"Dave" wrote in message
...
Sorry if this is not the right group.
We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built 1950's
we
have been given the option of three different types of survey, Standard
valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural survey and I'm not sure
which
type we would be best having as this is all very new to us, can anyone
offer
any advise please?



Hi Dave,

The best, but most expensive, is the full structure report, but this is best
left for properties that you really have your heart set on. So I'd say a
homebuyers report would suffice if your still just in the process of
looking.

The standard valuation is just a report of decorative condition and minor
faults that can be seen on the surface.

I think, but am not totally sure, the Home Buyers report is a bit more
in-depth than the valuation, and includes a more detailed survey of the
property itself and the area in which the property sits.

The Full Structural Report really speaks for itself and includes lifting of
the corners of carpets and a lot of tapping on walls and such like. A good
survey to have done, if the property is what you want to live in for a good
few years, as it will also provide for a report on the future life
expectancy of the structure.

All surveys will include a report of major works done to the property over
the years, but you can obtain an extract copy of the forms from the local
council planning department yourself, so any property you have looked at so
far can be looked at through this method.

Get a good lawyer who works for you, not the ones who desperately want your
business, and they'll do all the donkey work for you in these matters. Just
tell them what you want and they'll do it from there. You pay for it all in
the end any way, so why worry.


---
BigWallop

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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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On Wed, 9 Jul 2003 09:32:17 +0100, "Dave" wrote:

Sorry if this is not the right group.
We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built 1950's we
have been given the option of three different types of survey, Standard
valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural survey and I'm not sure which
type we would be best having as this is all very new to us, can anyone offer
any advise please?

At the risk of being somewhat trite:

- the standard valuation is for your building society / bank to work
out how much they're prepared to lend you

- the housebuyers' report is to give you ammunition to beat the
seller's price down (potentially saving you money on the purchase)

- the full survey is the only one that will actually reveal structural
or other significant defects with the property (potentially saving you
from buying a problematic house that's going to cost a lot of £££ to
put right after you've bought).

The last of these will tell you what's wrong with the property and
what you'll need to do to fix it. The homebuyers' report will only
tell some of the things that *might* be wrong with the property, and
some suggestions as to what you *might* do to find out what the real
problem is. Before deciding which to go for, you should take a good
look at the property, inside and out, looking for signs of problems
(and for signs of recent repairs). If you're lucky enough to know a
good builder, ask him/her to come and have a look at the property with
you. If the house is in a development with other similar houses, look
at them for signs of problems/recent repairs that might also be found
in the one you're interested in.

BTW, your lender *should* have explained these options to you, but I
guess that these days they jusy give you a bunch of leaflets to peruse
and forms to fill in :-(

HTH
Julian


--
Julian Fowler
julian (at) bellevue-barn (dot) org (dot) uk

"BigWallop" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Sorry if this is not the right group.
We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built
1950's
we
have been given the option of three different types of survey, Standard
valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural survey and I'm not sure
which
type we would be best having as this is all very new to us, can anyone
offer
any advise please?



Hi Dave,

The best, but most expensive, is the full structure report, but this is
best
left for properties that you really have your heart set on. So I'd say a
homebuyers report would suffice if your still just in the process of
looking.

The standard valuation is just a report of decorative condition and minor
faults that can be seen on the surface.

I think, but am not totally sure, the Home Buyers report is a bit more
in-depth than the valuation, and includes a more detailed survey of the
property itself and the area in which the property sits.

The Full Structural Report really speaks for itself and includes lifting
of
the corners of carpets and a lot of tapping on walls and such like. A
good
survey to have done, if the property is what you want to live in for a
good
few years, as it will also provide for a report on the future life
expectancy of the structure.

Also, from what I've seen of the Full Structural Reports definitions given
by surveyors is that it doesn't include a valuation - so you may find you'll
still need to pay your £150 or whatever to get them to do the required
valuation for the lender. Bizarre I think - but that's what I've found in
my experience. The Homebuyer Report does include a valuation in the price
though.

D

We got a full survey when we bought our house in 99; it is a 1932 red brick
semi. I had is good and bad points, guy said he didn't check the drains
because he couldn't locate a man hole; it's in the middle of the frelling
drive! When we tried to get buildings insurance a lot of companies refused
us because we live in an area with subsidence, supposedly, I live in York so
it's not like we are over an old mine or something. Anyway Tesco were the
only ones to take us on and we had to send a copy of the survey as is said
there was signs of settlement but no signs of subsidence so for a house of
this age it was normal.



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.





Cheers

Jonathan

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.

"Dave" writes:
We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built
1950's we have been given the option of three different types of
survey, Standard valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural
survey and I'm not sure which type we would be best having as this
is all very new to us, can anyone offer any advise please?

In addition to other comments, it might be worth seeing if you can
accompany the surveyor as he does his work. You're paying after all.

