Today I’ve received our home buyer report for a house we want to buy.

The house is a 1990’s 4 bed detached house with a separate garage. When we viewed the house we noticed the following:
– the boiler is old and will need replacing sooner or later.
– a couple of the double glazed windows had misted and would need fixing.
– the soffits and fascias would need replaced in the next couple of years.

The report has highlighted that the roof, windows, soffits and fascias and gutters would needs some attention. For example clearing the gutters and replacing / repairing the soffits and fascias. We expect this kind of maintenance.

The part that concerns me is the report about the boiler and the electrics. Both get the lowest rating which advises immediate action should be taken.

For the electrics it reports that the house has an old style wire fuses and that there is no up-to-date test certificate for the installation.

For the boiler it reports that it does not have a service agreement or current test certificate.

Is it normal to give them a low grading because they lack a test certificate? Is it just the surveyor covering their back and taking the ultra-cautious position.

Most importantly based on the limited info in this post do you think we should be worried or is it normal?

Normal but wire fuses in a 1990 house?

Adjust the price by the amount to do the work, assuming the house wiring is fine (which it should be) a new trip-switch box is easy to organise as is a nice new boiler. Maybe as a negotiating point say you are prepared to accept the gutters / board work which you’ll do yourself/payfor as it’s regular maint.

Boiler in my flat has been serviced twice in 15 years and that was as it was rented out and was a requirement. There is a school of thought that says modern boilers are best left alone. Don’t sweat that just change it

Surprised at a wire board on a 1990s house also! Figure out cost, reduce offer based on that. Check wiring on house, check it has an earth. Possible call for an offer based on further investigation. Remember, you don’t have to buy anything until you sign – unless you’re in Scotland and you’ve agreed to it…in which case, it’s a bit late.

Boier and others, are upgrades to suffer price wise.

I take it the house isn’t for sale because the previous owners died by electrocution/gas inhalation…

I think a lot of it is arse covering, but gives you an idea of the work that may be required to bring the house up to current standards. There should be a house value estimate on the home report. Go by that, and if you really want to then haggle down the price of a new boiler (£3k?), fusebox (£500?) and double glazing panels (£150 each?)

unless you’re in Scotland and you’ve agreed to it…in which case, it’s a bit late.

Not true. It’s only when the missives have been signed that you’re liable for anything, and by then you’re practically in the house. I know this from having a buyer pull out at a week before completion, at my cost.

In my experince the reports are an ass covering exercise for the surveyor.

How can you tell if a soffit is going to fail in 2 years time ?

The last survey told me a list of issues as long as my arm all of which turned out to be nonsense and missed a couple of major items (including a hole in a wall from a roof leak!)

Also be aware of the market – houses on my road sell within a week. If I had a buyer trying to reduce their offer I would tell them to jog on. Sold as seen. Might be different if the market is poor in your area I suppose. Essentially you need to be ready to walk away if you’re going to do it.

My understand is that there is no requirement to update electrical installations to the latest codes. A wire fuse board is perfectly legal. You can replace the fuses with mini trips (I think that’s what they are called) as I did in mine as I didn’t have the cash to replace the board.

My Son just bought a house. The Surveyor said it might need a new roof. Because one round the corner needed one. Cock.

they are essentially something to state the bank will get their money back if they need to repossess the house

the rest is just them mentioning things that might need replacing in case they actually do

Better to get a builder mate round IMHO

I’m going through all this at the moment. We had some concerns about damp in the cellar. In the end we didn’t bother with the home buyers report but instead got a damp/ground-works specialist to advise on the issue and cost to fix. A lot more useful than a report saying it’s damp and needs work which we already knew

If you’re really worried get an electrician to look at it and give you a more accurate oppinion.

If the boiler/electrics are functional but old, I wouldn’t negotiate with a purchaser after they had offered.
My rule of thumb is that if the ‘problem’ would be apparent to the purchaser on their viewings and inspection then they should have accounted for that in their offer.
If the surveyor raises a hidden nasty that affects the house’s ability to function as a home e.g. roof leaks, rotten timbers then we negotiate.

