Surveyors - don't you love them !

[Andrew Mawson]

Got sight today of the full structural survey commissioned by my buyers on my house. Cost them just over £1000 plus VAT and he was on site for 5.5 Hrs.

Apparently our genuine Edwardian fire place surrounds are cast aluminium Apparently our 9" x 6" galvanised iron airbricks are also cast aluminium It seems our two fir trees planted in the 1950's are leylandii (they'd be twice as tall if they were !) Apparently the baltic pine spindles on the first stair run are non original and are a different pattern from the higher stair runs which I never got round to having dipped and stripped unlike the other (identical!) ones. Sadly it seems that the emulsion painted plywood plumbing inspection panel that has its grain showing is infact likely to be asbestos. However it is good to hear that the boiler flue is in excellent condition despite the fact that the top section joint has swiveled over at 45 degrees (trivial problem easily fixed but not seen by the blind surveyor)

Oh and the boiler that was installed in 1986 is apparently quite new !

OK it's not my money, and he has (correctly as there isn't anything particularly to worry about) given the house a clean bill of health, but where do they get these people from !!!!!

It really annoys me that the buyers have paid very significant money for a document full of factual errors and yet covered in the usual escape clauses regarding what he cannot see to the extent that it is a worthless piece of paper.

AWEM

[PeTe33]

Exactly the reason we are not having any report done on the late 17th century terraced house we are in the process of buying.

:¬)

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Great! now hows the Foundation,Damp,Dry rot, ect,ect? WTF has the stuff you mentioned got to do with the survey?

[dom]

Much the same as my experience when buying an old chapel for conversion. =A31000 for a complete load of rubbish. Fortunately I had a very experienced lender on conversions (the Ecology building society), that was sufficently confident to disregard advice inappropriate to older building surveys.

As surveyors don't lift carpets or make much effort to access more difficult locations, I would not be confident of them picking up wet or dry rot or death watch etc. They also IME have a poor understanding of the causes and cures for damp. And as they are not qualified structural engineers nor am I confident of them correctly assesing structural issues.

I've had 2 full surveys, both because the properties were unusual. I will not be doing so again. I've seen enough to think that reports are largely padded out with cut and paste and so stuffed with caveats and exclusions (e.g. drainage) that they are very poor value for money if not misleading to significant extent.

All the points the OP raises are appropiate as the surveyor has mislead the buyer. Suggesting asbestos where it isn't. Leylandii which aren't. Failing to identify an obvious flue defect. Failing to identify a 14 year old boiler as such - if he didn't know he should say so.

[Tournifreak]

I have friends who paid for a "homebuyers" survey on a house they ended up buying. The report said there was mains gas conencted to the house. When they came to move in their gas cooker, there was nowhere to connect to. No gas pipes. When they asked Transco they confirmed the nearest gas pipe was >200m away. Complained to surveyor. He pointed to some caveat or other... upshot is the survey was wrong but there's nothing that our friends can do about it. I would never get a survey again, other than a valuation. (And then only for the benefit of the bank)

Jon.

[Hzatph]

Just to put the opposite point of view, we have had excellent value from the survey of our Victorian House. I did shop around for a surveyor based on experience and he did a good job despite the usual caveats. It enabled us to reduce the price by many multiples of his fee, probably over 20. Good value.

[Stuart Noble]

When did you last see a surveyor up a ladder, or lifting a drain cover? Bunch of parasites

[Glenn Booth]

Hi,

I have a similar story. So many factual errors it was ludicrous. Ours is an extended 1911 'cottage'. On inspection the surveyor said he found damp around the downstairs loo.

The report came back saying "instruct your builder to excavate around the toilet area to identify and remedy the source of the damp".

It turned out that the loo had no overflow pipe fitted, so any overfill of the toilet was just running onto the floor (only a few drips, as it turned out). Had the surveyor turned his head 15 degrees and looked at the loo he would have seen it. It took me less than a minute to suss, but he was happy to 'instruct' us to get the builders in. Fixed with an 8 quid syphon including overflow. Now do you think the mortgage company will believe me or him???

I could go on, but I won't. It puts my blood pressure up just thinking about it.

That escape clause is just priceless isn't it? "Spend thousands of pounds, and if it turns out to be unecessary, it's not our fault". Gits.

Regards,

Glenn.

[dom]

Ok - I'm going to be confrontational to the extent of saying of saying that the construction sector is shot through with professional parasites.

Surveyors, architects, strucural engineers - all will remove large chunks of cash, not do very much and not take responsibility for their actions.

There's good and bad in every profession, but particularly where the people above work on domestic projects - I think taking the client for a ride is rife.

It's much like the motor trade used to be (and sometimes still is). But now many service centres will give fixed prices, do the work promised, do it right - and stand by the warranty on their work. Those places aren't cheap but do what they claim. Then there's the family businesses that are also decent.

But IME the same can't be generally said of building trade professionals - they play on FUD (fear/uncertainty/doubt) - respectable family businesses or partnerships are less common - I have a much higher level of satifaction with solicitors - expensive but at least they completed the requested work correctly and on time.

[dom]

Ok - a couple of caveats on what I said above - structural engineers do have to get it right - though their solution may be sub-optimal, overpriced or ill-considered to the point of chaotic - but it does have to stay up.

I'd also add that the people that "do" in the building trade have in my experince a higher degree of competance - the ones that have to "make it work" tend to be much more down to earth/pragmatic/realistic (and better value for money) in their solutions and recommendations through hard-won experience.

[Grunff]

No, you are simply believing the ludicrous marketing touted by surveyors and their ilk, and convincing yourself that it was money well spent.

If the vendor were willing to accept £xxx off the asking price, they would have accepted this regardless of the survey. If they were not, no survey results in the world would make a difference.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Reminds me of buying my first vehicle in 1969...wanted a bedford van or 'people carrier' conversion..went to see one..nice bench seats and windows in the back..but it looked a bit tatty.and was a bit under market value...my 'glasses guide' or whatever said 'the 1962 model introduced screwed rather than welded rear seats'...and I glanced down, and by golly they were welded 'what year is this one mate?' '1966 mate came the cheery reply...'low mileage'

:-)

[Guy King]

The message from Stuart Noble contains these words:

Ours reckoned that the DPC was bridged somewhere, but wasn't clear as to where. It wasn't.

He also reckoned that the roof was missing an important diagonal timber. Since the roof's held up by concrete walls at each end about 5.5m apart I reckon I'd have other problems on my plate if the roof started to go slanty.

He missed the rot in one of the windowframes.

[Chris Bacon]

You missed out council building advisors.

[Gordon Hudson]

Apparently our house is next to a school, except it was turned into offices five years ago and the house was built onthe old playing fields. I suspect that surveyor never actually came to the house and looked at an old map.

[Alan]

20 year old boiler.... installed in 1986.

[PeterK]

June 2005 - I saw one lift a manhole/inspection chamber cover (sewers from two houses joining on the shared drive) bend over to look in and his mobile phone promptly slid out of his shirt pocket. It was such a shame he hadn't got any protective clothing to cover his suit as he climbed in to recover his phone.

Peter K

[Owain]

Conservation officers...

Owain

[Grunff]

Oh yes, they really are bottom-feeders.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've not used a surveyor, but have used both architect and structural engineer. The architect was excellent and found the builders needed for the work involved. He attended regularly and help sort out the inevitable problems and liaise with the BCO, etc. Structural engineer did exactly what was needed of him.

It was far too big a job for (me) to DIY so my efforts were restricted to the plumbing electrics and decoration.

At the completion of the job I was *very* satisfied with the end result and thought the professional fees reasonable.

So there. ;-)