We recently had a homebuyers' on a 3 bed 1950s semi and I spent three
hours there with the surveyor who turned out to be a really helpful
guy. The final paper report is pretty insubstantial, so it was very
useful to get some insight into his reasoning and all his
off-the-record remarks. I almost feel like I got value for money 8^)

In contrast, the surveyor acting for the buyer of our property was in
and out in no time, and appeared pretty cavalier.

Even if you don't go along on the day, take the opportunity to talk
with the surveyor by phone after you get the report. You'll find that
things in there that look serious and scary are often just simple
matters of the surveyor covering himself.

Ben

--
Ben Edgington
Note that email to is discarded. However,
mail to "ben" at this address may be read by a human being.
http://www.edginet.org/

On Wed, 9 Jul 2003 09:32:17 +0100, "Dave" wrote:

We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built 1950's we
have been given the option of three different types of survey, Standard
valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural survey and I'm not sure which
type we would be best having as this is all very new to us, can anyone offer
any advise please?

For peace of mind you really want the most expensive. However it's
money thrown down the drain if the sale doesn't go through.

Several years ago we went to have a chat with the surveyor who was
going to do the job for us. We agreed the following which he was very
happy to undertake.

Basically we said full survey, and we'd cover the costs of the work.
Wasn't terribly expensive. But he wasn't to produce the paperwork
until the point in time where we'd exchanged contracts (just enough to
satisfy the solicitors at that point in time). And the instruction was
that if he found anything serious then he shouldn't proceed without
referring to us first.

It's the production of the report that costs the rubles, because
basically the surveyor is sticking his neck on the line to say "yep, I
checked all this and it has my name against it". You can sue him if he
missed something obvious.

With this surveyor our first house fell through due to the usual chain
difficulties, but we used him on the next one. In the end we paid for
only one "real" survey.

So my advice would be to go and chat with your surveyor and see if you
can work out a deal.

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

In article ,
"David Hearn" writes:

"BigWallop" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Sorry if this is not the right group.
We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built
1950's
we
have been given the option of three different types of survey, Standard
valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural survey and I'm not sure
which
type we would be best having as this is all very new to us, can anyone
offer
any advise please?



Hi Dave,

The best, but most expensive, is the full structure report, but this is best
left for properties that you really have your heart set on. So I'd say a
homebuyers report would suffice if your still just in the process of
looking.

I wouldn't go for any survey until you really have your heart set on a
property, and I wouldn't plan on doing more than one.

The standard valuation is just a report of decorative condition and minor
faults that can be seen on the surface.

I think, but am not totally sure, the Home Buyers report is a bit more
in-depth than the valuation, and includes a more detailed survey of the
property itself and the area in which the property sits.

The Full Structural Report really speaks for itself and includes lifting of
the corners of carpets and a lot of tapping on walls and such like. A good
survey to have done, if the property is what you want to live in for a good
few years, as it will also provide for a report on the future life
expectancy of the structure.

I had a Full Structural Report done on a 1900 house I bought, and a
Home Buyers report done on a 10 year old house I bought.

My Full Structural Report didn't include anything which would damage
existing furnishings. An example was that "it was not possible to
inspect the living room floor because of the fitted carpets, but there
is inadiquate sub-floor ventilation". When I did rip up the carpet
(which looked fine when I looked round the house, but not when I saw
it later with the room empty), I found the floor was rotten and I had
to replace the 1/3rd of it which hadn't already been replaced. However,
surveyor had covered himself.

Also, from what I've seen of the Full Structural Reports definitions given
by surveyors is that it doesn't include a valuation - so you may find you'll
still need to pay your £150 or whatever to get them to do the required
valuation for the lender. Bizarre I think - but that's what I've found in
my experience. The Homebuyer Report does include a valuation in the price
though.

I got the building society to suggest a surveyor for a full structural
(which wasn't a requirement of the building society), and then the
surveyor included a valuation for the BS and there was no additional
charge.

For the 10 year old house, the building society got the valuation done
without even asking me. When I started arranging for a Home Buyers report,
I discovered they already did the valuation, and were surprised anyone
would want anything more for a 10 year old property.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Jonathan@Home wrote:
it's in the middle of the frelling
drive!

Totally OT, but Farscape fan by any chance?
:-)

Lee


--
To reply use lee.blaver and NTL world com

Our sols recommended a homebuyers survey on a 130 year old house, as the
area is fairly well known. Surveyor noted pointing needing done, leaning
chimney etc, and pointed out things which warrants would be required for
(source of another thread...)

Leigh

"Malc" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Sorry if this is not the right group.
We are in the process of buying our first house a 4 bed semi built
1950's
we
have been given the option of three different types of survey, Standard
valuation, Homebuyers report, Full structural survey and I'm not sure
which
type we would be best having as this is all very new to us, can anyone
offer
any advise please?

We had the Homebuyers type of intermediate survey done. To be honest it
was
a waste of time as it didn't highlight things like naff pointing which
allowed damp in. The second house we had a valuation survey and left it at
that. TBH unless you think there might be problems I'd stick with that or
go
for the full monty.

--
Malc