House survey results are in….

Yes at long last the results of the house survey are in, this is a nerve wracking stage of the process as you start to worry the house has lots of things wrong with it that you didn’t spot. This is also the stage where the mortgage company can put a retention on the mortgage offer. What’s a retention? Good question….if you are buying a property that needs a substantial amount of work then depending on the severity of the works then the mortgage company can offer you a mortgage but hold (or retain) some of the money back until the work is done. Now a mortgage retention isn’t the end of the world but if you are very close on the finances then a retention may just make the purchase impossible, which is more than a little bit upsetting when you’ve paid for legal searches, arrangement fees and of course the survey fee! Anyway getting diverted slightly there

So our house survey was great news, in that they have said it needs damp work, full renovation inside and out and that there is a problem with the joists in the kitchen floor. We are very pleased for two reasons….one as I’m sure you’ve guessed the mortgage company haven’t been advised to put a retention on their offer…Woohoo and secondly because they have also put a valuation on for once the work is completed which is around £20,000 more than we thought it would be worth….of course we have to do the work and I’ve a feeling this house will become a bit of a money pit mainly because I really want to do the house justice and because I’m getting more expensive tastes by the day! The third thing…yes I know I said two main reasons we were happy with the house survey but I just can’t count … so the third thing was that they didn’t tell us anything bad that we didn’t already know and really a house survey doesn’t get any better than that.

There are varying degrees of house survey ranging from the really basic one that we went for right up to a full survey.

Why did we choose the basic house survey rather than a full structural survey?

We decided that although everyone recommends the full structural survey the cost is high and there are no guarantees and even if you find something afterwards that was totally obvious to someone with knowledge the surveyor is not liable for anything. For instance if the house had large recent cracks on the outside walls then you’d be worried about subsidence or something similar but say the surveyor didn’t even mention them in his report you would still have no comeback and no compensation, nothing, nada, zip, zilch. So we figured what is the point then it isn’t protecting us, (I should mention here that my partner is in the plumbing and bathroom fitting trade so well aware of what to look for) if you aren’t a builder and don’t know one you can drag along for an opinion then you might want to go for a full structural survey just remember it guarantees nothing.

So now the survey results are in, we are still waiting for the legal searches to come back (well I think we are although the solicitor hasn’t said anything in ages so will be chasing them up tomorrow) the mortgage company is asking for clarification on a couple of bits of paperwork we supplied, but we should clear that up tomorrow as well so fingers crossed for the mortgage offer by the weekend….