Help deciphering survey - screen shots included!

[Piddles1]

Hi all

Please could I have honest opinions about this full structural survey? House is 50’s and requires some updating- decor is old, some replastering and a new bathroom etc all evident upon viewing. However, the survey results have come back and they are pretty terrifying…am hoping I am just being a bit silly but we have a lot of 3’s and the rest are 2’s. We had budgeted to cosmetically update but not sure if this house is actually going to be a money pit…

Further bits of the report for anyone that has the will to read them 🤣 I think the flooring just appears to be because the carpets are about 20 years old but not sure…

Just to add it was rewired in 2008 so no concerns about electrics. I’m torn between running a mile and thinking it’s just the surveyor covering their arse!

My impression is that it's a mixture of work that should be done to keep the house in good order and arse-covering. E.g. the lengthy section on subsidence, settlement and damp seems alarming but is for information and tells you what to look out for (which imo the surveyor should be doing!). Based on my skim read it doesn't seem as though there's any evidence of those things in the house (the condition is noted as "satisfactory" lower down the page). Things like roof repairs and window replacement are all things you should consider doing either in the short term as preventive measures or in the medium term when required.

FWIW we recently bought a 1930s house and the survey was a similar mix of recommendations.

If you have loads of questions, I'd personally ask for a call with the surveyor to talk through your concerns and explain bits of the report that aren't clear to you.

Thank you both, yes I think I need to ask the surveyor. I’m worried that it might be a money pit, but then part of me thinks it’s likely they would flag these sorts of things on an old house as a precautionary measure!

Speak to the surveyor. I’ve had one where he said, yes, maintenance work to do but decent house and we could space the work out and another where the surveyor said, if it was my daughter I’d tell her not to touch it with a barge pole (different houses). You’ll often get a better opinion not in writing

Honestly it annoys me so much that they charge for a full structural survey and then don't even look under the carpet to see what the 'bounciness' is. Or bring a ladder.

I think it looks fine - caveat I'm not a surveyor! A lot of the worrying sounding stuff is just gumpf that is put into every report, by the looks. It might be worth getting someone to have a look at the roof to see if it does need replacing, from what the surveyor writes I'd guess it probably doesn't actually need doing right now.