solicitors, mortgage lenders, estate agents and surveyors...

[mickthetree]

wooly, vauge, hard to get hold of, expensive and downright annoying!!! I'll stop there before I say something I shouldn't.

Sorry had to have a rant. We are buying a property and days away from exchanging. We are informed by our mortgage company that we need to have a chartered structural engineer prepare a report on a retaining wall in the garden of the property that has a crack in it. Quote to look at a crack? £660 please! I'm in the wrong line of work! We always knew the wall needed repairing / replacing and have budgeted for it.

Called the mortgage company, "do I defiantely need this report?" well I'm pretty sure you dont. "thats not good enough, do I need this report?" Nah, I wouldnt have thought so." :shock:

So ask the solicitors to speak to mortgage company on our behalf. Do we need this report? "No". Great. thank you. Done.

Few days later from the solicitors... "we've been thinking about it and reckon you should get the report anyway, otherwise they might not exchange on the mortgage". WHAT?

So we have to pay some pineapple £660 to look at a crack in a wall and tell us that a wall needs repairing. Thats £660 we then wont have to put towards getting said wall repaired.

I got the distinct impression from the structural engineer that he was pulling figures out of think air when quoting. He then also paused for a few seconds and said...that will be plus vat.

Pineapples the lot of em.

Infact the mortgage broker that we were advised to use has been the worst of the lot. Took their money then washed their hands of the whole affair.

Jokers.

 

[Dangermouse]

SCUM OF THE EARTH !!!!!!

 

[Lons]

Jokers.

Not what I'd call them but then I've had run in with several of them over the years. Money for nothing - solicitors don't even do the conveyancing as it's normally carried out by a clerk.

Surveyors!!!!!! You would have been better off asking a local builder for a quote to replace the wall. No charge for the estimate and his figure would be accurate.

i've just turned down a job on a church which is to replace sections of rotted timber cladding around vertical steel support pillars. there are 5 of them and up to 3 stories high so need a scaffold tower. the surveyors report gave a provisional sum of £100 total (YES, A HUNDRED QUID). I told them he'd missed off a zero :lol: Same report quoted £35 to replace an 800mm section of glass beading on a ground floor window :?

Bob

 

[tekno.mage]

This kind of thing has been going on for decades - and is probably worse now than it used to be. I remember when we bought our first house (a terraced Edwardian property) in the early 1980s. The building society insisted that they send their surveyor to do structural survey of the property (which we had to pay for) despite my telling them I had already instructed my own independant surveyor to do a full structural survey (he was also cheaper than the building society's man) and they were welcome to a copy of his report. They turned me down and we had to shell out for the building society's surveyor.

I asked the sellers of the property to inform back to me what the two surveyors did when they visited, and how long each spent at the property. This was very interesting. My independant man spent nearly two hours there. He went up in the loft, took up floorboards where he could (possible as not all rooms had fitted carpets), went out in the back garden to inspect the rear walls and checked internal walls with a damp meter, he also asked questions of the sellers about when certain work had been done etc etc. He provided me with a 10 page, detailed report.

The building society man spent less than half an hour at the house, didn;t go near the loft hatch or take up any floorboards, didn't go in the back garden and simply visually inspected each room and ran his hand over the under the bay window. His report was one page long and resulted in the building society wanting to put a retention on the mortgage of £2000 (it was a £17000 mortgage) to repair rising damp under the bay window - and suggested that an injected silicon dpc would be suitable. (These were currently "in fashion" at the time).

Having read my own surveyors' report (which I did not show the building society) I was furious and told the building society where they could stick their retention (via my solicitor). It was interesting that they immediately backed down and offered to lend the full amount - which we accepted and bought the house. I have always had my suspicions that building societies, their surveyors, and certain companies offering damp proofing, woodworm treatments and maybe even double glazing were in some kind of unholy financial alliance in those days!

