the work does not have building regs sign off as it's historic)

We'd have negotiated if a new roof was required.

Issues that came back which we didn't even give a second thought were things like old windows, weird guttering and historic staining to roof timbers.

We pulled out of a purchase after a survey but it did reveal subsidence, penetrating damp, unsupported chimney stacks, brickwork issues, roof problems and I haven't even got to the windows and other more minor issues!

It's not uncommon for buyers to renegotiate the price following the survey but unless your house has real issues, I doubt anyone will pull out.

Thank you both - I would be surprised if our house has any of those problems but you never know. Yes this house has been extended three times so it makes sense. Happily building regulations were adhered to (we have proof of that from when we bought it).

Dry rot worries me though as how would you even know you had it if it's dry and it is in the roof!

We had a full survey and so did our buyers. The survey on the house we're buying revealed a huge list of issues but we only negotiated on the cost of a new roof.

The report on our house (a much younger building) didn't come back with anything. I think our buyers are also planning building work, and their surveyor was looking mostly at anything that might impact that.

Our house was built in 1960 and extends in the 90s. I hope they don't try to renegotiate on anything because our budget doesn't allow it. We could try passing the renegotiation up the chain but I'm not sure about that.

I wouldn’t worry about their decision to go for a full survey. We’ve always gone for one, on 1950s+ houses. There may be issues and they may try and ask for a discount but you don’t need to accept. I wouldn’t delay searches (depends if you’re pushing by for 31st March completion which is still in the realm of possibility.

My buyers had one done on my house. It's recommended for older houses, mine is 1920's
If you look online you can see the difference between a homebuyers survey and a building survey

Anyone have an idea how long for a full survey results to come back?

They usually take at least a week for written report but if there was anything major you should know about they usually phone you. Or you could phone them after a few days.

Thank you - that's not as long as I thought. However they won't be phoning me because this concerns my sale, not my purchase. Just worried they will find something awful I don't know about and then the purchasers might try to renegotiate. But a week or so isn't too long to wait!

Our surveyor has told us that they'll call us within 2-3 days, and a full report within the week. I intend to email the estate agent once we get the call to put the seller's mind at ease.

For ours, we're only really concerned about significant safety concerns and meeting the concerns of our lender. We'd only attempt a renegotiation if there is something major to be safe - we're already aware of repairs needed to get watertight again. We're also getting a gas & electric check, just to be safe as the property has been empty for a while and we're planning to upgrade the heating system.

If yours are doing major changes, they may have asked them to particularly look at those areas. We asked our surveyor to pay particular attention to the attic (because we weren't able to view it) and a few areas that either need repairs or have what we think is cosmetic damage that we want to double check (putting and removing a stairlift isn't kind to walls).

Would something like home buyer's protection insurance help reassure your husband to move forward with searches? You're right that they can take ages, we're heading into the third month since paying for the searches, and right now that's apparently not odd for where I'm at (council is notoriously slow/doesn't have enough people for this before the current situation). It's part of the reason we're doing the gas & electric now - we have to wait anyways, might as well do the checks now.

Ah yes sorry - your buyers should know within a week and they will get the phone call if there is anything major!

Gosh @BiBabbles that homebuyers insurance looks just the ticket - thank you! I've sent a link to DH. Funnily enough I was thinking to myself the other day that you should be able to take out insurance against house sale / purchase falling through, but then I decided I had never heard of such a thing, probably because it didn't exist, and promptly forgot all about it.

I’m not sure if things are different now but we completed last June on a sale and purchase and our solicitor who was in equal parts amazing and terrifying held off doing the searches (to save is money) as she said they would just use a 3 rd party search company -xpress or something? As they could get searches back in days.

Was during COVID but possibly there are more delays at the moment due to the stamp duty holiday.

I did a full survey on the flat I'm buying - the big house it's part of dates back to the 1860s. Key issues would've been structural, subsidence, damp, drains, brickwork, rooves and guttering. And sumps (it has a basement).

My buyers did the same on mine and tried to ask for a £15k reduction on the back of it. I said no. The offer was already lower than I wanted. I had a previous buyer withdraw (for different reasons) and they shared the survey they had had done so that was very helpful for me to know the true picture - which was no serious structural issues.

One of the biggest problems is that the survey is the property of the person who commissions it. So if it's of your house you can't see it. So you have to take your buyers word for it as to what it says. The surveyor might give you a flavour when they come to do the survey (but they are not obliged to). And they are unlikely to tell you much in detail.

When reading a survey if you are not familiar with them they can seem quite scarey as by their very nature they identify lots and lots of potential problems. The knack is knowing what's serious or just something to be aware of for the future. I see my survey of my new home as an owners manual about what I shall need to be aware of for future maintenance. I've had a lot of experience of reading surveys so wasn't phased by it. I got a further inspection done on the back of it - this can happen. My first buyer had a drains survey (which was handy as they paid to clean out my drains). The second did an electrical survey (and I got him to sort out a broken bulb stuck in a light socket!).

