HomeBuyers Report - Worth it?

RastaManBob · 5 Nov 2017 at 14:48

Good Afternoon,

I am currently in the process of purchasing a property. The lenders are carrying out their own basic valuation for their needs and I have not chosen to 'upgrade' this. Instead, I have decided that should I require a further report I will get a surveyor to do one privately on the basis that I did not pay for the lenders valuation and it will mean two pairs of eyes have (to varying degrees) cast over the property.

I have completed a few online quotations (struggling, as I go, to identify a surveyor better than any other) but the general price seems to be £400 - 450.

For those that have recently purchased a property, can you advise whether you found the HomeBuyers Report useful? I am concerned that it will not turn up any useful findings and instead cause undue fear on the property where the surveyor has been unwilling to comment on the current state. On the other hand, I'd hate to complete the purchase only to find - at some point later - that defect(s) exist which could have been identified by a HomeBuyers Report.

All things considered, money is flying out of my account from all angles at the moment and the prospect of another £400 - 450 is something I'd gladly avoid but not if it comes generally recommended.

Thank you.

rexehuk · 5 Nov 2017 at 15:06

I went with the default one provided by the mortgage, nothing really would have come up that would have prevented us buying.

I could tell there was no damp etc from just viewing the property, so that was my main concern. Only things that were unexpected on moving in was rear soffits were totalled, but that only cost £500 to have done.

On top of this, the electrics were original and had old wylex fuse boxes... I should have clocked that myself.

However, both of those only cost marginally more than buyer report... so I would have ended up spending more money than needed.

I kind of just took a sense approach, I'm sure there are a ton of potential holes but it worked for me.

- Does property smell ok
- Is there any damp on walls
- Is there double glazing
- Is there any weird damage to ceilings
- Are there any interior/exterior cracks
- Any oddities inside the house wiring etc (spotted 1 or 2)

Em3bbs · 5 Nov 2017 at 15:49

Typical homebuyers report:

- Electrics look OK but would recommend getting a qualified electrician in to check
- Gas looks ok but would recommend getting a qualified gas safe engineer in to check
- Roof looks OK but would recommend getting a roofer in
- Building looks OK but would recommend getting a builder in to check

Etc. etc....

(I paid £490 for one)

Buffman · 5 Nov 2017 at 16:14

The above is pretty much what happens! I think I paid about £500 for full structural survey. Wasn't much more than homebuyers report for an independent so I'd go for that

photoshop · 5 Nov 2017 at 17:10

I paid £370 for mine.
House from 2000 which was renovated in 2016.

Found no issues for me to take back to vendor so waste of money but peace of mind.

SPG · 5 Nov 2017 at 21:26

I never bothered, just went with the bog standard one required by the mortgage company.

As above a little common sense goes a long way, if its lived in and smells of damp, something is wrong, If its not lived in and no heating is on, just check the walls for any major signs of damp often its just because no heating has been on and all the windows are shut and no air movement.

A good pointer is check the other houses on the street, if they are of the same type and more or less built at the same time check the condition of them as well.

I would only consider a home buyer report if something looks really really bad but i wanted the house.

jaffveyda · 6 Nov 2017 at 08:33

If you spend considerable amount on the property It is recommended to spend more money on survey i.e full survey including structure. Unless the property is new.

Matthew.M · 6 Nov 2017 at 08:38

It largely depends on the age and condition of the property and your own experience finding issues.

In my case the report highlighted issues which I hadn’t spotted and allowed me to negotiate the asking price down so it more than paid for itself. I would always get one. The valuation for the mortgage won’t be much more than a drive by and remote flood risk search.

Hagar · 6 Nov 2017 at 09:02

Matthew.M said:
It largely depends on the age and condition of the property and your own experience finding issues.

In my case the report highlighted issues which I hadn’t spotted and allowed me to negotiate the asking price down so it more than paid for itself. I would always get one. The valuation for the mortgage won’t be much more than a drive by and remote flood risk search.

This really, I would get one, in fact just have. We did not need it for a mortgage, but for typically 0.2% of the purchase price, it is something that will point to potential future cost and may be used as a bargaining device even if only for a few hundred pounds.

Holst1981 · 6 Nov 2017 at 10:41

We used an indipendent surveyor when we bought.

First house we pulled out due to potential problems highlighted by the survey.

I think this is something where getting a good person is important. The guy we used was very helpful and I would definitely use him again.
He even came back a year later foc when we had a damp problem.

Definitely worth it for me, but the report was only half the value for me.

RockLobster · 6 Nov 2017 at 12:00

I had a basic survey which nationwide provided for free. I didn't see the point in a homebuyers survey as the property was only 13 years old.

Kol · 6 Nov 2017 at 12:06

Em3bbs said:
Typical homebuyers report:

- Electrics look OK but would recommend getting a qualified electrician in to check
- Gas looks ok but would recommend getting a qualified gas safe engineer in to check
- Roof looks OK but would recommend getting a roofer in
- Building looks OK but would recommend getting a builder in to check

Etc. etc....

(I paid £490 for one)

Haha, exactly this. We bought our place back in August and got a HBR. The guy covered his back in everything so from the report I could have severe rising damp, I could have a leaking back roof, it's possible that I have Japanese knotweed. None of those are true.

