Buying a new house - Survey?
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi

I am in the middle of buying a new house with my girlfriend.

The mortgage lender has recently completed the homebuyers survey on the house, which they paid for as part of the deal and only a couple of points came back from this.

The property has a flat roof but we have had a local roofing company take a look at the roof before we put an offer in and all was well.

The house was built in 1958 and we are wondering do we need a full structural survey carried out on it. We have had some quotes of around £400 because we don't need the valuation doing etc.

Can anyone persuade us either way as we are not sure whether to have it done or not.

My dad is a carpenter of 45 years and he has looked over the house also with no major issues being highlighted.

Cheers

Jon

Normally the home buyers survey would highlight any structural issues and recommend a further survey if necessary. Also the lender would not lend the money if there were major issues.

It comes down to how you feel. Are you worried it is falling down.

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A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

You won't be able to get a full structural survey done as that involves digging down to the foundations and most home owners won't want you to do that.

As Ben says, The home buyers survey should highlight any areas of concern. Most places will offer you a customised survey for a bit less if there is a specific area that concerns you.

The area that did concern us was the roof which is why we had a roofer look at it before we even made an offer and that was given the all O.K.

The electrics have recently been done in the house also with all receipts beign retained for the work so not too worried about this.

I think we will give it a miss as other advice / information has suggested the homebuyers report will have picked up anything major and recommended further investigation.

Thanks

Jon

I'd get the full survey but I'm biased!

it is up to you at the end of the day - you've obviously already had the roof looked at and are aware of certain things that a structural survey would pick up. Has anyone been in the roof void or under the ground floor?

you don't need to dig up the founds to do a structural survey of this sort.

are the external walls sound? any cracking/freshly painted render etc?

The only thing I would say is the surprising number of people i meet during my work who wish they had spent that money on the survey - they hadn't has a roofer look at the roof or the benefit of tradesman to give the place a once over though

The problem is that for every person that wishes that they had had a survey done there are probably 1000s that feel they were robbed of 400 quid. It is a risk, but like you say, Rob, if the main points of concern have been looked at, i.e. the roof, then it seem a better bet not to have the survey done, imo.

http://www.twin-turbo.co.uk
http://www.hillclimbandsprint.co.uk/default.asp

A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

Guess it all depends a bit on how clued up you are. Sounds like by taking your dad would have a good idea.

I've never had one done and with a bit of common sense you can do most of it easily yourself.

If your confident enough to do most of the work on a house yourself, then you should also be able to spot the stuff thats wrong.