Questions for the surveyors when doing a home buyers report

swillsy

swillsy

swillsy

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Yo peeps, I know a few of you have gone through the process of buying a house and I am arranging a home buyers report tomorrow and needed advice.

Looking around the web it advises buyers to either accompany the surveyor (which we are unable to do) or ask additional questions which the surveyor will check when doing the survey.

The problem I have is apart from asking about the insulation in the extension I'm not sure what else to ask! I know the questions will vary from house to house however what did you ask the surveyor to check out for you? So I can get an idea as I don't want to miss the oppountinty to ask a professional :)
Thanks all
 
What level of survey are you having done?
Further details about the house might help - old or new build? age? size? construction (eg brick/stone, slate/tiled roof etc)?
 
Get the roof checked. I paid for a full structural survey but the idiot never went on the roof. Ended up having leaks all over and repairs up there can be expensive.

I think any other questions would centre on the type of property any areas of concern you may have. I.e. if it's a basement flat does it have damp.
 
what level of survey are you having done? there are usually two options. i went for the cheapest one.

i don't think you can ask for the surveyor to look for certain things as they are (hopefully) pretty good at their job.

any asbestos or suspected asbestos will be reported. is it a terrace house? they should have a peak through the loft hatch to see if the internal is complete. (ie goes all the way to the rafters of the roof.

subsidance would be spotted. you will get a report on flood plains etc with the house from your solicitor.

are you at the 'end run' of the drainage system, if so, are you responsible for any repairs? you wont be if the system is over a certain age.

does anyone have access right across your back garden?
 
Dunners said:
Get the roof checked. I paid for a full structural survey but the idiot never went on the roof. Ended up having leaks all over and repairs up there can be expensive.

I think any other questions would centre on the type of property any areas of concern you may have. I.e. if it's a basement flat does it have damp.
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A structural surveyor should have no reason to go on the roof, they would only go into the loft to check that the timbers are in good condition. Leaks will be due to a failure of the roof fabric, not a structural issue strictly speaking. A structural survey isn't really necessary if the property is modern, unless your mortgage provider asks for it, or there is a reason you would suspect a problem (cracks in walls near windows and doors, big trees in garden - a combination of both would indicate heave or subsidence).

Having said that, non-structural surveyor would pick up on leaks if they went into the roof, because that's where a leak would be most obvious. Going on the roof isn't necessarily going to reveal this, especially if it's wet from rain anyway. It might show blocked up gutters, but that is a maintenance issue.

A surveyor will also have in his t&c's that he will not inspect certain places unless access is provided.

To the op, check their scope of works of a few surveyors before you appoint them; best way to know who looks at the most things.
 
Hi all, cheers for feedback, its a home buyers report survey- so the middle one.

The house is a 1970s detached 4 bedroom house. It has a large extension and a separate double garage workshop with a sloping roof. Its situated on a corner plot with a rear garden so no access issues. The roofs both look old so I'll ask what his opinions are on that.

I'm not sure about drainage, so I can add that to the list :)
 
Unless its required for the mortgage, save your money. Hom******s reports are notoriously vague and are inherently geared towards protecting the surveyor against comeback. The report will contain 'some' relevant information, but there is generally a huge amount of waffle.
Find yourself a reputable builder and give him a portion of what would be the surveyors fee and and go along yourself would be my advice.
Open doors, move furniture, poke, prod and generally inspect the whole house. Dont be afraid to ask the owners to move something to allow you to gain access to something. If they want to sell they'll be happy to oblige. If not they may well be keeping something inaccessible deliberately.
Surveyors will simply claim they couldnt gain access to something which removes all responsibility from them should an obstruction be hiding something nasty.
 
a Home Buyers report should contain all pertinent information bout the property, apart from checking invisible parts of the structure.

You should not really need to ask them anything.
 
cm1179 said:
it most likely will be
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It wasnt a pre-requisite when we had one done, though this was 6 years ago and given the current state of the economy I can see the logic to some extent.I spoke to the original owner of our house after the surveyor had visited and apparently he was only one site for half an hour.....I'm in the wrong job :)

If it is a requirement then perhaps get the report, and then revisit to cover anything indicated as being inaccessible at the time of the survey. In our case the surveyor wasnt able to see many areas of the house due to the placement of the owner's belongings which rendered the survey 50% worthless.
 
I can see your point regarding its value however we have to get a survey done of some sort for the mortgage from HSBC. The basic one costs £197 which is for a standard valuation the home buyers report is £443 pounds so for the extra 250 quid we are getting a home buyers report. Once we've had the report we are intending on having another look round with it.
 
Home buyers reports can cause more hassle than a normal valuation, just warning you as solicitors can get hung up on the vague language used by those writing the reports and delays cost you money as they go back and forth with letters and phone calls.

They purposely keep it vague so there's little come back on them, expect the roof/guttering to be inspected only from ground level, therefor preventing you suing them for missing anything etc.

When selling a flat recently we ended up spending £500 extra in solicitors fees due to the vague statement made by the chap carrying out the home report, daft comments from clearly copy/pasted standard text with little regard of it's potential impact.

Don't get me wrong when I bought my last house I ensured the sellers updated the home report, but I wasn't expecting it to prove much.
 
This is the text I got describing what the inspection will entail:

The Inspection is a general surface examination of those parts of the Property which are accessible: in other words, visible and readily available for examination from ground and floor levels, without risk of causing damage to the Property or injury to the Surveyor.

All references to visual inspection refer to an inspection from within the property at floor level and from ground level within the site and adjoining public areas, without the need to move any obstructions.

Any references to left or right are taken facing the front of the property.

The Inspection is carried out with the Seller's permission, without causing damage to the building or contents. F

urniture, stored items and insulation are not moved.
Unless identified in the report the Surveyor will assume that no harmful or hazardous materials have been used in the construction. The presence or possible consequences of any site contamination will not be researched.
 
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