We got one just in case (when it's a fraction of the house price 0.001 in our case), you never know, but sometimes they do more harm than good in highlighting issues that really aren't issues.

miller745 · 6 Nov 2017 at 23:17

Mortgage company covered the cost of a standard valuation (£175) and I paid £185 to bump it up to the home buyers report. Was a huge pain to start with because the estate agents refused to believe the result of the report (house needed a new roof) but after some time they saw sense and finally agreed it was needed.

Me and the seller split the cost of a new roof "50/50". They paid 2k and I paid 1,7k

divuk83 · 7 Nov 2017 at 07:56

Em3bbs said:
Typical homebuyers report:

- Electrics look OK but would recommend getting a qualified electrician in to check
- Gas looks ok but would recommend getting a qualified gas safe engineer in to check
- Roof looks OK but would recommend getting a roofer in
- Building looks OK but would recommend getting a builder in to check

Ours was similar for our first house.

Red flag for gas as no certificate: Perhaps if they had asked to see it? We already had a copy from the owners so not a problem.
Red flag for electrics: Not an issue as first job we planned on doing was a re-wire.
Red flag for front door due to (probably) non safety glass: Not an issue as we were going to replace it as it was old a knackered.
Lots of we think this might be an issue, we recommend you pay for another more specific survey for pretty much everything else.

My wife was a bit panicked by it all as loads of it was in red and it looked bad. Thankfully we got the survey for about £190 discounted through our mortgage provider so it wasn't as expensive as it could have been.

For our second house we didn't bother and the only issue we had was a roof leak, they wouldn't have spotted that anyway as it was up in the hard to get to corner of the un-boarded loft.

If you can see/smell issues with damp, there is subsidence or large cracks in walls or you spot Japanese knotweed or something, then get a specialist survey. I don't think the basic home buyers surveys are worth the paper they are printed on.

Dave

Psycho Sonny · 7 Nov 2017 at 12:12

Em3bbs said:
Typical homebuyers report:

- Electrics look OK but would recommend getting a qualified electrician in to check
- Gas looks ok but would recommend getting a qualified gas safe engineer in to check
- Roof looks OK but would recommend getting a roofer in
- Building looks OK but would recommend getting a builder in to check

Etc. etc....

(I paid £490 for one)

+1

Complete waste of time and money IMO. Have a good poke around yourself. This means testing plug sockets to make sure they all work. Seems odd but I have 1 in the living room which would be ideal if it worked. I had 2 people look at it and say it's more hassle than it's worth to get it fixed as it's impossible to trace the wiring backwards without ripping stuff apart which would cost more than the hassle it causes.

basically test everything. take a good look at walls inside and out. look where walls meet ceilings round the edges, etc.

get into the attic and check every beam and support as well as the other bits for marks of previous water ingress which has dried up and left a stain.

basically a good poke around for 45 minutes will save you £400+.

Jamesyboyjim · 7 Nov 2017 at 12:45

We paid for a full structural survey on the house we've just bought. Cost us around 500ish. It did point out a few things which we will get addressed in time but the majority of issues we've come across since stripping the house back to the bare bones that needed immediate attention were not highlighted and couldn't be spotted by the surveyor anyway (lots of hidden holes and damage by the bodge job alcoholic woman we purchased from)

Removing the ten layers of wallpaper revealed cracks and holes everywhere. My only annoyance was under the boiler's cover it had a warning label attached to it by British Gas stating it was at risk and shouldn't be used. The surveyor should have seen this but as we had already planned and budgeted to overhaul the whole system it wasn't really a setback and switched the damn thing off on day one.

I would advise anyone and myself in future to arrange several viewings after you've had an offer accepted and state you wish to have a really good look around, trust your instinct and ask questions when it rings alarm bells regardless of whether you have a full survey or not.

dl8860 · 7 Nov 2017 at 13:09

For those saying it's a waste of time, you are right if you yourself know what to look for and the property has very evidently been well looked after.

If you're looking at an older property that perhaps hasn't been maintained to the best of standards, a full building survey (typically ~£150 more than a HBR) is very worthwhile, if for no other reason than to haggle on the purchase price. I completed recently and we got £5k off the asking price due to what the survey said.

It may be the case that it's all or nothing, as in if you don't need a full survey then a HBR is also not required, but if there are some doubts then it's always worth the extra for the full structural survey.

Sunbed · 9 Nov 2017 at 15:47

I didn't get any surveys when I bought a couple of years ago. My cousin has done a few renovations in his time so he just came and had a look round with me. From this experience, I'd say the Homebuyer report would have been worthless as it wouldn't have spotted anything extra. A full structural survey wasn't worth it for a standard Victorian terrace, again it would have told me what was obvious from looking round e.g. some roof tiles missing, repointing needed doing in areas.

For most scenarios I'd say an experienced friend or family member is sufficient, unless it's a old/unique building in which case a full structural survey might be worth it. I can't think of a situation where a Homebuyer report is ever worth it.

Nelson Santos · 9 Nov 2017 at 16:12

Working as a graduate surveyor currently doing my APC, I would recommend a Local Private firm. The corporate one's tend to caveat a lot of their reports and use a lot of preferred paragraphs.

RastaManBob said:
I have completed a few online quotations (struggling, as I go, to identify a surveyor better than any other) but the general price seems to be £400 - 450.

Online quotes can vary wildly, I would ring up a local private firm using RICS find a firm. They should be able to talk to you about your needs, and any concerns that you may have.

I would also make sure that the Firm is regulated by RICS and has the appropriate insurance.