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Original poster

Full building survey - should we worry?

42 replies

Cloudesley · 10/02/2021 06:46

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).

OP posts:
DinoHat · 10/02/2021 20:09

Maybe they’re just cautious. I wouldn’t be overly concerned unless your house is crumbling around your ears.

Original poster
Cloudesley · 11/02/2021 12:18

@BiBabbles I've been investigating the homebuyers protection insurance and can't get to speak to anyone - would you happen to know whether "disbursements" are covered? Searches count as disbursements apparently. The website says that legal fees up to x amount are covered (same thing with the other insurance companies I've now found) and I'm thinking that it could be that searches don't count as legal fees. That would be just typical because you know how these insurance companies wriggle out of anything!

Regarding FENSA it seems our windows were installed in the 90s so certification wasn't required then - hopefully that lets us off the hook.

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Original poster
Cloudesley · 11/02/2021 12:19

@ElliFAntspoo

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.
I agree but I think some people bought properties that weren't on flood plains at the time. Or something!!
OP posts:
SeasonFinale · 11/02/2021 12:46

Yes certficiation is post 2002.

Having a survey is not someone being cautious (as a PP said) but sensible.

Derbee · 11/02/2021 13:18

Not saying this will happen, but if the buyers pull out due to a terrible survey, it’s worth asking for a copy (even if you have to buy it at a reduced rate) so you can see what, if anything you need to fix before selling again.

I wouldn’t get yourself worked up about a survey though - we’ve never bought a house without a full structural survey. Even if the survey isn’t great, at least We’ve known what we were letting ourselves in for financially

Original poster
Cloudesley · 11/02/2021 13:57

Good idea to try and buy the survey if it turns out to be bad ..... fingers crossed it will be ok though. Definitely nothing wrong with the house that we know of, but you never know

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WombatChocolate · 11/02/2021 15:44

When people try to negotiate a discount, they usually need to share the section of the report that mentions the issue and how pressing dealing with it is with the buyers EA and/or solicitor. The buyer can specify to the EA that they do t want it passed o to the actual buyer if they wish, but actually a small part isn’t usually an issue anyway.

I had a survey done (no mortgage involved) and exterior work was required as needing doing with an urgent timescale. We negotiated a reduction in price. Rarely does the seller want to do the work themselves, so you need to reduce the price then. As well as the survey, we had a contractor come round and price the job and we supplied that info too. I feel it’s not realistic to ask for reductions without having evidence they are needed and evidence of likely cost.

Of course, it is up to you if you accept the request and often people meet halfway.

Where issues are identified that actually were obvious, it’s reasonable to say the property was priced with that issue already in mind. You wouldn’t expect to reduce price for that.

It is a bit nerve wracking when your own property is being surveyed as you do worry what might come up (even if there’s nothing you know about....obviously more so if you’ve kept quiet about a known issue) but is is standard. Be reassured that people don’t spend £1k if they have no intention of buying at all. Often the ones to worry about are those who are cash buyers and don’t need any kinks if survey or valuation and choose to have nothing done...they can often pull out as they haven’t spent anything to lose.

ElliFAntspoo · 11/02/2021 15:52

I agree but I think some people bought properties that weren't on flood plains at the time. Or something!!
Buying a property in a low point on the land is by definition buying in a flood plain. It might not have happened in the past, but it may happen in the future, and you can't pretend that you didn't know what water ran down hill. Water goes gown hill, and if it cannot drain away once it is down hill, it spreads and fills up. Everyone knows this. It isn't rocket science. But people ignore it because the house is pretty.

ElliFAntspoo · 11/02/2021 15:56

@WombatChocolate

When people try to negotiate a discount, they usually need to share the section of the report that mentions the issue and how pressing dealing with it is with the buyers EA and/or solicitor. The buyer can specify to the EA that they do t want it passed o to the actual buyer if they wish, but actually a small part isn’t usually an issue anyway.

I had a survey done (no mortgage involved) and exterior work was required as needing doing with an urgent timescale. We negotiated a reduction in price. Rarely does the seller want to do the work themselves, so you need to reduce the price then. As well as the survey, we had a contractor come round and price the job and we supplied that info too. I feel it’s not realistic to ask for reductions without having evidence they are needed and evidence of likely cost.

Of course, it is up to you if you accept the request and often people meet halfway.

Where issues are identified that actually were obvious, it’s reasonable to say the property was priced with that issue already in mind. You wouldn’t expect to reduce price for that.

It is a bit nerve wracking when your own property is being surveyed as you do worry what might come up (even if there’s nothing you know about....obviously more so if you’ve kept quiet about a known issue) but is is standard. Be reassured that people don’t spend £1k if they have no intention of buying at all. Often the ones to worry about are those who are cash buyers and don’t need any kinks if survey or valuation and choose to have nothing done...they can often pull out as they haven’t spent anything to lose.

If they ask for a discount, I would ask for full disclosure, as in a full copy of the report. If they don't hand it over, refuse to negotiate on the price. They walk away having lost the £1000 they spent on the survey. It is still a sellers market until the realities of Covid unemployment and bankruptcies hits and then we head into a depression like no-one has seen, and it becomes a buyers market as half the people who took out mortgage holidays find they don't have jobs anymore, are behind on their mortgages and get foreclosed upon. But most of that will be in the sub-200K market I suspect.
redcandlelight · 11/02/2021 16:07

I agree.
not doing a full survey would be weird.

usually the buyer gets a survey report soon after (week or so) and then they will ask you questions.
if your house is in good condition and has been well maintained then you have nothing to worry about.

redcandlelight · 11/02/2021 16:53

and if something unexpected comes up in the survey you will have the option to
a) repair/resolve the issue
b) reduce the price
c) pull out

Original poster
Cloudesley · 11/02/2021 20:13

I will report back on what happens!

OP posts:
Original poster
Cloudesley · 16/02/2021 13:03

Well the surveyor did the survey this morning - full building survey but only took 2 hours.

I asked at the end if he had found anything drastic, and he said no, the house is fine. Let's see if the buyers agree! Presumably the report will be full of picky niggly issues as they always are....
Just relieved he didn't seem to find some awful fault that we weren't aware of!

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sparklesandmoresparkles · 16/02/2021 13:42

We renegotiated after a full survey based on it needing a new roof (was unlikely to get us through another winter) and some unsafe electricals. But because we love the house we took on more than 50% of the cost as they said they’d only take a small further hit after we knocked them down from asking by a fair bit already. But in our opinion it was WAY overpriced in the first place, after doing our research, and we hadn’t factored in it needing a new roof in our original offer.

Original poster
Cloudesley · 02/03/2021 19:04

Have heard today via estate agent that buyers have "some questions" arising from the survey, which took place two weeks ago now.

I shall just wait to hear these questions through the solicitor, but has anyone had this? Surely the survey answers any questions - I can't really give anymore information than what a surveyor can!

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FiloPasty · 12/04/2021 00:24

How did it go @Cloudesley ? We have a survey on our house this week.

Sandrine1982 · 20/10/2021 20:49

Hello hello. How is it going? What were the questions? Grin

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