Property look immaculate with the exception of the top of the chimney. The lender is doing a valuation survey for free but do I get a home buyers report done or just take a builder to have a look round?

You ask 5 people and they all give different answers. As a first time buyer I just want to make sure I do the right thing.

I think its just cosmetic but I’ve not got any quotes yet. I wonder if I’d be better off using the £400 for a home buyers report towards fixing it instead of the report and then trying to get the price down.

Pay a builder for a couple of hours verbal report. More value in that than anything other than a massively intrusive expensive survey in my opinion.

I’ve always found surveys a complete waste of time and money. They are so risk averse that they just put it generalisations and coveralls on pretty much everything, so you have no comeback if anything is found later on
YMMV
We recommend that full damp survey be carried out if this is an area of concern.
The property was built in yyyy and hence it may be worth getting the walls, roof, windows checked by a builder.
Boundaries noted on the plan are xxx and so it may be worth checking this.
The surveyor did not enter the attic space so it is recomended that you pay someone else to do this job that we should have done in the first place
etc
etc

+1. Also surveys seem to be worth **** all.

get a independent surveyor to do a RICS homebuyer survey (i think that’s what theyre called now – they do a full survey but nothing intrusive ie lifting boards, drilling into walls etc). costs obviously depends on where you are & size of house, but we paid c £400 for standard 3 beds size semis in the peak district. well worth it as first one highlighted som problems with subsidence we missed and second one paid for it’s self in terms of negotiation with the vendor.

make sure you attend the survey as well as the suveyor will tell you a lot more verbally than they will put in their report. if you don’t know anyone, the estate agent will be able to recommend one to you

get a independent surveyor to do a RICS homebuyer survey (i think that’s what theyre called now – they do a full survey but nothing intrusive ie lifting boards, drilling into walls etc). costs obviously depends on where you are & size of house, but we paid c £400 for standard 3 beds size semis in the peak district. well worth it as first one highlighted som problems with subsidence we missed and second one paid for it’s self in terms of negotiation with the vendor.

make sure you attend the survey as well as the suveyor will tell you a lot more verbally than they will put in their report. if you don’t know anyone, the estate agent will be able to recommend one to you

These are the ones people keep telling me not to bother with.

We had a “full survey” done that cost a couple of grand on our 1810 house. They managed to miss that a damp proof was missing and that the roof was shot.

That was £7k that I wasn’t expecting to have to pay.

Waste of ****ing time.

Don’t bother with any standard surveys.

Pay an electrician to check electrics.

Pay a engineer to check the heating system.

Pay a builder for an over-view and if a structural engineer would be worth a visit.

Consider a drain survey.

Any damp survey WILL find damp (even in a new house). Use it to knock the price and take a view on if you do the work afterwards.

I agree – survey is merely paperwork for mortgage company these days.

Do you have a trusted builder you can pay a couple of hours of time?

Surveyors are arseholes.

Handsome, charismatic arseholes but arseholes nonetheless.

i once had a financial advisor say go basic to get the mortgage, stand outside look at the walls do they look ok, look at the roof does it look ok, if its sagging or in a bad state dont buy the house, unless they fix it

These are the ones people keep telling me not to bother with

i guess it comes down to if they find anything. i may have the nomenclature wrong on the type of survey as it was a while since we them done and i know they keep changing them, however both of ours were pretty detailed with the surveyor out there for a good couple of hours including drone shots of the roof and roofing void / structure inspections. as mentioned we swerved c £30K worth of subsidence work and all the issues it would of created with mortgage and insurance etc by spending c £450 on the report so easily worth it in our experience

as other have said, the reports tend to have lots of caveats in them and often written in a way that is more about protecting the surveyor form professional indemnity claims, however if you get a good surveyor (use an independent not the big chains often used by the the large estate agent who produce generic reports) and you go on the survey and get some “off the record” feedback i think they’re worth it.

if you’re going to spend hundreds of thousands on a house, i don’t know why you wouldn’t spend another £500 to get it surveyed by a decent professional

I just had a full survey but also would have liked a builder to have look. But have you tried getting a builder at the moment?
Eventually, through my cycling group, I’ve got a builder to grant me an audience but they are so busy at the moment.

Perchy you aren’t are you? 😘

make sure you attend the survey as well as the suveyor will tell you a lot more verbally than they will put in their report

this sounds like a good idea

*smooths eyebrow*

Why yes….yes I am

Utter waste of time and money in my experience, only went with surveyor because of telephone tennis with builder & time was running out. Turned out builder had viewed the property for his family home & would have been no effort to tell me what I needed to know ☹️

We opted for a basic valuation report on our current house on the understanding that surveys were a waste of money. Turned out the garage ceiling is asbestos insulation board which is looking like costing us many £££ to remove. Because we only got a valuation report, we have no comeback against the surveyor for missing the asbestos so I’d get an independent survey done in future, if only so it gives you someone to claim against if anything does crop up at a later date.

Depends on the property, how handy you are. I’d that every survey I’ve seen whilst pulling up some potential issues has a list of caveats a mile long…

I’d turn up with a good builder…

What sort or property and age, that would have an impact? Difficult to tell from the photo but I’m guessing it’s 1960’s onwards. When we had a survey on our house it was a waste of time. Highlighted that the consumer unit was old. In one respect he was correct, there was a really old consumer unit under the stairs, with no cables going into our out of it, right next to the shiny new consumer unit 🙄

Also as others have said they’re full of caveats, basically if they get something wrong or miss something off you have no recourse.

My view was that the house had been standing for 100 years so unlikely to fall down overnight. But that being said £500 in the grand scheme of buying a house if nothing.

