Unhappy with building survey

[Hibbs126]

We are in the process of buying a 3 bed 1750s house with outbuildings and have just received the building survey from our surveyor.

We've only had homebuyers reports done for previous purchases and were expecting a lot more detailed report from a building survey. It was carried out by a Rics chartered surveyor but it is not on a rics form, doesn't use any form of rating to tell us how ursoon work would need to be done, very few recommendations for what needs to be done to repair issues, some sentences make no sense and I had asked for cost estimates for work that needed doing but none are included. Each room has only 2/3 sentences about it - ie one bedroom it says the floorboards have probably been replaced and are pine and that the original fire place has been retained, with a split hearth - no mention of anything else. The whole report is 19 pages long plus 7 pages of pictures of the outside of the house/buildings from a distance.

Is all this normal for a survey or am I expecting more than I should? Should I have specified I wanted a rics building survey? I had assumed asking a rics Registered surveyor would mean a rics survey but maybe that was stupid! It cost £1500 including vat which was in line with other quotes.

My building survey from several years ago was exactly the same. Like a sentence about each thing. I assume it must mean the house is ok no? I remember reading it and being like oh is this it too 🤣 x

This is a standard report. <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.rics.org/globalassets/rics-website/media/upholding-professional-standards/sector-standards/building-surveying/homebuyer-report-survey-valuation-sample-report-scotland-rics.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwifi8Syn_jwAhW78uAKHTdrBaIQFjAAegQIFxAC&usg=AOvVaw2j7d_5fTcJL5j93Fe6lIjl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.rics.org/globalassets/rics-website/media/upholding-professional-standards/sector-standards/building-surveying/homebuyer-report-survey-valuation-sample-report-scotland-rics.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwifi8Syn_jwAhW78uAKHTdrBaIQFjAAegQIFxAC&usg=AOvVaw2j7d_5fTcJL5j93Fe6lIjl. I think for a house of that age I'd be wanting more detail, if I'm honest. Just so you know the construction materials etc so you know how to maintain it eg condition if the windows, chimneys, does it have lime plaster? If so replastering with modern plaster is likely to cause significant damage etc etc. But then I used to work in building conservation.

It doesn't have the traffic light system of a homebuyers and I don't think they give estimates of work.
I've had ine recently and like you thought it was light in details and shorter than homebuyers. But then the surveyor found no issues bar a few repairs to small covering to bay, so I guess there wasn't a lot to say! No damp, no cracks, windows need either considerable repair or replacing. That's was it in a nutshell.
Go back and ask of there's something that you think warrants further info (if it says something like 'significant sagging to floor in second bedroom' for example), but otherwise maybe the building is sound and warrants no alarm bells!

Maybe I was expecting too much from the survey. There are problems with the house, some are obvious when you walk round and some we hadn't spotted which are noted. But other things I thought would have more info on like one of the bedrooms has a very uneven wooden floor it just says - 'there are some irregularities but worth retaining' no suggestion as to why there are irregularities. I had specifically asked whether the report would include estimated costings for repairs and was told yes so will be going back to him about this but wondered if the rest was normal. Wondering what the point of getting a building survey compared to a homebuyers report is other than wasting money!

Our structural report on a 1800s was 80 pages long, we didn’t end up buying as too many structural issues.

The homebuyers we had done on a 1960s came back 18 pages.

Both by the same surveyor, however, that chat was much more enthusiastic on the 1800s farmhouse, he sounded bored when talking about the 1960s house.

Is your surveyor specialised in older properties?

Hi OP. I think you’re right to be disappointed. A building survey for a period property should contain much more detail. I’m in a similar position to you in that I’ve just commissioned a survey on a 1700s building with outbuildings. I’ve received the report and it’s very detailed: Provides a history of the property, makes an assessment of the quality of each structural aspect of the property, proposes remedial actions for aspects that need to be improved and also suggests additional specialists that I should seek advice from i.e. arborist to advise on trees that are very close to the property. The company that conducted the survey are specialists in period properties and I’d be happy to share their details if you PM me.

I think you're right to be disappointed too OP. I've paid for 2 surveys in the last year, both houses over 100 years old. Even the more rubbish of the two surveys ran to 80 pages, included pictures of every issue and full quotations to get everything repaired. The better of the two also included an indication of how urgent each piece of work was, recommendations for surveys to get based on the area, and cost of maintenance of all features of the property which were in good nick but would need regular upkeep due to the type of house it was. And we only paid £600! Yours sounds more like a homebuyers level of detail imo.

We had a full structural survey which was very detailed. He took hundreds of photos and he used a drone to assess the roof. It didn't list the urgency of jobs like a homebuyers does but it did summarise the main issues. We then got an aborist, roofer and someone up to look at the gutters etc and give us quotes on the repairs needed.

Our buyers had a homebuyers report. The guy seemed really disinterested and didn't even go in the loft. He was there around 20 minutes and seemed more interested in how cold it was outside. Our structural survey took almost 2 hours. I would love to have seen the report on the homebuyers. I think I could have done a better job. I will always have a full structural survey after experiencing that

It should have been a structural survey I think. Does the company explain each type of survey to customers?

I do think costs are very debatable but a full analysis of issues should have been included. I would go back and ask for more info on what the survey should have covered. Ask why there is no detail.