I’m going through all this at the moment. We had some concerns about damp in the cellar. In the end we didn’t bother with the home buyers report but instead got a damp/ground-works specialist to advise on the issue and cost to fix. A lot more useful than a report saying it’s damp and needs work which we already knew

I’m also going through this at the moment with a house I’m selling. Purchasers have had three damp reports, all highlighting different issues to be repaired. Personally, I think it’s our fault- when the tenants moved out in August they turned the heating off, and I didn’t realise until after the purchasers had had a damp survey done in December. I doubt that there really is a problem, but am willing to take it on the chin because I want shot of the house.

The Flying Ox – Member
unless you’re in Scotland and you’ve agreed to it…in which case, it’s a bit late.

Not true. It’s only when the missives have been signed that you’re liable for anything, and by then you’re practically in the house. I know this from having a buyer pull out at a week before completion, at my cost.

I did not know that, thanks . Also 🙁

Thanks for the responses. They have mostly confirmed my thoughts.

We’re probably going to ask the seller to get the gas and electric tested at his cost.

Ours was rubbish as well…told us all the obvious stuff like the outdated (but indestructable) 15yr old boiler, dated kitchen and the fact there was only 1 power socket in each room.

Didn’t tell us the stuff we could have done with knowing; the roof purlin being held up with an offcut wedged against the chimney breast, the fact the front door was out of shape and had a gap big enough to post letters under, that the floor in the front room was like a trampoline, and that one of the roofs had no lead flashing (a roof that was clearly visible from the ground and an upstairs window) and subsequently leaked.

I didn’t bother on the second house, and its still standing 🙂

The Flying Ox – Member
unless you’re in Scotland and you’ve agreed to it…in which case, it’s a bit late.

Not true. It’s only when the missives have been signed that you’re liable for anything, and by then you’re practically in the house. I know this from having a buyer pull out at a week before completion, at my cost.aye see alot of subject to concluded missives up here. Though i didn’t really know what it ment till i read your post! 😆

We bought recently…homebuyer report flagged the heating and electrics are “red” items in need of immediate attention.

Boiler was 2 years old, obviously professionally installed. Electrics 5-10 years old, again all tidy and well installed with no hint of bodging. Previously house was owned by a religious organisation so they maintained it professionally.

They were flagged as red because the surveyor couldn’t see a valid test cert for them so therefore they get marked as death traps. Make your own call on it based on what you know about the house, owners and your appetite for risk. Worst case a new boiler or 2 windows isn’t megabucks.

Fuse boards in 1990’s houses. Yes, some builders still specified them in the early 90’s. It was around 1995 that there was a Regulation introduced that said that any socket that was likely to supply outdoor equipment needed to be RCD protected. Many people at the time ignored it for many years afterwards.
It wasnt until Part P of the Building Regs was introduced, along with the 17th Edition of the wiring regs that things changed to pretty much ‘all RCD’. Actually, it was last year with the last Amendment that it is rare to not have to RCD something in a house.

As for an inspection of the electrics, it will, most likely be ‘unsatisfactory’. Mainly as you have no RCD protection for downstairs sockets.
All is not lost, for less than £300, you an get a sparky round to fit a new consumer unit for you, and test it all when it is done. Get recommendations from others, as there are some real useless idiots around doing domestic wiring.
The Homebuyer Surveyor will generally know not much more than you about gas and electric, so just flags up things that he/she doesnt really know about, and says there might be a problem.

A “Homebuyer’s Report” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, throw it in the bin. It’s just speculation by a lazy surveyor (who probably isn’t even a proper surveyor) based upon what might happen, not any actual problems.

I would get price reduced and get it done myself (hire a pro myself). If the fuse board is old then a re-test will mean a new fuse board as a minmum which is gonna cost the vendor. Better to get the money back so you can spec what you want and make any changes as necessary which suit you.

