Property Survey Alternatives

A property survey may act as a 'health check' for the home you're buying but is it actually worth it?

A few weeks ago I wrote an article commenting on the fact that only about 20% of homebuyers bother with getting a professional survey carried out on their prospective purchase.

I'm all in favour of getting a property thoroughly checked out before you buy it ,but I can understand that finding an extra £500 - £1,000 for a full structural survey might be difficult when you consider all the other expenses involved in buying a house.

There's also the fact that surveyors sometimes write over-zealous reports pointing out every single potential problem because they have to cover their backs if their professional indemnity insurance is to remain effective. As a result, buyers can be scared off unnecessarily because it can appear that a property has rather more problems than it really does.

So, is there a cheaper, better alternative?

One suggestion from an experienced Buy-to-Let landlord on our discussion boards is to ask a surveyor if you can pay him by the hour. Then walk around the house for a couple of hours with him/her simply talking about everything you both see. Tell the surveyor that you are hiring his/her 'knowledge, experience and skill and not their professional indemnity insurance'. That way you should get the real story of the house even if nothing is in writing.

The problem with that idea is that if you later discover that the surveyor didn't spot a problem or gave you wrong advice, you might still be tempted to try and sue. You probably won't get very far but it's a risk that your surveyor has to carry because, ultimately, you are still paying him for his professional skills even if it's in the way of an informal chat.

A surveyor friend of mine says a better bet would be to employ an experienced builder you can trust, and walk around the property with him instead. Unlike a surveyor, he's not going to be worried about every single rusty nail or whether a wall in a 300-year old house isn't quite straight. He will be far better placed to tell you the sort of work that really needs doing and how much it will cost.

You could, of course, go for both options. The surveyor and the builder together - on an informal basis. Now, that would be interesting!