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Original poster

Anyone bought without structural survey?

45 replies

Notmyyearthisyear · 16/04/2022 13:06

Hi
In the process of buying my first home alone (bought with partner previously). I initially lost out on the property and then it came back on the market after the first buyer tried to bring the price down. I got it significantly above original asking, which is usual in my area.
My question is, if I know that the vendor will not negotiate on price, should I even bother with a structural or homeowners survey? (Still not exactly clear on the difference between the two!). On the one hand I feel I should, on the other that it’s even more money spent with possibly negligible value. For context, it’s a 3 bed semi built 1940-50, never been extended. Thanks so much in advance to anyone who can offer advice.

OP posts:

Flipfloppety · 16/04/2022 14:01

We’ve just bought a 50’s house and had full structural survey. Personally I would, as it’s not neccesarily about negotiating the price, but will make you aware of any costs you need to factor in when living there. For example our survey has highlighted the roof needs immediate attention - something that wasn’t obvious when we viewed.

Original poster

Notmyyearthisyear · 16/04/2022 14:07

@Flipflopetty do you mind me asking how much it cost you and how long it took to organise?

OP posts:

fourofwands · 16/04/2022 14:11

We're having a full structural survey done on a 1950s house. Not at all with the intention of negotiating on price, but just so we are aware of any potential issues for the future.

CellophaneFlower · 16/04/2022 14:12

The survey the first buyer got possibly showed significant problems perhaps, hence they pulled out after no price reduction... or they could have been unnecessarily scared off by the terminology used in their survey.

Personally I'd get a full structural survey done - unless you know a competent builder you can get to take a look round. Otherwise, unless you're knowledgeable yourself, even if you're prepared to undertake any issues yourself regardless of a reduction, you won't know what these issues are! I wouldn't bother with a homebuyers, as they're far less involved and not much help imo.

parietal · 16/04/2022 14:12

If the survey comes back saying this house needs £50K of work to stop it falling down, you can walk away. If you don't have a survey, you are taking a big gamble. Your mortgage provider will insist on some kind of survey and it is not that much more to get the full one.

MarineBlue33 · 16/04/2022 14:15

It's good to do do you know what you are getting to, even if there is no negotiating on the price.
With a mortgage survey, they don't do too much but with a structural one they should try get into the loft , look at the roof and a lot more

Original poster

Notmyyearthisyear · 16/04/2022 14:17

Thanks so much everyone you are a voice of reason! In the paperwork so far I found some evidence that the house had the bricks tied a few years ago so this could also signify a structural issue of some kind, I guess.
Much appreciated.

OP posts:

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 16/04/2022 14:26

Just had such a survey in a two bed terrace. Cost £300 and has flagged up about £8k worth of serious work needed - enough to renegotiate price and it’s work that needs doing for insurance. So worth doing.

hesbeen2021 · 16/04/2022 14:48

I negotiated a drop to 385 from 425 on an 1870 listed house a year ago. It's a bit of a dump but I had sight of a survey done six years ago and it's not too horrendous. I was paying cash but didn't have hardly anything left so just chanced it. It's worked out fine. I'm still decorating but so far nothing terrible has cropped up.
I wouldn't advise it but had sold in lockdown and was living in a less than ideal place.

Flipfloppety · 16/04/2022 16:44

Sorry only just seen this; it cost us 650 and just rang a registered surveyor; took about a week to complete from booking. Got the report back within 7 days of them coming out. I would never buy an older house without a survey unless I was a builder / in the trade. We knew ours needed work but the roof wasn’t something we had factored in as we couldn’t get into the loft at the viewing. I would also never buy a house without a survey invade serious structural problems such as subsidence etc we’re found. It’s the biggest investment you’ll ever make and for a fraction of the cost a survey is worth every penny in my opinion :)

SpidersAreShitheads · 16/04/2022 17:18

OP, I think the question I would be asking the estate agent is why did the previous buyer try to renegotiate the price? What was seen on their survey?

As others have said, it's not about renegotiating, it's so that you buy with your eyes wide open. We're proceeding with a purchase on a house which has damp, dodgy windows and other issues. We're planning on lots of renovating and building so the survey was almost irrelevant but we needed to be certain there were no showstoppers, or nothing that would blow our budget for building work.

Maybe point out to the estate agent that you don't want to waste anyone's time by putting in an offer and having to retract if the survey shows something awful. If you know up front you can make a considered choice about whether it's the house for you.

fabulousathome · 16/04/2022 17:24

DS1 and partner had a full structural survey on a house that had been bought and renovated within a year, and was now on the market. A huge increase in price was asked for.

Turns out the house had many major issues that were extremely expensive to correct. They walked away.

The same surveyor did a full structural survey on the one they bought and no major issues were found.

A lucky escape.

