Mother-in-law (aged 90) is selling her mid 1960's bungalow in order to move into sheltered accommodation. The keen buyer wants a full survey done. M-in-L is in a spin regarding this.
What does a full survey involve, will there be specific questions she will need to answer and what information will she need to have to hand ? Could you also give me an approximation of how long the survey should take ?
The bungalow is in good order, well insulated, double glazed, newish gas boiler and fch, quite large, 4 beds etc.

Thanks

JBL

 

Well the usual run of the mill Survey involves paying a bloke to come and look over the house for 5 minutes and tell you it looks ok. Im fairly sure a full survey involves a full investigation into checking the foundations/brickwork etc. In other words, rather than taking it for face value, they have a proper look (may involve drilling in some cases) to be sure of no underlying problems.

 

No drilling, if it's a full survey anythin from 30 minutes to an hour maybe a bit more she doesn't need to do anything other than let him in. the agent should be present If no one else is present as you don't the poor lady to open the door for anyone for security purposes. They do usually give an aprroximate time to when they will turn up they won't need to ask her anything. Best of luck I hope that helps tell her not to worry he will check for damp and make sure the property is structerly sound. You only do a full survey when you have doubt in the property, or when u don't know anything about properties, to get peace of mind, or to get a price reduction lAter on.


Mus

 

Indeed, the survey was carried out at our 2nd house with the tennants in, we also requested the Agent went with him since at the time it was just the mum and biaby in at the time.

Some surveyers do ask questions (its easier) but she can always say that her son in law knows and deals with all that. etc

Tell her not to worry, its just usual houseselling procedure, all she'll have to do is let the guy in

 

Its usually for the bank who is supplying the mortgage to make sure house is in good order and not going to fall down or not be worth the money they are fronting for it.

 

No worries

RB5201 has it sussed LOL

The *real* worry is actually for the guy who asked for the full survey !! I had one done for a house I bought in Manchester and it cost me a fecking fortune !! They talked about the moss on the drive being a hazard and the noise from Barlow Moor road being audible but when it came down to it they covered themselves for any eventuallity............they couldn't lift carpets in case they inhaled dust etc but the best bit was the surveyor said he had a bad back and couldn't go into the loft or other spaces !!

I tried everything to get my money back ...... nothing !!

Shaun

 

Yup, agreed - a "Full Survey" is worthless and doesnt really tell you anything...

They do pretty much nothing other than walk around the inside and outside of the property commenting on anything that any normally observant and sane person would. As mentioned, they wont lift carpets, look in the loft, test anything or give the person commissioning the survey any useful information at all that they dont already have!

Anything that requires specialist knowledge they deflect with comments like "The central heating system was not inspected due to the specialist knowledge required to properly investigate. If a central heating survey is required a specialist should be contracted to do so."

Absolutely nothing to worry about...

DN