Do I get structural survey before I market house? Internal wall

[Positivelypatient]

Hi there, just wondered WWYD in my situation....
I'm getting my house ready to sell and am not sure whether I should pay for a structural survey for an internal load bearing (I think) wall that was removed between kitchen and dining room about 15 years ago.

The work was done by my ExH who is a chartered building surveyor by trade and I know that a hefty RSJ was put in place at the time. There is no building regs sign off so I'm wondering if I should meet the likely query head on and get a report done beforehand?

I know I'll have to declare the work on the questionnaire but I don't know if I'd be better waiting for any buyers solictor queries. Could they construe me getting a report done in anticipation as being biased? I'm not expecting any problems with the actual work that was done.

Anyone have any experience of what you had to do to satisfy buyer enquiries of this nature? Thank you

We had some cracks in our living room wall and we thought it's probably not an indication of any serious problem but found potential buyers were put off by it. Our estate agent eventually suggested getting a survey done ourselves so that we could reassure people and/or know in advance how much it would cost to fix. We had the survey done and it turned out to be a minor problem needing £500 worth of work. We did get a buyer then who was happy with the reassurance from the survey.
Maybe this is a bit different because our problem was apparent on viewings whereas your problem maybe isn't. But it gives great peace of mind to know in advance whether this is going to throw up a huge problem later or not.

I’d get that done, I’m very surprised a surveyor didn’t get building regs sign off.

It would probably be cheaper to get an indemnity policy when you have buyers, and that's what buyers will ask for anyway if there are no building regs.

I’d get a structural engineer to do a survey to save all the stress. Surprised he didn’t bother with Building Control sign off though, what a pleb.

selling a house is bad enough without the extra stress! And be prepared to pay for an indemnity.

Our last house wasn’t built with a fire break and it was signed off by building control before we purchased 😡 so when we went to sell, I made sure I had all the indemnity and proof that it was retrospectively fitted and safe. I just couldn’t be dealing with any extra stress like that - especially when the neighbours were smokers.

Our vendor had a whole pile of building regs signs off a month before house went on the market. The work itself had been done years before!

@tingalayo thank you yes that's what I am thinking, reassurance more than anything and heading off the inevitable Q's from buyers.
@Woodlandarchitect22 ha yes, a pleb indeed in many many ways 😂
@RidingMyBike that's interesting to know thank you

Ok well I think it might be worth pre-emptively getting a structural survey on the wall in question to reassure would-be buyers. Thank you for your experiences they are really helpful.

For those that mention indemnities I did expect to need one of those too although from what Ive read, they aren't really worth the paper they're written on but if it reassures a buyer/lender then I'm in!

Isn't the indemnity mostly in the case of being pursued for PP / building regs which as the written is over 10 years the council wouldn't be able to anyway? Or have i got that mixed up.