Quote Originally Posted by Demerit View Post
Three different types of survey. Mortgage valuation/homebuyers/full structural.

Mortgage valuation is a 20 minute job where the surveyor doesn't really look at anything but the value of the house and whether the bank will get its money back.

Homebuyers is two hours and they'll provide the traffic light system.

Full Structural is 4-5 hours usually and they'll provide more information on the faults, take the time to go on the roof rather than just look at it etc. This is usually a waste of money because they still protect their arses by saying they can't fully advise on certain matters etc.

You'll always get red 3's on a survey. It doesn't necessarily mean there's a fault there. A flat roof is almost always a red 3. I had one this morning actually where the flat roof was replaced 6 months ago with a 10 year guarantee and it came back as a red 3 because the surveyor said it needed to be inspected and the certificates seen. So it's not always 'this is a major issue and the house is going to fall down' sort of issue.

Ones to look out for are any structural comments, pitched roof issues and damp. All of which you can get free quotes for easily and use as a means to negotiate the price.
Cheers for that, that's awesome. Would you generally suggest the homebuyers survey then? Edit: You said so earlier. Sorry.

I didn't get it in the end. Some rich arsehole bidding the whole amount at once got favoured . I'm still gonna keep my eyes peeled though.