Built approx 2000

Because we only got a valuation report, we have no comeback against the surveyor for missing the asbestos so I’d get an independent survey done in future

We had the RICS home buyers report one done, it was a waste of money, it was a basic visual inspection only, the report actually says they dont lift carpets, move furniture or test for anything. Just actually noticed the report says my soffits are timber when they are actually asbestos, wondering if I have any recourse for this…

As a previous poster said:

Don’t bother with any standard surveys.

Pay an electrician to check electrics.

Pay a engineer to check the heating system.

Pay a builder for an over-view and if a structural engineer would be worth a visit.

Do get a roofer in though, my chippy friend who looked over the property missed that the new felt on the garage roof was laid incorrectly.

EDIT: Just read the Risks section, they have caveated themselves out of this with a paragraph of materials used in soffit boards and other materials may contain asbestos, not easy to identify if concerned get a specialist in…joy

Looks nice*

*based on cursory visual inspection of internet photo of front of house only. No liability for it not being nice is intended or should be inferred. We suggest that you also have the property independently assessed for niceness by Phil and Kirsty or somebody. Photo may contain asbestos which could not be assessed at time of survey.

Can’t see you’ll have much trouble with that unless it’s built on the site of an ancient burial ground!

And plenty of room for the Mini and Audi A3. 🙂

Can’t see you’ll have much trouble with that unless it’s built on the site of an ancient burial ground!

And plenty of room for the Mini and Audi A3. 🙂

Classic mini and a DIY camper van is the plan.

So it’s only 20 years old. Any settling should have been completed so no fresh cracks or such like, electrics should all be fine. If it’s on the original boiler it may need a new one. Roof should be fine. So yeah other than repointing the chimney stack can’t imagine what else there is to look at. Assume that windows are uPVC, so they should be good as well.

Structural engineer with full suite of insurances and indemnities.
As many others ^^^ get a local builder to give you an hour of his time, if you can; could be the best £50/100 you ever spend.

The damage on the chimney appears to be frost damage – possibly porous brick exacerbated by the bricks having been laid projecting out, so water has soaking in from the top. If the same kind of bricks are used in the contrast bands at the bottom of the walls they would be worth a good look at. Without projecting out they may not be as vulnerable but may still be a problem later. Is there any sign of similar chimney damage on neighbours?

I would also be checking out the timbers under the bay window.

The damage on the chimney appears to be frost damage – possibly porous brick exacerbated by the bricks having been laid projecting out, so water has soaking in from the top. If the same kind of bricks are used in the contrast bands at the bottom of the walls they would be worth a good look at. Without projecting out they may not be as vulnerable but may still be a problem later. Is there any sign of similar chimney damage on neighbours?

So I had a look around the full estate and the one I’m buying is the worst but the 2 houses to the left are pretty bad as well. The rest of the estate isn’t too bad, the odd bit here and there but nothing as bad as mine and the two next to it.

Don’t bother with any standard surveys.

Pay an electrician to check electrics.

Pay a engineer to check the heating system.

Pay a builder for an over-view and if a structural engineer would be worth a visit.

Consider a drain survey.

Any damp survey WILL find damp (even in a new house). Use it to knock the price and take a view on if you do the work afterwards.

Dogbone is bang on with this.
I found a collapsed drain, old wiring and condensation problems with my house after moving in. The home report found none of it and took no responsibility. Luckily it was easily sorted when I was having other work done but still cost me an extra 3k

I paid for a full survey, wasn’t worth the paper it was written on, the guy goes round with a tick list, ticks all the boxes and the secretary (or someone) knocks up a generic report listing everything he ticked saying ‘could be a major problem, needs a dedicated survey to eliminate the risk’.

He also identified ‘rising damp’ in a structural wall, failing to notice the leaking shower tray on the other side of said wall. This caused all sorts of problems with the mortgage who couldn’t accept that the surveyer was either blind or retarded and wanted all sorts of remedial work doing. Eventually sorted.

The whole surveyer thing is just a scam to rip off ignorant buyers.

I paid for a standard survey. They somehow managed to miss that that utility room sink had no plumbing. I mean, as soon as I turned on a tap it filled the cupboard. I wasn’t impressed by the previous owner or the survey. The soap left by the sink was the final straw.

No comment that the cisterns for the toilets were bricked in and inaccessible, nor that the floors were cracking being sprung.

Get a builder.

A standard homebuyers survey, whilst largely a box ticking exercise, is still useful for the money. They highlight the possibly urgent stuff and it can highlight things you would never think about. Our house is an early 1900’s brick build and they mentioned to ask about the wall ties. Apparently in our part of Sheffield the mortar used can corrode the iron ties they used back then and if they go then it’s a huge job to rectify. As it happens the sellers had this checked a couple of years ago but it is not something I would have known about otherwise.

Yes surveyors are risk averse and will highlight anything remotely dodgy as a potential problem but at least you’ll know about them and be able to make a judgement call as to whether they bother you or not and they can be useful bartering chips in negotiations.

The problem with builders is they *sometimes* see £££’s before their eyes and list a whole load of stuff they would be able to ‘fix’ when you buy the house. A surveyor is neutral in this respect.

So I had a look around the full estate and the one I’m buying is the worst but the 2 houses to the left are pretty bad as well.

That suggests it was just a bad pallet of bricks when those houses were up to chimney level. The bottom of the walls will have been built earlier, so probably a different batch.

We spent £800 on a survey, gave us a very clear idea of what needed doing and used it to get 2k off the asking price to pay for damp proofing.

Our survey main concerns were the existing decking not being anti slip and our ditch not being fenced off to prevent drowning (it’s dry most of the time).

For a house as new as the one your looking at if you go with a survey just get the minimum or ask a builder.

All gas certs etc and servicing should be picked up in conveyancing.