I bought a 100 year old house recently where the wiring was 10 years old. I needed some more sockets fitted and a cooker connections/more sockets in kitchen and an outside socket and workshop sockets. My electrician said the work on the extra ring main for the kitchen would mean he’d have to re-test it fully and the board was out of current regs standards so it’d have to be changed. It’d be a bit annoying if you wanted extra stuff doing when you moved in and found you’d have to lay out loads of money on a new board as the new one the previous owner had fitted to get the sale wasn’t up to what you needed.

A “Homebuyer’s Report” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, throw it in the bin. It’s just speculation by a lazy surveyor (who probably isn’t even a proper surveyor) based upon what might happen, not any actual problems.

When we got our survey done via HSBC they told us who would be assessing the different levels of survey. Basically the valuation report (cheapest) and homebuyers survey (mid level) were not done by a proper surveyor, just a valuation person. Only the full structural survey was done by a surveyor, so thats what I went for.

Our boiler didn’t work at all when we moved in and was condemned by one plumber. Another plumber did a bit of work on it and it worked fine for another 5 years!

The house I sold over the summer had gas and electric issues flagged. Because there was no current test certificate to view not Becasuse anything was actual wrong. Boiler and whole heating system only a few years old.

If I was selling again Id have copies of recent service and safety check stuff done before hand and available. Maybe taped to the boiler and unmissable

We went through a similar thing to the OP on our last purchase last year; homebuyer report reported worst rating to the electrics and boiler/gas because the consumer unit wasn’t in accordance with the latest regs and the boiler didn’t have a test certificate.

Consumer units requirements change all the time and how many home owners have a boiler and test certificate every year?

Its arse covering on their part – its been said many times before but a homebuyer report isn’t worth the paper its written on.

on the ‘money off’ perspective, I would consider how the house is being sold. If its being sold as newly referbished, new kitchen\bathroom, top price for the street, then yes, a negociation is reasonable (although it would seem like it would be for less than a grand). If its being sold as a bit of a dooer-upper (which from your description it may be) then I would take it on the chin – if the wallpaper hasn’t been replaced in 20 years, why would the fuse box 🙂

in some fuse boxes (my parents old house was like this) the existing fuse wire ‘holders’ (I don’t know the technical term) can be replaced with RCD ones without replacing the actual consumer unit – however the cost may be negligable between the two

There’s sense on this thread!

We sold our house over the summer and the buyer got a pretty poor report. IME what the surveyor is doing is, as said above, covering their arse. They tend not to look very deeply at things so see superficial issues and assume the worst. Our greatest hits were: old boiler (but we had a service contract on it), old consumer unit (new legislation came in in 2015!), all the windows needed to be replaced (some had blown units, which cost me £200 to do before the sale), and the best one – the gas fire is in an unknown condition… well, it was an electric fire, which the flex quite clearly points to! We were also told that it needed a “general roof overhaul”. Our buyer used it as a negotiating tool, which we moved slightly on.

Conversely, the house we’re buying we had a full survey done on and it’s turned up some useful information. We still took it with a hefty pinch of salt though.

I think a lot of it is arse covering, but gives you an idea of the work that may be required to bring the house up to current standards.

This, but I’m surprised the house has wire fuses, and the the soffits and fascias aren’t upvc.

Are you sure the house wasn’t built in the 1960’s 🙂

The surveyor isn’t an expert on electrics or gas.

A specialist report doesn’t exactly cost much. Odds are that for a 1990s house the wiring is perfectly fine and you just need a new board. Couple of hundred quid.

But wire fuses? WTF? 1890s maybe.

A “Homebuyer’s Report” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, throw it in the bin. It’s just speculation by a lazy surveyor (who probably isn’t even a proper surveyor) based upon what might happen, not any actual problems.

+1.
Would never bother again – total waste of money.
The last two we’ve had missed huge issues whilst pointing out trivial crap which was either blindingly obvious or irrelevant.

A new consumer unit is <£100 + a days money to an electrician to fit it.

If the boiler is working OK, buy a carbon monoxide detector, and put it in the same room.
Ignore until it fails/you have the cash to update it.
Most decent quality modern boilers are good for 15 years, possibly more.