Eserv - Building Surveyor

[Vron]

Hi

Got the purchasers surveyor wanting to do a valuation and 'building survey' (I understand this is the new name for a structural survey) fair enough. The woman on the phone says the surveyor needs 3 hours (!) and its so 'complex' they are having to send someone from York (about 35 miles away) so I've got to take the day off work. Any idea why it will take so long its only a 3 bed detached cottage!?!

Thanks

[davidjpowell]

It's E-Surv.

Building Survey may be a homebuyers or something more advanced. Either Way surveyor will be crawling around in much more detail than normal. It if is a really normal property then it may not take the full 3 hours.

E-Surv do a lot of normal mortgage vals, but only have a limited number of surveyors trained up to do the more detailed surveys. They did make a load of people redundant, closed offices etc. so this depending on how busy they are some of these surveyors will cover more than one office I would expect.

[anonymous-user]

To do a survey properly on your house I would say 3 hours is about right! if it has a complicated or unusual layout/construction methods it may take longer!

[Coco H]

I had a homebuyers report done (mid level) - it took 8 hours

[Vron]

I am staggered as the last 3 houses I have sold the valuation surveyor has been there literally 10 minutes.

[Busamav]

Vron said:

I am staggered as the last 3 houses I have sold the valuation surveyor has been there literally 10 minutes.

But that's for a valuation , the other guys are putting their name against any obviously visible defects ,for what it's worth.

[Chrisgr31]

Indeed for a valuation the surveyor (valuer) merely has to confirm that building isn't going to fall down in the next couple of weeks, and provides no guarantee to the structure of the building.

A longer survey means that the Building Surveyor is checking the structure of the property, possibly testing drains, the electrics, looking for cracks etc and is guaranting additional work other than he reports won't be needed. Takes ages!

[silverthorn2151]

Coco H said:

I had a homebuyers report done (mid level) - it took 8 hours

Good grief!!! I can do a 'building survey' of a multi storey ofice building quicker than that!

I would suggest that anyone taking 8 hours to do a survey on a residential property is either stupid, missing the point of a survey or is spending 5 hours rooting through underwear drawers!

A homebuyers report is a standardised format of report designed to make things more straightforward. A building survey is a bespoke report tailored to suit the individual circumstances.

As a very experienced chartered building surveyor I can tell you that you can determine most areas of concern on a survey inspection in about half an hour and spend the rest of the time dealing with the issues surrounding those concerns and checking the other stuff that we do.

Incidently, I might check the drains but never 'test' them. I suspect most surveyors doing surveys are the same, not least because most of them don't know how to do a drain test (and most systems would fail but that's beside the point).

My mastermind subject might well be drains!