Pre purchase survey cost

L

Lambchops65

Registered User
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Hi there, would someone please give me a rough idea of what I should be paying for a pre purchase survey? Any surveyor recs welcome

House is 5 bed detached.

Thank you.
 
We used John Kielty and he was excellent, helped us walk away from what would have been nightmare purchases. Think he was around €450/500 a few years ago.
 
I'd love to know what he found that was so bad. Most people would spot a bad roof, dampness, large cracks, dodgy plumbing and general bad maintenance. Just curious.
 
noproblem said:
I'd love to know what he found that was so bad. Most people would spot a bad roof, dampness, large cracks, dodgy plumbing and general bad maintenance. Just curious.
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Well, in one of the houses the fact that the owners used industrial strength disinfectant to make it difficult for him to use the damp meter accurately, (fire and candles were on during our other 3 visits) the fact that we hadn't noticed that one side of the shared chimney was fixed but not "our" side which he regarded as concerning, issues in the attic that weren't immediately visible.
How detailed a look do you take when visiting a house you're thinking of buying? It's the non-obvious things that we decided to pay an expert to find.
Have you never used a surveyor?
Very odd question.
 
dereko1969 said:
Well, in one of the houses the fact that the owners used industrial strength disinfectant to make it difficult for him to use the damp meter accurately, (fire and candles were on during our other 3 visits) the fact that we hadn't noticed that one side of the shared chimney was fixed but not "our" side which he regarded as concerning, issues in the attic that weren't immediately visible.
How detailed a look do you take when visiting a house you're thinking of buying? It's the non-obvious things that we decided to pay an expert to find.
Have you never used a surveyor?
Very odd question.
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Oh, I would take a right good look. Being well versed on building and related matters I might have a slight advantage, but I can't see how you would find it a "very odd question". BTW, it's an engineer I mostly use when I detect problems, after having a good nose around with my building buddies.
If someone gets a strong smell of disinfectant it should set off some alarm bells. Bad chimneys i'd have thought are not too difficult to spot. I'd pay a lot of attention to drains, cracks and sagging roofs. In any case, I just wondered how a surveyor found (non obvious) nightmare problems? That was all.
 
So, I'm not well-versed on building and related matters, is it that difficult for you to realise that most regular people are not? Lots of people hire surveyors as they are also not well versed in building and related matters, that's why they do so. That's why I found it, and the tone it was asked in, "very odd".
There was nothing specifically "wrong" with the chimney but the fact that most neighbours would agree to do the whole chimney raised alarm bells as to the people selling the house, if they wouldn't go halves on a chimney fix then what else were they letting go?
There was no disinfectant used when we visited on 3 occasions, it was only when the surveyor visited that they used that. It's 3 years since the report but they were the things that stood out from it, there were a good few other issues too that in total meant it was too high a risk for us to take on given the price we were going to pay.
These were houses in the €750-€1m category so I'm not going to make a call on that myself, on a hunch, but sure I must be stupid.
 
dereko1969 said:
So, I'm not well-versed on building and related matters, is it that difficult for you to realise that most regular people are not? Lots of people hire surveyors as they are also not well versed in building and related matters, that's why they do so. That's why I found it, and the tone it was asked in, "very odd".
There was nothing specifically "wrong" with the chimney but the fact that most neighbours would agree to do the whole chimney raised alarm bells as to the people selling the house, if they wouldn't go halves on a chimney fix then what else were they letting go?
There was no disinfectant used when we visited on 3 occasions, it was only when the surveyor visited that they used that. It's 3 years since the report but they were the things that stood out from it, there were a good few other issues too that in total meant it was too high a risk for us to take on given the price we were going to pay.
These were houses in the €750-€1m category so I'm not going to make a call on that myself, on a hunch, but sure I must be stupid.
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Indeed.
 
Paul O Mahoney said:
They do charge about 1% plus vat.
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Seriously? 1% for a homebuyers survey?
That's 8,600 on a 700k house, so I'm guessing I've misread.

Lambchops65 said:
I'm being quoted 700-800 and I'm not even in Dublin. Thanks
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Check what you're actually getting, and ask for a sample report. Is the quote from an engineer or a chartered surveyor? Does it include drain inspections for example?

There are several different types of reports, the cheapest being a 'visual walk through' - these reports will contain more details about what they specifically did not do than what they did.
 
RedOnion said:
Seriously? 1% for a homebuyers survey?
That's 8,600 on a 700k house, so I'm guessing I've misread.


Check what you're actually getting, and ask for a sample report. Is the quote from an engineer or a chartered surveyor? Does it include drain inspections for example?

There are several different types of reports, the cheapest being a 'visual walk through' - these reports will contain more details about what they specifically did not do than what they did.
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.1% some have fixed fees but our experience was always about that, apologies forgot decimal.
 
RedOnion said:
Check what you're actually getting, and ask for a sample report. Is the quote from an engineer or a chartered surveyor? Does it include drain inspections for example?

There are several different types of reports, the cheapest being a 'visual walk through' - these reports will contain more details about what they specifically did not do than what they did.
Click to expand...
Pay the extra the and get an engineer over a surveyor, I didn't on a previous house and it came back to bite me. Definitely get the drains checked.
 
Thanks all. I am only getting a visual walkthrough. The house is in very good nick and only c. 10 years old. I've just come through pyrite remediation so only getting it for my own peace of mind tbh.
 
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