Homebuyer surveys – worth it on a 1980's build that looks in decent nick?

We’re buying a 1980’s pretty bog-standard detached house on an estate. Visual inspection from the outside and inside suggests no issues with roof, windows, damp, anything like that. This comes as no surprise as the folks that are in it have been in it for 20+ years and you can just ‘tell’ that they’ve looked after it.

So, any value in getting a Homebuyer report over a basic valuation? From memory, the last time I had one it contained loads of statements along the lines of “the roof looks alright, but it might not be, and if it’s not, you might have to fix it, but were not saying you do or don’t, but you might or might not”…

if you’re going to get any sort of survey done get it done privately and directly with a local qualified surveyor. Cheaper / a far more effective use of money – our buyer paid a third of what we shelled out for our survey (via the lender) and had a chap go over our house for about 3 hours, an incredibly detailed report and 15 minute verbal report over the phone.

Exactly same position as you 18 months ago OP, we just went with the basic report and haven’t regretted it yet.

Gut instinct was that the owners were not short of a bob or two and had paid to have everything “done right”.

Gut instinct was that the owners were not short of a bob or two and had paid to have everything “done right”.

Yeah, ditto.

Exactly same position as you 18 months ago OP, we just went with the basic report and haven’t regretted it yet.

+1 for us too – even though the old couple that had owned it from new had neglected it slightly in recent years, there seemed no reason to suspect anything untoward and we haven’t had any surprises yet despite doing quite a bit of work with plumbing/electrics etc.

Homebuyer report = pointless, avoid.

Not sure what I’d do now but the Homebuyers report I got back in 2008 on a hundred year old house was brilliant. I knew work was needed anyway and when I moved in I renovated the house and gave the report to the builders to get them to sort everything out on it. I suspect I was lucky with what I got though.

Full structural – you are going to spend (I would imagine) £150k at the very least on something and unless it was a new build and covered by the NHBC guarantee why risk it.

The valuation will not go in to any depth at all – purely a visual once over of the property simply to tell the mortgage company that yes the house exists and it doesn’t look like, having had a cursory once over, it is going to suddenly collapse and should not be relied on to pick up any even vaguely hidden defects.

Some people risk it and get away with it some people risk it and don’t. Depends on your attitude to risk as to whether you pay the £1000 or so the survey will cost.

My mate skimped on the survey on a house he paid £360K for, turned out it had a crack in it that was hiding behind the ivy on the outside and couldn’t be seen on the inside. Crack was caused by subsidence, he had to spend a big part of his renovation budget on pouring concrete into the foundations 🙁

Muppet!

had a crack in it that was hiding behind the ivy on the outside and couldn’t be seen on the inside

Even a full survey wouldn’t have seen that, they don’t move stuff like that, just have a good look at it.

I daresay a full structural survey would have had a better chance of picking it up than some bloke with a clipboard tick list and 50 other surveys to do that day 🙂