My own surveyors report told the real story about the house. There was no rising damp in bay window. It was dry as bone. What was wrong with the property and had been completely missed by the building society was a blocked cavity in a back room, leading to a small patch of damp in the rear wall and required repair by unblocking the wall cavity, not injecting a DPC. Two rooms downstairs had been knocked into one - and it looked like the builders had just dumped the rubble from this in the underfloor space beneath which could cause more damp as it was blocking underfloor ventilation. This was cured by removing the rubble. My surveyor was also rather unhappy about the way the two rooms had been knocked together as the wall removed was taking (by his estimate) on one fifth of the roof load. He sugggested we investigate this further, which we did - there was an RSJ under the plasterboard - but one end was incorrectly fitted :-( We fixed this and built a supporting arch from engineering bricks as well - stronger and far more aestheically pleasing

 

[henton49er]

As a retired civil engineer, I have some experience of the preparation of contracts. The average building surveyor has a standard conditions of contract which will include such statements as:-

no floorboards will be lifted (or carpets where fitted)
no skirting boards will be removed
no electrical circuitry tested
no access into roof space
no inspection of drains or water supply
no inspection of gas supply
no inspection of alterations to load bearing walls

These exclusions basically mean that any structural survey is not worth the paper it is written on and anyone relying on the surveyor to find faults is going to be disappointed. :shock: :shock:

I have seen dry rot on a casual visit to houses for sale that were not picked up by surveyors; leaking pipes dealt with by plastic containers to hold the leak; windows that could not be opened; doors that could not be closed; unsafe and dangerous electrical fittings; and drains laid virtually horizontal.

The usual "structural survey" is nothing of the sort. I have never paid for a structural survey on any house I have bought (over and above the "rip off" surveys required by mortgage companies) as I know that I have considerably more expertise in the subject than any so-called building surveyor I have ever met.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had one on my first house - after I saw the disclaimer in the back, I wouldn't pay the money again. If they're not liable for something they've put in writing, what's the point?

 

[mickthetree]

After posting on facebook to see if anyone knows of a good chartered structural engineer, I have spoken with a nice bloke who gave me a quote for less than half of the first one I got. Hopefully the matter will be wrapped up early next week. I hope!

I am looking forward to getting this house and I really hope it works out, but I'll be VERY happy to close my dealings with some of these people.

 

[AndyT]

Some good sense here.

Locally, there was a builder in semi-retirement who offered a service where he would visit a property with you and look at it with his experienced eyes, explaining what defects there were and what it would take to put them right. He offered to do it for a fee (based on his usual hourly rate) so it wasn't just a way of angling for possible later work. It sounds a lot more use than a survey where nothing was really examined.

 

[mickthetree]

I completely agree. Sounds very sensible. Unfortunately they have stipulated that the report must be carried out by a chartered structural engineer. :-(

 

[henton49er]

I completely agree. Sounds very sensible. Unfortunately they have stipulated that the report must be carried out by a chartered structural engineer. :-(

Which is of course completely bonkers!! A chartered structural engineer might be an expert in designing suspension bridges, power stations, reinforced concrete dams, high rise buildings etc., etc., but know diddly squat about domestic buildings and brick/masonry retaining walls.

The idea of a local builder as suggested in a previous post is likely to be of far more value to you, the purchaser. The chartered structural engineer (or the firm he works for is he is not self employed) will have Professional Indemnity Insurance, which is probably the reason behind your mortgage company insisting on the qualifications of the surveyor - it gives them/you someone to sue if the report is wrong - hence all the caveats in their standard terms. As usual the consumer is in a no-win situation! :shock: :shock:

 

[mind_the_goat]

I assume you have asked more than one engineer to quote. We've had very good service from our engineers on a recent extension build at far more reasonable prices.

 

[DrPhill]

I would have got a couple of quotes to repair and suggested the mortgage company kept a retention of the larger quote until the work was done.

That is effectively what I did on one house purchase. One off the items I got done (clearing some cavities) the other - electricians report - did not get done. A friend (qualiied electrician) and I rewired the house. In neither case did I bother informing the mortgage company or claiming the retained money.

Whenever I am moving house it feels as if I am walking down a crowded breezey street with an open box full of my fifty pound notes. Everybody is trying to grab 'their share' of my money.

My most amusing was 'we will leave the cooker for £500'. I could have bought a new one for less than a third of that. They left it anyway rather than pay a gas man to disconnect it.

 

[Boxer]

I really do sympathise with you.
After ten months of extreme stress, drama and financial hemorrhage.
We have finally completed on the sale of our house this week.

Never again.