Buying a Victorian detached house with cellar. Previous experiences with surveyors has put me off but we did go with one from the mortgage companies panal!

Can anyone recommend a surveyor to do a building survey that might be of some use and is experienced in Victorian property in the north east Derbyshire/ Sheffield area?

Or failing that, any tips on how to sniff out a good one rather than the vague arsenal covering shister we had previously?

Cheers.

Do I take the lack of responses to mean that there are no surveyors worthy of recommendation?

http://jrunna.co.uk/

Used him twice, he’s very good but I don’t know how far he travels.

A very experienced surveyor and structural engineer once told me there’s no such thing as just a “survey”. You need to be specific about what you want to know. Pick from, for example: Valuation (for you or the mortgage), general structural summary or opinion on specific structural concerns, implications for modification (structural/planning), implications for maintenance, condition of wiring/plumbing…etc

Find a surveyor who looks good, and ask if they can do the survey you want; professional bodies expect anyone who doesn’t have the skills for a particular commission to turn it down.

The whole thing is an arse covering excersise….

I saw talk of people getting a trusted builder in. Any survey on a Victorian property will be a long list of things that might go wrong!!

For the type of house you’re buying you need at least a full structural survey with maybe a specialist damp and timber survey.

The structural surveyor may suggest others (electrical survey for eg).

Factor in between £1-1.5k for the fee. We only got a homebuyers survey done when we bought our current house and even though the house only cost us £63k I wish we’d done the works as we had to promptly get it rewired and completely re-plumbed at a cost of £5k.

We could have haggled a bit over asking price had we known.

I am not a surveyor but have insured a fair few. What I can tell you is that any surveyor who has their own indemnity insurance and is not relying on the assigned risk pool is probably doing a pretty good job.

If we were going with a fairly modern build, I’d be happy to go with a valuation for the mortgage company and a nod from a trusted tradesman or two.

Being an older property, I’m expecting that we will need a building survey (the full one) and maybe tradesmen as well.

If I’m potentially paying four figures for a surveybi want to maximise mu chance of it actually being some use.

I don’t want telling that the walls aren’t level or that the Windows are drafty, I can see that. I do want to know if some of the work on the house hasn’t considered the traditional construction and may cause damp or rot issues down the line or whether the roof timbers are enough to carry the tile roof which at some point in time has replaced the original slate one.

A full structural will have to point out the obvious as well as the not so obvious though – believe me, you might not but people would sue.

Also bear in mind that even a full structural will likely only look at parts of the house which are visible. They may shine a torch in the loft and have a peek down the cellar but for damp etc you will need a specialist damp survey etc.

It will cost money but then a house is expensive so the cost is probably worth it.