Should I get a survey?

[NotStayingIn]

I'm going round in circles so I thought maybe you lovely people can give some advice.

I'm buying a flat in an early 1960's, 6 storey block owned by a London Council (Ealing). It's one of those mix of council tenants and leaseholders setups that are common in London. (Might be common everywhere, sorry I'm not sure!)

Anyway, I can't decide whether to get a survey. The mortgage company will do a survey (which I assume I will not see), but I'm not sure whether there is much point in paying for my own.

So I just wanted to sanity check, would you get a survey on a flat? (Not sure whether the fact that a council owns the property is relevant.) Or would you leave it?

Thank you for your help!

Yes. My son and his wife have just bought an ex council house and trusted that anthing major would be covered by the mortgage survey. It wasn't. They now face a hefty bill to get the place rewired because the electrics aren't safe. One of the electricians who checked is a semi-retired criend who will not be doing the work so has no reason to push for unnecessary work to be done. Make sure you specify that they fully check the electrics, plumbing and windows with an explanation of whether the condition is good, adequate, safe or will need replacement /repair immediately or imminently with estimates of costs if possible. It may find nothing but better safe than sorry.

Thank you, that's really good to know, thanks for the advice.

Surveyors won't usually check the plumbing and electrics. You'll need a plumber and electrician to do that. You'll probably find the survey has a lot of caveats about them not been qualified to inspect plumbing and electrics to cover their own backs.

Thank you, that's also good to know. It's what I'm worried about, that you end up spending a lot of money on quite vague feedback.

Oh course with flats now there can be a major concern if the building has cladding.

Just bought a house this June. Like you, I was not sure if a survey (at £600) was going to be worth it because the surveyor was quite honest - He told me that he is not qualified to comment on the electrics and plumbing. All my friends who have bought houses and got surveys done clean that’s okay it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. However they do check for Japanese knot weed, structural issues, and not much else. I just wanted to do it for peace of mind. I got a plumber in separately to check the boiler and give me a gas safety certificate, but that was because the boiler was 10 years old and I needed to know if I needed a new boiler – I would’ve taken that off the purchase price. We bought the house, got in and within two days found a leak in the loo and the bathtub. Actually, even a plumber wouldn’t have been able to tell me about it If I had brought him in before buying the house.
I think if you know an electrician, get him in to look it over. But honestly if there isn’t something glaringly obvious there’s not much you will be able to find out until you start living there. I think the survey for a flat in my opinion, not really required, for a house, maybe yes.

I skimped on a proper survey before (flat owner) and regret it. I would not make the same mistake again.

if you have one, it may turn out there is nothing to worry about, so what you have bought is peace of mind. For me, that's important because I'm a worrier.
If you don't have one and something nasty turns up later, it's almost bound to cost you a lot more than a survey, and be worrying and disruptive as well.
We're experienced, and we would always have one. Even though we have ourselves already spotted most of the things surveys have come up with, and they have never thrown up anything really horrible.

Thank you all so much for your replies, really useful!