On 2 Sep, 22:27, Calla wrote:
Hello all. I'm looking to move house and one of the front runners at
the moment is a bit of a doer upper.
It's obviously the structural side I'm most concerened about. There's
a small patch of damp in one corner of a bedroom so I'm wondering if
this might be a problem with the roof. There's also a crack down the
corner of the front bay window in another bedroom presumably from the
double glazing that's been put in.
Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to buy the place without getting it
checked out, or thinking I can do any of the work myself. I will get a
surveyor in to have a good look but since a thorough survey isn't
likely to be cheap, do you think it would be a good idea to get a
builder or something in to suck their teeth over it?
I'm thinking it might save me a bit of money if the builder just says
"walk away". If he reckons it's worth a closer look, then get a
surveyor in, or has anyone any other thoughts?
Thanks all.
Andy.

Dear Andy,
First of all let me come clean and declare myself a surveyor (of
sorts) NOT chartered or structural. I have surveyed several thousand
houses in my particular field (damp and decay) and have compared my
assessment with that of structural surveyors and on the whole tend to
agree with elements of the opinions expressed on surveyors. I have on
my list about 5 surveyors that I regard as good and would pay to
survey any prospective purchase and that is gained over the last 30
plus years from a population of several hundred.
My advice is to select your suveyor carefully.
Horses for courses. ~What is the type and age of the house? is it
listed? You need different surveyors and expertise for different
houses.
The principle I would apply is that you need to ask for someone with
20 plus years of experience in surveying the type of house you want to
buy. Ask him out right. Is he competent and experienced in this type
of house?
Say to him you want to pay for an hour or two of his time to "screen"
the house for major defects and walk round with him and ask him to
talk to you of his thinking process.
You can state to him that you absolve him of liability for an oral
report if it is considered too defective to proceed with (ie you
indemnify him for action against him if he says the house is bad when
in fact it is ok and thus your "prospective" loss.
If, on looking at it for an hour it looks like a goer then ask him to
go on the record and proceed either with a full structural or a
homebuyers report and valuation - agree the price before the visit.
I have worked with builders all my life and have yet to find one that
is competent to conduct a survey. I would wholly distrust any
builders' opinion prior to opening up unless I had had personal
experience of him over a good number of years and only then would I
trust him on matters within his expertise - which of course is
difficult UNLESS he is a qualifed MCIOB in which case I would have a
lot of reliance as that is a very good qualification - but somewhat
rare.
If you tell me where the house is and what type of house I can
possibly help more
Chris George