The Mock Turtle

Mine was also a total waste of money. Annoyingly, most of the surveyors who surveyed my flat for various buyers were the opposite and found a variety of (different) major issues None of them flagged the same stuff though.

Edith Bacon wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:34 am It’s enraging to pay all that money for pointless information, especially when such huge sums of money and our actual homes are involved.

I will definitely get targeted reports from plumbers, builders, electricians etc. next time. Although J is very keen to have our own built (because of this issue), which is very dramatic way to solve it

I would love to build a house, my dad always wanted to do it but my mum wasn't keen. What puts me off is the lack of land in a place I want to live.

Edith Bacon wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:55 am

Beena wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:02 pm It's so frustrating discovering the last owner's bodged jobs, even when you know a house needs work.

Fourteen years on and we are still sorting out the last bloke’s hidden messes.

Same here, but thankfully only 6 years.

Our boiler was 26 years old when we moved in here. It hadn’t been serviced for well over 10 years, either. Replacing it was the very first thing we did, although it wasn’t condemned.

Mr L refuses to spend money of surveys for this reason. He knows enough about construction to think most big issues will be visible to him, and they just aren’t worth the money for anything else.

I'm glad thanks to the advice given here and also IRL that I didn't bother with a survey, as they do seem completely pointless. My friend had one which was basically £500 to say "You might get damp or you might not".

The bloke who did up G. Towers - not the previous owners - did everything on the cheap, and they didn't alter it as they knew they weren't going to be there forever, so I'm now sorting it out. The bathroom in particular. Fortunately it's all been manageable, but why bother doing it in the first place if you're not going to do it properly?

I'm sorry to hear of the boiler woes Marth. At least a new one will be much more efficient & save money in the long run. You need an annual service on a boiler don't you; do you just sign up with anyone, or is it the manufacturer?

The plumber who fitted our boiler does the annual service.

You don't 'need' one as such, but it's sensible to keep an eye on it.

I didn't bother with a survey on this place - it's a huge block, with a brand new roof at the time, and the issues around the site were well documented by a huge survey that had been commissioned when the freehold had been recently won from the council, so there was zero point.

I ummed and aaahed about getting one on the new place, and did in the end and so far I'm really happy with the surveyor - he took the time to speak to me before the survey to check if there were any specific issues I wanted him to pay particular attention to, then rang me straight after he'd done it to talk me through what he'd spotted and give me some advice on next steps, then told me that after I'd received the written report I was welcome to call him any time to clarify anything as needs be.

If he's missed any damp or boiler issues though, I'll have his neck ;)

He sounds good, Derek!

I've just had the surveyor here. He was here for bloody ages and that was just for a Homebuyer's report. There's some damp apparently but nothing major.

He asked me when I last had the electrics checked. I didn't realise you were supposed to do this routinely.

I think gas boilers will be phased out - new builds will banned from installing them from 2025 which isn't that far away really. Hopefully heat pumps will get cheaper soon or the government will start to subsidise them.

We’ve just had our first open home. There were 32 groups (around 100 people) through in 30 mins, which for our price point is a really good result apparently. Now we wait and see if we get any offers…

Fingers crossed, Est!

For our last two purchases we’ve done nothing more than a valuation as I’ve found surveys to be more of a hindrance than a help. That said, neither of those were old buildings that I would have worries about any secret problems, but I think in that case I’d prefer to just get someone independent to take a look for a specific problem rather than a pointless survey.

I got burnt so many times a few years ago when surveys just got obsessed with damp proof course and then putting a retention on the mortgage on houses that quite clearly had no damp issues.

That sounds very positive Est, I'm sure you'll get offers.

In Scotland, the seller has to provide the survey, its called the home buyers report. It seems like a fairly good system.

Thanks guys. We are currently in negotiations…

Fingers crossed for you Est!

Done

Congratulations!!

Congratulations Est

Thanks guys. It’s 10.15pm here now and my mind is racing at everything we need to do in the next few weeks.

Oh that's great news! What are the usual timescales for moving in Australia?

Congrats!

Fantastic news Est.