Doing a full survey for a house is very normal. I wouldn't let it panic you at all. I would never buy a house without a full survey.

We were buying a house where the survey showed a serious penetrating damp problem. The seller had painted over it so we had no idea at the viewing. It was going to cost thousands to fix and the seller wouldn't negotiate. We didn't buy it.

For our current house, the survey found some areas of rising damp. It is not serious, and common in the age of house, so we went ahead and bought it. I would have liked to drop the price a bit, but we liked the house enough to not risk pissing off the sellers.

My house is 160 years old. If my buyers have a full survey I'm sure lots of things will come up, but I know the roof is sound, I've done damp work and have a guarantee, and have building reg sign off on my extension. What I'm missing is I had some windiws replaced at vast expense (£900/window), and he wasn't fensa registered, so I don't have a certificate. I know they are up to code but I guess worse case I can get them inspected if need be.
But nothing would put me off other than possibly subsidence. I have renegotiated on damp reports, but I've always split the costs. I've never pulled out of buying.

Thank you for all the reassuring comments about surveys!

Regarding FENSA I'd ever heard of it until the buyers asked for our certificate. Well, there isn't one - I searched on the FENSA website. Windows had already been done when we moved in. Goodness knows whether this will hold things up - especially as there's nothing wrong with the windows

Glad to help. I hadn't heard of it either until I was looking into house hunting tips and google kindly popped out that website.

Like you, I did think that it made a lot of sense though there are mixed reviews out there on whether or not it's worth it and some complaints like all insurance about difficulties claiming and being careful of the fine print, but if it suits, it may give your DH peace of mind like it did mine.

If you're going to single a few hundred grand or more into a property and spend the next decade in it, you'd be stupid not to spend £1000 on having someone who knows how building are meant to be built, and how they decay, look it over and prepare a report. Especially if the building was built in the past 40 years. The quality of building has dropped substantially, especially in the past 20 years. At least if you buy a 100 year old building, the issues are readily discoverable, and usually apparent.

@Cloudesley

Thank you for all the reassuring comments about surveys!

Regarding FENSA I'd ever heard of it until the buyers asked for our certificate. Well, there isn't one - I searched on the FENSA website. Windows had already been done when we moved in. Goodness knows whether this will hold things up - especially as there's nothing wrong with the windows

There is also another certifying body CERTASS www.certass.co.uk/

So it might be worth checking whether they are CERTASS registered rather than FENSA. If they were already in when you bought the property then your conveyancing solicitor at the time would have asked for these and it is possible they hold the certification on their file from when you bought the property.

Subsidence, legal issues (eg building certification) or being on a flood plain are about the only things that would really put me off (TBF, I'd probably be informed about the latter without a survey). Have actually had knotweed, and despite what's said it's not impossible to deal with.

We have paid for full structural surveys twice. Once for a house on a hill. Mortgage lender suggested we get it. we walked away as the structural survey reported the house required underpinning.

Second is the house we’re in now. Lots of extension and RSJ so that was one reason. It found some type of wood eating beetle in the loft, needed new joists and new insulation. I also paid for a separate water/heating/drains survey because the boiler had not been serviced in years and seller had ticked the box that there was a switch tank (there isn’t). We negotiated the price to have the work in the loft done. As regards water/heating/drains, it did say the boiler wouldn’t last but between 6 mos to a year but didn’t ask for reduction in that. It stopped working a month after moving in.

In the house we are in, we have done more structural work, have building control sign off so we’re not worried it I wouldn’t be surprised if when we come to sell, there would be a full structural.

As a first time buyer buying a victorian terrace I commissioned a full building survey and in really glad I did to be honest. I'm not accusing you of anything, but for me the vendor told me all was fine, no issues etc. When I queried the peeling wall paper and damp marks in a bedroom she has plausible explanations.

The issue turned out to be the damp course having failed and about 10 years worth of damp, issues with the roof, the fact the pointing was so bad you could see daylight through etc It would have cost nearly 5k just to put right the damp course so I reduced my offer by that amount because I was damned if I was paying to put right her lack of maintenance. It has still cost me 20k in the last year to fix things, from the survey and cosmetic stuff.

The survey will say what is currently wrong and also give the buyer an idea of what is likely to need doing in 5, 10 and 20 years along with an approximation of costs. It is a good thing for a buyer and as a vendor unless you are hiding something (like my lying sods were)

WTF anyone would ever buy a property on a flood plain is beyond me. That has to be the dumbest thing you can do with your life savings.