MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Recently bought new house. Commissioned RICS homebuyers report. Apart from issue with front bay window that I was already aware of, nothing of real concern.
Recently discovered that ceilings in three bedrooms and upstairs hallway are covered in polystyrene (not tiles, some kind of spray). Now I'm in process of removing and having them skimmed and painted. Don't fully understand the fire risks, but enough of a concern that its got to go.
Question is, should I be chasing the firm that did the survey? They're supposed to highlight all things that may cost money/be dangerous and I would have thought polystyrene lined ceilings would fit into both those categories. Certainly I would ha e looked to negotiate a discount with the seller to cover the costs I'm now incurring.
So do I have a case. Is it worth raising it with them and is there a rat's chance in hell that they'll agree to compensate and/or refund the cost of the survey?
Any thoughts/experiences/expertise greatly appreciated..
Ours picked up and recommended removal of the polystyrene tiles. Missed loads of other rather important defects though. Waste of paper in my opinion 🙁
You can add them to the list of parasites that are part of the buying/selling process.
Estate agents
Solicitors
Home buyer report.
Homebuyers report? Doubt they even went in the house.
You'll probably find some print in their t's and c's saying it was a non-intrusive survey, so they'll have a get out for anything that couldn't be seen i.e. wallpapered/painted over.
I tried contesting mine when they missed lots of expensive faults which needed fixing (blown plasterboard etc). The complaints process was a farce and in the end I just gave up. If I ever move house again I’ll just go round and poke walls, try and look knowledgeable and save myself the cash.
Well they definitely went in the house. Even got photos to prove it. They do say about the non-intrusive nature of what they're doing, but they specify that's not taking up carpets or stripping wallpaper & suchlike. Anyway, the polystyrene hasn't been painted on, or disguised in any way. It's fairly obvious actually (I missed it, but then again I'm a bit of a spanner when it comes to this sort of thing and regardless I'm not an RICS qualified surveyor).
So it comes back to whether or not I've any kind of case against them I guess
Very unlikely. Direct your efforts into removing the tiles!
(If the finish is too rough after removing the tiles just get the ceilings overboarded and skimmed.)
I'm at the stage of thinking about getting a surveyor to look at a property before buying it, is a level 3 RICS Building Survey worth paying for?
I'm new to all this as it'll be the first house I've bought but supposedly it's a lot more thorough than a homebuyers report but if they miss something will you have just paid out a load more money and still have no comeback on the surveyor?
I’m new to all this as it’ll be the first house I’ve bought but supposedly it’s a lot more thorough than a homebuyers report but if they miss something will you have just paid out a load more money and still have no comeback on the surveyor?
Speaking form experiecne I'm guessing the report will have a lot of 'it appears that....' comments before statements to cover thir arses in many many ways.
Report on house we bought also had huge amount of arse covering. I doubt I could make anything stick against the surveyors even if the house fell down tomorrow.
Assuming it's a mortgaged property, you could try speaking to the lender if you think it would alter the valuation of the property. It doesn't sound like this would be significant enough for that though.
Complete waste of time. Full structural from a peer recommended surveyor or don't bother.
We didn't bother with surveyor on this house and just targeted obvious issues - i.e drains survey using specialist with remote camera, tree surgeon for checking large tree close to house etc