My first house! One for Mantis?

[Whatever]

I've just had an offer accepted for my first property with my g/f, a 1960's bungalow in Cheltenham.

What is the recommended level of survey to have done as we have identified an issue with the current patio and water running into the foundations through the airbricks.

Think this was Mantis' cup of tea IIRC?

Cheers

[Mantis]

Sorry, late to this one :blush:

I would recommend a homebuyers report as a good level of inspection and an informative report. I would also point out to the surveyor your concern. Have a good bounce on the flooring near where you think water is getting in.

The best method is the heal drop, wear hard souled shoes stand on the front of your feet and then bring down the heals of your shoes. Too much spring/ deflection and you need to get under the floor to see what is/has gone wrong.

[Whatever]

Great stuff, thanks.

[Shirker]

But don't use Countrywide Surveyors - lazy crooks.

[Whatever]

Countrywide (RA Bennett) have just sold her flat although feck knows where they are with it at the moment. Andrews who we're buying through are trying to get us to use their people.

Countrywide Property Management need shooting too. They are supposed to be the management company of the flats yet it's twisted round so they never do anything even though they take their cash every month without fail. The residents have to do everything themselves from painting to cleaning, yet when they fitted a new door not so long back (yes, the dangerous door that despite a fire service official visiting and saying isn't fire safe still hasn't been changed) they couldn't wait to get the cash straightaway.

Arseholes the lot of 'em!

[net-curtains]

I paid for a full survey on a house once, cost about £500 in 1994. Was supposed to meet the surveyor at the house and go round with him, but when I got there (on time) he'd already finished and was sitting in his car writing notes.

His report found a whole load of stuff that was glaringly obvious, but missed out tons of important things - such as the dry rot in the living room floor (the floorboards sank about a foot when you walked on them, and there was a loose bit of board you could lift up to see the rot underneath as soon as you entered the room), and the lack of ventilation for the gas boiler in the dining room which could have been potentially fatal had a builder friend not spotted it.

We wrote back to them, and also complained to Trading Standards, but the get-out clause for them is that they don't guarantee to find everything that's wrong with the property, and so if they fail to spot something potentially life threatening, or financially disastrous such as irreparable subsidence then you have no claim against them.

I've sold quite a few houses too, and surveyors miss the most obvious things. The last house we sold had a serious damp problem in the corner of the room, and most of the plaster had fallen off. We had a settee in front of it, not to deliberately hide the damage from view, more for our own sakes so we didn't have to look at it every day. We must have had about 10 surveyors look at the place and not s single one spotted it, despite cracks being visible above the sofa.

[Whatever]

Makes you wonder what you pay them for.

[sickpuppy]

Surveyors - lazy crooks.

Fixed it for you. Couldn't find the the crack in their own arses.

[yawner]

Didn't we all have this argument around 2002? The last time we gave Mantis a good kicking? 

When we bought Yawner Towers in 04 we paid around £1k for the survey (Mr teh Mantis offered his services for free, but we didn't want to take advantage of a friendship - doh).

Mrs Y instructed the surveyor - told him *exactly* what we intended to use the place for (ie continue as a guest house, but stop providing evening meals).

This clearly went in one ear and out the other. When he arrived to do the survey, the old incumbent gits Basil & Sybil told him that we were going to stop using it as a "proper" B&B, and use it for our own residence only. (they had a bee in their bonnets about anyone taking over THEIR place, but thats another story)

He took their word for it, and proceded to write out the survey and valued the place as a private residence.

We phoned him as soon as we got the survey to point out this error. He was very much of the "Well you keep changing your mind, and thats not what Mr & Mrs Wright (incumbent gits) told me". We had to remind him that WE were paying him, and we'd never changed our intentions once.

I followed this up with an email, claiming that the valuation (based on a private residence) was worthless. His reply was nothing short of a rant - ALL TYPED IN CAPITAL LETTERS TO SHOW US THAT HE WAS ANGRY AND MEANT BUSINESS - presumably. He eventually agreed to rewrite the valuation.

