Quote Originally Posted by JonRA View Post
I've just bought a house under similar circumstances - it had the remaining few years of an NHBC warranty and as there were no obvious defects I decided to do without a survey (I looked for cracks, damp patches etc, checked that doors and windows worked properly and so on).

As have been said, basic surveys do have loads of caveats (and the last time I had one and asked about a large internal crack the surveyor said it was probably ok but I would need further investigation to make sure). But surveyors will lift drains and check the roof space if they can access them and the reports can be interesting to read if an older building.

I am pretty sure other threads have suggested the main points to look for if you decide to go it alone - if you do, you need to be systematic.

It might be worth reading a completed survey if you can get one, to see what you get?

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There is another side to this. My BIL is a building surveyor, and turns down clients who don’t want a full structural survey, but want “Just look at the foundations and roof” (for example - as a cheaper option because they reckon everything else is okay). The reason he turns them away - is that if anything develops in the walls or somewhere else later - that client will start a claim against him on the basis that “Well, he should have noticed that when he was there”. It matters not if the claim has any merit - it is still damaging. So damaging, that surveyors often roll over to prevent that.

He and my sister can usually sense which potential clients are going to be problematic from the first phone call, if the client asks: “Do you have professional indemnity cover?” They turn those ones down. (Word gets around surveyors of clients who put in spurious claims).

You get the same attitude to surveyors as you do to car dealers, from a significant percentage of the population: “They are robbing b88tards!” But in the next breath: “I had an intermittent fault in the gearbox, gonna cost me a bomb! So I traded it in. Best way mate!”

Yeah, it’s easy to take it out on the dealer/surveyor, but a huge percentage of the population will do anything to claw money back with no real basis.

If you feel that surveyors are like “Stealers” - have the integrity to shun them completely for ever. Do it yourself - Just trawl through youtube and crack on.