Flipfloppety · 16/04/2022 17:26

@fabulousathome do you mind me asking what issues they had? We’ve had roofing come back as an issue but no damp/ subsidence or structural issues but this has frightened us a bit!

Blue4YOU · 16/04/2022 17:34

Definitely do it! We didn’t get one on our current house as we were cash buyers and had £45,000 excess from selling our previous house. We planned major work for our disabled DD.
18 months later: damp, pvc doors/windows covered in condensation, I’ve had to rip out carpets and no construction even remotely close to starting mostly because of our architect fucking us over.

BeyondMyWits · 16/04/2022 17:44

I would get a full structural survey on any house now. Didn't get one on this house because we had no spare money at the time. We have come to regret it. Roof spread, bulging wall, cracks etc. Gradually spending a lot of money to fix it.

Starseeking · 16/04/2022 18:13

My cash buyer last year didn't get a survey done...lucky for me as the property had been underpinned a couple of times, although not during our time, and had suffered from subsidence in the past as the extension built in the 80's hadn't been levelled properly, and was on a slope.

I would always get one, even just to let me know the state the property. Ive just spent £850 on a survey for the property I am currently buying. Nothing major identified, but it was good to know where the issues to watch out for are.

Optimisiticcautiouslyso · 16/04/2022 18:16

It is very odd that you haven’t put this together OP

The previous buyer walked away
The owner has accepted an offer way below asking

It is very clear that the survey the original buyers paid for uncovered substantial issues

Hence you getting it for much less!!

Frazzled2207 · 16/04/2022 18:24

In your shoes I would def get either a homebuyers report or fill structural survey

That said we didn’t when we bought our current house, but husband feels quite experienced with these things now, house is only 15 years old, and the issues were fairly obvious.

But our buyers didn’t have one either which I thought was a bit nuts as our old house was 100 years old.

Frazzled2207 · 16/04/2022 18:27

Just wondering it might be worth asking agent if you can buy previous survey from the ex buyers. Not sure If this is a “thing” but it could be worth asking as a starting point.
Agent might be wary if they know of the issues though.

ToExtendOrNotToExtend · 16/04/2022 19:14

I think it's worth spending money on the survey when buying a house in that age, just to reduce the risk of buying something with significant problems that you don't see yourself.
I arranged my homebuyer survey had a really thorough surveyor for £1000, but a major problem is found and reduce the price by £8k. I also bought the previous buyer's structure survey for £100, I was surprised it is actually not as detailed as my home buyer survey and completely missed the major problem.

Original poster

Notmyyearthisyear · 16/04/2022 19:28

@Optimisiticcautiouslyso

It is very odd that you haven’t put this together OP

The previous buyer walked away
The owner has accepted an offer way below asking

It is very clear that the survey the original buyers paid for uncovered substantial issues

Hence you getting it for much less!!

That’s not what I said. The original buyer tried to bring the price down but vendor refused. They came back to me and I still paid significantly over asking, which is usual in the area. Hence me wondering if to pay for a survey seeing the price won’t be negotiable anyway.

OP posts:

Twiglets1 · 16/04/2022 19:38

I’m going to go against the trend and say I wouldn’t personally pay for a full structural if I was 100% going to buy the place anyway and there was no flexibility on price

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 16/04/2022 19:49

@Notmyyearthisyear re your last post. Yes it is worth getting a survey. At least then you know what maintenance needs doing both major and minor as well as routine maintenance. It may also flag up an issue, such as rewiring which may impact your insurance if you should have a fire. Ours was a local surveyor, so he also flagged up that insurers may have an issue with flood zoning - as in class it uninsurable due to flooding, when it has recently been moved to a low risk zone due to river works. Small price to pay for such info.

CellophaneFlower · 16/04/2022 20:44

You don't know for sure you can't renegotiate though. If the problems are significant they may well have to accept they'll need to take a lower offer, or risk this happening time and time again. Of course, you won't know till you've had the survey. The previous buyers could have been frightened off unnecessarily, been cheeky (unlikely... as they pulled out - unless they couldn't actually afford what they offered anyway) or there could be serious issues.

Original poster

Notmyyearthisyear · 16/04/2022 21:20

I don’t know that the original buyer pulled out. To start with, they offered ridiculously above the asking and blew everyone out of the water. Then apparently started messing about and tried to reduce the price quite significantly, but the vendor refused. I got it for more than I originally offered, but less than the original buyer.
The EA didn’t say anything more, but I guess they wouldn’t, would they. All I know is that I had to negotiate pretty hard as the vendor was minded to put it back on the open market if I didn’t meet their minimum price. Managed to negotiate roughly 1% off in the end as I’m in a strong position. I know it all sounds crazy but the market is bonkers where I’m trying to buy.

OP posts:

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