Are surveys extra alarmist lately?

[Atemyhat]

I was told today that estate agents have noticed that surveyors are writing particularly ‘alarming / bad” surveys at the moment. That houses now are being flagged up as having problems when they never would have been a year or more ago. This person muttered something about them trying to bring house prices down.

Anyway. Has anyone else noticed this supposed trend, or is the person I spoke to talking nonsense?

That sounds like the kind of thing someone would say if they wanted to make excuses for a bad survey... an EA?

We had bad surveys on a number of houses when trying to buy but thought our surveyor did a great job of explaining what is a regular maintenance issue, what’s urgent and what’s a real red flag likely to cause issues in the future. I’ve seen people here suggest that surveyors will always recommend damp surveys, roof surveys etc - not in my experience.

It’s the rise of litigation culture - there was a huge case (in surveying terms) in the last year which found the surveyor negligent & liable when pretty much every other surveyor in the Country would have done the same as him - therefore every last little thing is now being checked or caveated- can’t blame the surveyor, they’re doing what their insurance requires.

Oh that’s interesting @Blinkingbatshit . Maybe there’s something to it then.

Yes Surreygirl, it was an EA, which is why I was inclined to be sceptical.