What the Surveyor Said.....

[cslgirl]

Am in the process of buying a detached house, built in 1953. Just had the mortgage valuation paperwork sent to me and the condition of: External Walls - Average; Roof - Average; Overall Condition - Average (there is Good, Average or Poor).

Under the title "General Remarks on Condition and Future Resale" it states "the general condition of the property appears consistent with its age and type of construction, but some elements of the property are ageing and likely to require attention. The property should have reasonable saleability under normal market conditions".

It's a very general statement and I wondered whether it was the norm to cover themselves with this statement or whether there is a need to pay for a full survey. The mortgage people will lend on it so it can't be that bad but just wondering what "elements" covers. Or would buildings insurance cover this? I bought a newbuild previously so didn't have these issues.

Cheers.

[Muncher]

In my recent experience the full surveys aren't worth the paper they're written on, the findings are so generic and full of so many caveats that they were worthless.

I would think the above would suffice as they'll have picked up on anything glaringly obvious.

[Mandat]

Muncher said:

In my recent experience the full surveys aren't worth the paper they're written on, the findings are so generic and full of so many caveats that they were worthless.

I would think the above would suffice as they'll have picked up on anything glaringly obvious.

A mortgage valuation survey is for the benefit of the bank and not the buyer. It simply confirms that the property exists and is not currently falling down. Beyond that, don't expect any form of advice on any issues / problems that may exist at the property that are not immediately apparent to the untrained eye.

[cslgirl]

Thanks for that. It has put my mind at rest. I didn't think a full survey would be worth the amount they charge. This one was £355 paid by me.

It starts off "XXX mortgage has instructed me to undertake an inspection of the property...purposes of valuation" so would be addressed to mortgage company I assume and just a copy to me.

[shirt]

arse covering exercise. one of my best mates did my survey and spent several hours poking around. he still included a fair few generalisations and caveats.

[Muncher]

Mandat said:

Muncher said:

In my recent experience the full surveys aren't worth the paper they're written on, the findings are so generic and full of so many caveats that they were worthless.

I would think the above would suffice as they'll have picked up on anything glaringly obvious.

A mortgage valuation survey is for the benefit of the bank and not the buyer. It simply confirms that the property exists and is not currently falling down. Beyond that, don't expect any form of advice on any issues / problems that may exist at the property that are not immediately apparent to the untrained eye.

In the most recent case it was a full structural survey so address some concerns over subsidence in the valuation report. They still failed to commit to anything of relevance, wouldn't comment on historical subsidence, potential future subsidence yet told the insurers they believed it was a normal insurance risk. When the insurers pointed out why they thought that they just covered their backsides further and shuffled their feet.

[Vron]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yes this is important - as you have paid for the survey i.e it wasn't free as part of a mortgage offer then even if its a valuation survey the valuation surveyor has a duty of care to you the same as to the lender as by paying separately a contract is formed and it is reasonable that you will rely on the information contained. You can therefore sue if they miss something major. Been there done that.

[cslgirl]

There is no more detail on the paperwork other than that statement which leaves it pretty open really. I did wonder whether to ring the surveyor to see if he would be more specific - would he do this?

[scotal]

cslgirl said:

There is no more detail on the paperwork other than that statement which leaves it pretty open really. I did wonder whether to ring the surveyor to see if he would be more specific - would he do this?

Quite often they will yes. Depends entirely on the surveyor.

[sleep envy]

cslgirl said:

It's a very general statement and I wondered whether it was the norm to cover themselves with this statement or whether there is a need to pay for a full survey. The mortgage people will lend on it so it can't be that bad but just wondering what "elements" covers. Or would buildings insurance cover this? I bought a newbuild previously so didn't have these issues.

I take it that the survey was undertaken on behalf of the lender to ensure that the dwelling is not falling down and if you were to default they could recoup their losses?

in that case it'll be cursory look around the property identifying anything obvious - subsidence, dry/wet rot, any movement in the fabric, etc

wrt to buildings insurance covering any work, if any repairs are likely to be required anything which can be atributed to a lack of maintenance will be deemed not covered and you wil have to cover the cost of making good yourself

if you aren't confident enough that you know what to look for it is always best to get your own survey carried out

bear in mind though, unless you have an intrusive survey carried out they will still miss things - I had to replace the floor structure in my bathroom as the pots had blown (the previous occupier had a tendancy to flood the bath and the house had not heating), it wasn't possible to tell as they were covered in 1" of screed from above and polystyrene tiles on the soffit

that made for an interesting afternoon when I started to hack up the screed and found myself peering into the kitchen...