No, you have to provide your own HomeBuyers Report or Building Survey.
The nervous wait to exchange....
- Thread starter noj
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No, you have to provide your own HomeBuyers Report or Building Survey.
I see, so its up to us to arrange this if we want it?
I assume its worth doing to avoid any shocks in the future?
Soldato
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HSBC will provide a basic valuation for their own purposes to determine the LTV of the house valuation price. You will need to either ask to have this upgraded before it happens to a homebuyers or a full building survey.
I see reading up on this online, it says only 20% of people have a survey.
I might not bother, the house is due to complete next week and Id rather not add extra time to it.
Soldato
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Depends how old the house is you're buying, certainly if this was an old house i would definately recommend one.
A level 2 or level 3 survey can highlight significant issues that will not be visible during a standard viewing, which can ultimately cost you thousands of pounds further down the line, enable to you to renegotiate the offer or it could force you to pull out. Depending on the age of the house, I personally think it would be stupid not go have a survey. It's a relatively trivial cost in the grand scheme of the house purchase.
A valuation is simply a valuation, it does not review the condition of the roof, check for damp, consider cracks in the walls or anything else relating to the structure or condition of the property. It's simply to confirm to the bank that the property is of adequate security.
I'm buying a 1930's semi-detached with an internal conversion and the full RICS Building Survey is taking place today. This should either put my mind at rest or flag up serious issues. It's a steal at £450 in my opinion.
A valuation is simply a valuation, it does not review the condition of the roof, check for damp, consider cracks in the walls or anything else relating to the structure or condition of the property. It's simply to confirm to the bank that the property is of adequate security.
I'm buying a 1930's semi-detached with an internal conversion and the full RICS Building Survey is taking place today. This should either put my mind at rest or flag up serious issues. It's a steal at £450 in my opinion.
Soldato
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That is very cheap, mine full building is costing £600 which i thought was expensive. Have called around a couple companies and the homebuyers report i was quoted £570-£600. Although the property doesn't really need a full building survey it makes sense to have one since its only £30 difference. I also been given the sellers homebuyers report from 2018 but still having one done as a piece of mind.
Started the whole process 1 week before lockdown - offer accepted, formal mortgage offer obtained at that point. Have had to extend mortgage offer twice now and up my deposit in the process. Was informed contract exchange is today and completion on the 30th. Pheww! 
Booking a removals company isn't exactly trivial. You have to pay a deposit to secure a date, and as you can imagine - they're in a lot of demand at the moment.
Once our chain was all ready to exchange, we then had to look for available dates based on when the removals companies availability to agree a completion date.
Wouldn't have thought so.
More likely they'll do a 'drive by' survey. IE- quick check on Google Maps to make sure the house exists, and is worth roughly what you're paying for it.
They're the ones that chose to book removals etc when we hadn't yet exchanged. We'd agreed to aim for the 16th provided the searches came back.
The searches haven't come back. *shrug*
This is why I didn't commit anything to moving this week. It's going to cost me money if it gets delayed beyond tomorrow. Seller is going mental acting like we're at fault.
Soldato
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aand we're not moving tomorrow. Chain is being reasonable at least and have said they'll wait for the searches before arranging another exchange and completion date.
Back to the waiting game
Have you booked your removals yet? Wondering when would be best time to book this?
I'm renting, so I'll have a few weeks overlap whatever happens, so I'm just to hire a van and do it myself.
Associate
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Depends on your surveyor. 90% of the RICS homebuyer surveys I have reviewed have been worthless as they are just copy and paste jobs. If you google, you can get a generic report they follow.
Expect lot's of "ambers" - electrics need an inspection, Boiler may need replacing, etc. with bullet proof caveats
Hopefully, you get a good surveyor. But the majority of those will be doing the £1200-£1500 full structural.
Depends on your surveyor. 90% of the RICS homebuyer surveys I have reviewed have been worthless as they are just copy and paste jobs. If you google, you can get a generic report they follow.
Expect lot's of "ambers" - electrics need an inspection, Boiler may need replacing, etc. with bullet proof caveats
Hopefully, you get a good surveyor. But the majority of those will be doing the £1200-£1500 full structural.
The insurance that effectively comes from a RICS survey is well worth it, even if the report itself is full of cosmetic/trivial noise that you have to pick through.
Agree surveyors do vary massively though. My last one was a pain in the arse as he was incredibly over-cautious about everything, recommending loads of additional surveys.
Still better than winging it and ending up with something structurally unsound that has loads of remedial work that needs doing.
Realistically, it's not your fault. It's your solicitor who's left everything till the last minute.
Our searches were all done and dusted over a month before our initial planned exchange date as our solicitors applied for them early.
The searches were applied for as soon as the solicitors were instructed. Our solicitors are pretty good, and I made sure of it.
It's not a closely-guarded secret that local authorities are swamped and searches are taking longer than usual to come back. That's why I didn't make any assumptions about them being back on time.
The sellers chose to take the risk. Their problem.
Soldato
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What are your opinions on the following? Our buyers solicitors are currently awaiting LA searches before making any enquiries however i have a full survey booked on 28th Oct on the property im buying. Should i continue with this survey or delay into November?