Should I get a survey done on brand-new house?

[MM]

Should I get a survey done on brand-new house?

MM

[Andy Hall]

Yes, but specify what you want.

A lot of people buying with a mortgage just rely on the lender's survey (for which they pay of course) and nothing more.

You shouldn't need a full structural survey, but it would be wise to have electrics, gas, plumbing checked at least.

Ultimately you have the NHBC guarantee, but this is only applicable to quite dire faults.

Other than that, you have to rely on the builder to do the snagging work. If it's a development, then the site agent is motivated to complete houses for sale not to fix problems with existing ones. Having a good relationship is important, but sometimes it is necessary to use sledgehammer techniques to get attention.

If you are buying a new house as a cash buyer, have a look at what deals the builder is offering to first time buyers, exchanges etc. Your timing is good if the houses are not moving fast, so don't lose the opportunity to ask for something. It might not be anything from the price, but you could ask for things in kind like garden work that don't cost them much but may be a lot of effort for you (just an example).

.andy

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[Owain]

"MM" wrote | Should I get a survey done on brand-new house?

What sort of survey, and what do you expect it to tell you you couldn't see for yourself?

IMHO the only survey worth getting is a proper structural survey on an older house (or a modern one if mucked about with). Pretty much everything else is common sense, lifting carpets and looking in the loft, and poking at anything suspicious with a penknife to see if it's rotting.

Owain

[TRK's dad]

This came up as a topic on a recent Radio 5 phone in. The concensus was yes you should. Can't remember why, although the slating that new build houses took in general would suggest that it's to avoid buying one that will fall down minutes after the keys are handed over.

HTH

[Chris V]

If its a big reputable builder I dont really see the point. You get up to 2 years to have any faults rectified and 10 years NHBC cover to pick up any structural problems. Cheers Chris

[Cicero]

================ Quite apart from the structure of the house you should also find out if there are any legal technicalities such as covenants, shared access, rights of way etc. Things like this can cause big problems if you don't know about them until somebody parks their car in your front garden!

Cic.

[Andy Hall]

True, but AIUI, that is part and parcel of the solicitor's search work....

.andy

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[Cicero]

============== Yes, I agree, but a solicitor might see such things as so routine that he might not bring them to the attention of the buyer. It's worth asking to be on the safe side.

Cic.

[Andy Hall]

Of course, but I wonder whether a surveyor would be reasonably expected to know about or investigate such things - I didn't think it was their area....

.andy

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[Ric]

I'm pretty sure its not - and I would be really pissed off with a solicitor who, having paid them the rather large amount of money they charge for conveyancing and searches and the likes, decided not to tell me important things that were thrown up by the searches.

[ARWadsworth]

Would the electrics not have an NIC certificate? I have not worked for a builder (on new builds) who has not asked for one. Surely this would be show the electrical installation to be sound.

Adam

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Chris V writes

which is not worth the paper it's written on, if reports are anything to go by.

[Andy Hall]

I'm sure they would.

Speaking personally, I would be unlikely to use an electrician to have wiring work done in the house - come next year I would go for a building notice as appropriate and do the work myself.

Apart from the absurdity of Building Regulations Part P, I suspect that gradually electricians will join one of the self certifying organisations and gradually home owners will have more work done in this way.

However, when it comes to buying a house, I would go for an electrical survey from a contractor who I knew had not been involved in the construction, simply as a matter of principle. Not because I don't think that NIC members aren't as competent and honest as the day is long, but because there is a potential conflict of interest. For the sake of a few tens of pounds for a survey, I have an independent view.

.andy

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[Cicero]

"Ric" wrote in message news:417d2470$0$1158$ [e-mail]...

============== My suggestion was prompted by one very bad personal experience. I bought a new house several years ago and because it was new (with no searchable history) the searches showed none of the items I cited. When the Deeds were prepared by the vendor a covenant was inserted which permitted several other properties access through my property. This wasn't a problem at first but some of the other owners assumed that 'access through' gave them a right to park on my property. Legal action was necessary to confirm my right to prevent people parking on my property and of course this resulted in very bad relations with several neighbours. When I sold the property (as quickly as I could!) the purchaser's surveyor did indeed ask me personally about the situation and actually measured all the boundaries to confirm their location. The purchaser was made fully aware of the situation and had the result of my legal action to prevent any repetition of the original problem. My solicitor was not very helpful and only acted under pressure from myself. He had either missed the covenant at the time of purchase or hadn't considered it worth his time to explain it to me. Although my experience may be rare I think it is worth asking both solicitor and surveyor about such things. If it doesn't concern the surveyor he will surely not be upset about being asked and may actually know about such things despite being outside his terms of reference.

Cic.

[MM]

I dunno! I'm only asking! As far as I could tell, the house was amazingly well built, and some neighbours who have already moved there volunteered their very positive opinions. (This is a local builder, not one of the big chain builders.)

MM

[Andy Hall]

In that case it's a different game and asking the neighbours is valuable data.

.andy

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[ARWadsworth]

[Andy Hall]

Now I know where you are coming from and I see the point.

I purchased a new property some years ago, built on some farmland and there had been a public footpath which would have gone through several of the properties. Because the area around had been developed anyway, there had become no purpose for the footpath anyway it was not that important, but an insured indemnity had had to be put in place by the builder to cover it. This all came out in the searches as well as being volunteered by the builder.

It seems though, that in your case, the solicitor didn't do his job properly.

The original point was whether surveyors have a part to play and I didn't see that they did in terms of titles, covenants and the like. How would the surveyor know unless you ask him to do a Land Registry search as well? it's another opinion, but you can equally get the entry from the Land Registry yourself for nominal cost.

.andy

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[Cicero]

================== My solicitor was highly recommended but proved to be really quite inadequate. We learn by bitter experience! In fact I would have asked the questions myself if I'd known which questions to ask and from whom. That's why I suggested that the OP should ask his surveyor for any relevant information - the worst that can happen is that he will say that he doesn't know anything. The more questions we ask the less likely we are to meet unpleasant surprises such as I the one I got. I'd never heard of a covenant in this context and certainly wouldn't have been able to ask any questions about them. As you say, the Land Registry, is a useful source of information but in my case there was no registry information because the house was a new build. We put a lot of trust in our solicitors and when things go wrong it's usually because we trusted the wrong one. That's life!

Cic.

[James]

For small jobs (which do not count as minor works under part P), will the building control costs be higher than employing an electrician?

James