But even the survey - for £1k we got stuff like "Flat roof seems in good condition, but unable to check in detail. Recommend this is checked by qualified roofing contractor" - for pretty much every aspect of the house. Plumbing, construction etc etc. Every observation was qualified by a "..but you'll need to have this checked out by a....etc etc".

SO not a lot for £1k, and he'd covered himself against anything going titsup.

The flat roof? It fell in the day we moved in.

[Whatever]

So do you actually have to have a survey done or not to get a mortgage?

Kate's uncle has been a builder/surveyor all his life and went round doing the 'heel drop' etc and picked up the flooding issue. It's a 60's bungalow and built well, not like the things they put up today!

[net-curtains]

But even the survey - for £1k we got stuff like "Flat roof seems in good condition, but unable to check in detail. Recommend this is checked by qualified roofing contractor" - for pretty much every aspect of the house. Plumbing, construction etc etc. Every observation was qualified by a "..but you'll need to have this checked out by a....etc etc".

Sounds like you had the same surveyor we did. Everything in his report was "appears to be in good condition..........but this needs to be verified by a qualified builder/electrician/plumber/carpenter/gas fitter/roofer/solicitor etc.."

Completely worthless. I learned more from taking a mate around with me who'd done a bit of DIY.

[Mantis]

:ducks:

The fundamental problem is that you are not supposed to move furniture or lift carpets. It is therefore possible that you are going let the odd defect go past. Even good Surveyors like me do miss the odd thing   I did move stuff but it depended what it was and if folk were sitting on it.

Damp should never be missed, with a modern damp meter you can test everywhere and you should test at 1.5m around the ground floor.

If the surveyor is negligent they will pay out, there is after all an RICS complaint scheme to help agrieved parties and make sure that the surveyor is not ducking out of a settlement and hoping it wont be persued.

I hated it when clients wanted to accopmpany me on an appointment, I always refused. I did offer to show them round after my inspection. You have a regimented inspection routine and if you are diverted from it you are more likely to make a mistake.

Often with defects that relate to movement you need to reflect and often chat to a colleague to confirm your diagnosis before putting this down in a report, so you would not have the benefit of this reflective thought straight after an appointment.

[sickpuppy]

So do you actually have to have a survey done or not to get a mortgage?

I believe the mortgage company usually insist on the basic survey but may insist on a higher level if the building is older.

[Whatever]

Cheers all

[net-curtains]

Do they still do that? I haven't bought a house since the HIPS thing, I thought that was going to replace the homebuyers report? If not then looks like you get two crap surveys whether you like it or not.

[Mantis]

Home condition report did not happen that was supposed to be in the HIP but they dropped it.

You only have to have a Valuation (It is not a survey) as a minimum and depending on the ratio of loan to value you may only need an external appraisal of valuation. Known as a drive past. I generally stop and get out except in rough areas then it could be a 4th gear drive past

[Shirker]

Surveyors - lazy crooks.

Fixed it for you. Couldn't find the the crack in their own arses.

One house we were looking at buying they incorrectly identified the structure of the building (despite it having exposed woodwork on the upper floor), missed the damp, missed the fact a balcony was sagging at one end, but highlighted that there was a barn next door which 'has potential for residential development which could impact on the amenity of the property'. No poo Sherlock - I hadn't seen the chuffing great barn.

Or when we sold the small holding, the Countrywide surveyor who drove into the farmyard, realised he'd forgotten his camera, asked me to e-mail him some photos, then created a report based on a visit many years earlier on the basis not much will have changed since. Except maybe the house was now on mains water, had central heating, had the old lean-to damp extension pulled down and replaced, etc. And that was where the buyer was paying for the all-singing all-danging report.

Or the Countrywide surveyor who came to look at our last house on behalf of the buyer and highlighted a tree which was 'close to the building and could be affecting the foundations and may need specialist removal'. We lifted it out and put it in a plant pot. Big tree... Oh, and he was banging on about the house having no damp-proof course, this being a 200+ year old stone farmhouse with walls a meter thick where you may as well try and damp-proof the River Conwy for all the good it would do.

Not all surveyors are bad, but Countrywide couldn't put their trousers on the right way round without instructions.