From what other posters have said surveyors are in a "auto cover arse
mode"
and will say things to protect themselves from legal action so like any
service you pay for, price and quality can be anything. A friend of mine
has just had a survey done on a house, a full one, very good and thorough
listing about £15K of work that will require doing in the next year. Mine
said get a new roof within the next 10 years and that was about it but on
the whole I though my surveyor poor quality for the £600 I shelled out.

Think longer term. A full survey is in fact a kind of insurance policy for
the future without recurring premiums. If a surveyor has found that much
work then you should be able to negotiate a substantial reduction in the
asking price. At least the suggested costs plus 50% as a minimum. This is
because the work will inevitably cost more and you will have all the
aggravation of getting quotes and putting up with all the mess. In my case
the reduction was £40K and the costs were £25K. Well worth while as I got
the work done by tradesman I knew and had it done in my choice of materials.