‘Homebuyer Surveys’ are a packaged format marketed by the RICS. They are almost entirely ‘tick box’ and provide little or no information worth knowing about a house. They are acknowledged by all, even RICS, as being unsuitable for old houses. They are not suitable for Old, or Historic homes – those built before 1919, or solid walled, breathable structures. For these homes, we recommend a full structural building survey. They are marketed by internet based groups like Countrywide, Connells and E-Surv who undertake mass market, pre packaged surveys. Their surveyors report having to do several surveys a day..
RICS Homebuyer survey? From what I’ve seen, and the hundreds of people have complained to us, they aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Standard tick box surveys almost always have a clause in them which reads as follows: ‘Engage Specialist Timber and Damp Surveyor to inspect and report on timber and damp issues’. The ‘timber and damp specialist’ is in 98% of cases, a commission salesman from the Property Care Association who wants to flog timber treatment chemicals and re-plastering. He probably works for Peter Cox, Rentokil, Timberwise, DampPro, DampCo – all con artists. He gets about £200 commission on a £5000 job which wasn’t needed in the first place and was fraudulently misdiagnosed. Why do you think they turn up for nothing – remember the old saying – ‘You dont get owt for nowt’
RICS Homebuyer surveys are cheap. In our opinion they are ‘Not Fit For Purpose’. They contain too little information, and are done far too quickly (no more than an hour on-site) to give the buyer any meaningful feedback on their potential investment in a new home.
We undertake our own “homebuyer” surveys of old homes built with solid walls and breathable materials. We understand old house construction, and why these houses often have damp problems. Most timber and damp problems are very simple to rectify, but need specialised knowledge of the building, and the materials used in the building, to diagnose and sort the problems.We work all over the country. We have surveyors in London, and Scotland. We cover Yorkshire, The Lake District, Weardale, Northumberland, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Wales, Devon, Cornwall, Hampshire and beyond..
If you need a Homebuyer survey, whether in London, Scotland, England or Wales – drop us an email and we will discuss your purchase with you to see how we can help.
We use a lot of equipment to do our building condition surveys – commonly, we use thermal imaging cameras to find cold spots which indicate where there is a potential for condensation (which the damp fraudsters tell you is rising damp..) we use thermo hygrometers to measure humidity in the building, and moisture content of the air under floors, behind cupboards and so on. We use carbide tests to measure the exact moisture content of brickwork and stone walls. Thermal imaging cameras help spot cold areas attracting condensation. Complex roofs often need a drone to photograph hard to see areas. These pieces of equipment back up our experience and confirm diagnosis of a problem. Building Condition Surveys are a complex art, and you can’t do them in a few minutes.
One survey I recently checked had been done by a RICS chartered surveyor, who did the whole thing in 30 minutes. He charged £850 for it. He missed the fact there was a flying freehold. He missed the lack of any fire protection in the attic dividing the space between two properties. He diagnosed damp problems in the house next door, not the one he was paid to survey!
Another survey we checked – again very expensive – had missed a structural concrete wall on top of a 3×2 inch rafter in a kitchen – and housing a bathroom including bath that would hold a quarter of a tonne of water – total weight of full bath and wall – nearly 3 tonnes – on a ceiling rafter no thicker than your arm…
Another one – said the roof was fine. I climbed in, and found two broken purlins ready to collapse. Turned out the surveyor was very fat, and could NOT have gotten into the roof space, so just wrote ‘roof appears ok’ – negligence claim ongoing.
Another one just settled for nearly £150,000 out of court – the timber frame was apparently only in need of ‘routine maintenance’. I leaned against it and the building moved. Owners moved out, and the timber frame was rebuilt on the chartered surveyor’s professional liability insurance.
Another – Georgian roof space – RICS surveyor said roof was ok – we asked how he had missed the fact that concrete tiles were now so heavy the rafters were splitting and breaking – roof about to collapse. Negligence claim ongoing.
Yet another – said the roof was fine – apparently a bit of normal ‘woodworm’ in timbers. They were powder – I put my hand through one of the main structural support beams – its a flat pitched stone tiled roof with about 10 tonnes of stone slates on it. Negligence claim and ombudsman ongoing.
All of these within the last 12 months alone – It is frightening to experience the level of incompetence shown by RICS surveyors. Most surveyors that examine houses have never taken one apart – it’s all book learning and ‘qualifications’ – ‘professional development’ – letters after the name.. What happened to experience?
Not all surveyors are quite so lacking – but the majority of tick-box homebuyer surveys are done far too quickly, and are churned out by internet based ‘book your building survey here – we’re cheap!’ companies. If you get one, look out – you’ll almost certainly regret it.
Please bear in mind that a RICS homebuyer survey is not suitable for an old house, and you should be looking to compare with the cost of a rics Level 3 survey. (Around £1900 to £2500 depending on the size of the house). The new RICS survey guidance rules state clearly that homebuyer surveys are only suited to a small modern building. A small investment considering your home is probably the biggest investment you will ever make in your life. We explain in our reports what we are seeing and why. What you may need to do, what materials to use and so on.
RICS constantly proves that it is Not Fit For Purpose. The entire professional standards board recently resigned en-masse over the incredibly poor standards being promoted by RICS. Part of the reason for this is the lemming like insistence of large survey organisations working for mortgage companies, that surveys are simple tick box format. Boxes in the survey are pre-populated with standard phrases. You can fill entire pages with detailed (and incorrect) explanations of ‘what is damp’, or ‘your loft needs more insulation’. Most of them end up with the ‘Get a PCA damp and timber report’ paragraph. This is an admission by the surveyor that they know nothing about the single biggest cause of deterioration of building fabric – you guessed it – moisture.
Most Chartered Surveyors do NOT understand the physical, chemical and structural differences between old, solid walled buildings, and a modern Wimpey. It is crucial that you understand this – we have seen homebuyer surveys being done for around £200 in an hour. You CANNOT survey the biggest investment someone is ever going to make in an hour! If you do go for a cheap survey – ask how the surveyor is going to measure damp. If they say they’ll use a ‘damp meter’ – you know they haven’t a clue what they are doing.