home buying survey -- which level ? ?

[Guest]

We are buying a older bungalow, looking at a survey

I am leaning towards Lv 2 RICS HomeBuyer Survey

The Lv 1 looks pointless

The Lv 3 is a full structural survey, which looks like overkill

[Lisa123wm]

Personally, I think the homebuyers survey is a waste of money.
All they do is advise you to get everything checked. You can look around the property for any obvious things to worry about, cracks, check if electrics look old etc. Surveyor won’t check under carpets, behind furniture etc.
Depending on the age and condition of the property, I’d either have a basic valuation survey, or a full survey if I was concerned about anything.
Just my opinion after recently buying our 4th home.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Speaking as an ex Tradesman and for a property built before the 1960's I would always go full structural.
During the 1960's maybe
During the 1970's and on and if it looks ok then not.

[DisneyBeliever]

We went full structural last year when we bought a house but mainly because it had had a lot of work done to it in the very recent past.

It’s the most expensive purchase you’ll make in your life, spend the extra and go full structural survey. They can’t tell you loads of extra info but it could save you thousands of pounds down the line if they spot something.

[Hmr89]

We went for level 2 on our first house: completely pointless and worded in such a way that the bloke surveying couldn't be held accountable. One direct quote was: "The guttering may or may not be damaged. It is unclear from this vantage point".

[catherinesian]

We did on our first house, total waste of money.

We've just bought a house costing a lot and didn't bother. it's basically been almost entirely knocked down and rebuilt over the last year with full building control, etc.

[Guest]

thanks all

Ive walked around with my carpenter / builder head on, noticed a small crack on one of the internal walls ( that was strange ) but place looks in good nick

my first thoughts was to save the money, then someone said " are you having a survey done " which got me thinking

[SquishTheWhale]

We had a home buyers survey recently and I felt it was quite detailed and useful. For instance there's a flat roof extension we were a little worried about, but they advised us its fine for now and to think about replacing in 5yrs. They also pointed out some things we would have missed like a crack in the guttering.

However you do have to read carefully and make your own mind up- they gave the gas and electric red fail symbols but only because they hadn't been serviced recently! We asked the owners to service them before we completed and they did and were fine.

[parisdisneyfan]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Speaking as an ex Tradesman and for a property built before the 1960's I would always go full structural.
During the 1960's maybe
During the 1970's and on and if it looks ok then not.

See more...

Exactly what we went by Mr T with our early 1970’s new home😉

If you have a mortgage valuation that is basically a level 1, which was all we relied on when we bought our previous new build. However when I booked our surveyor for the level 2 for this property he said he would give it the once over and if anything looked a worry he would phone me and I could upgrade to 3 if I wanted. On the other hand our buyer got a full structural for a 20 year old house that had no problems but is suing the surveyor as he didn’t pick up some pipe leaking inside the wall, which basically no one knew about as there were no signs!

Our level 2 did say get further experts in to quote for work he felt needed done and we did have to pay for a drains survey but it meant that things that worried us were confirmed as needing work or dismissed- which we were happy with. The only thing I would say is if they say something needs to be replaced, check that where it is, connections etc are still compliant. We knew the boiler needed replaced and it was in the survey. He also picked up that the boiler chimney flue needed work, new cowl, pointing, flashing and a couple of new courses of bricks. What he didn’t say was that none of that mattered as we couldn’t put a new boiler in that place anyway as regs have changed. We spent a few hundred pounds getting the chimney sorted, only to find it couldn’t be used when the boiler broke. He also didn’t comment on the pipes from the oil tank to the boiler needing upgraded. Not a huge cost and wouldn’t have changed our minds about buying it but would have liked to know!

[Mr Tom Morrow]

The problem we had by having a full structural was the Surveyor condemned the electrics and said they weren't to be used.
That was no surprise to me as I knew they were knackered.

However the Building Society wanted an invoice from the Electrician within 1 month of me purchasing confirming a rewire was done.

That caused me problems as my mate did it as a fiddle!

I got around it though by saying he forgot and kept promising to send me one but never did.

In the end they gave up on me.

I still have the report from 1986. Probably 25 pages listing every room and every issue etc. Very detailed.