Owning your own home

this looks exactly what I'd envisaged when I was talking about installing a channel/runnel - thanks!

widening the hatch would probably have been an option but we've finished our reno now and so don't want to go down that route - besides, it's wood + tiles so it's already heavy enough as it is at 80cm square... which leads me on to my next question (probably for the home DIY thread) about installing (cheap!) hydraulic hinges to aid opening/closing

I was like this until I started to resent every physical characteristic of the garage itself. Never satisfied.

Nice one!

has anyone tried pushing to be present for a homebuyers survey on a property theyvare buying?

our buyer has asked to be present during his and i was surprised, now thinking i should be doing the same..?

There’s no harm in being present. I don’t know what it will do maybe offer a piece of mind and ask question

But the surveyors won’t be lifting carpets and moving stuff around

I was there for mine - the property was empty so no issue. It was good to hear the surveyor just chat about what he was looking at and I could ask questions informally.

has anyone tried pushing to be present for a homebuyers survey on a property theyvare buying?

Crossed my mind. It’s the kind of thing I was after in my quest for a survey that was actually worth paying for.

Not sure if possible if the place has the owner there though. Super awks.

If you agree lock away the Rolex collection.

@hoefla was it fascinating or dull?

I’d be interested to know how much a valuers hands-on experience of the property juxtaposes with market sentiment.

has anyone tried pushing to be present for a homebuyers survey on a property theyvare buying?

I'm doing this in the next few weeks, but the seller has already moved out so shouldn't be too awks.

It was super interesting seeing what they were looking at and getting informal chat - stuff about how one side of the roof still had the original close-boarding but the rest didn't, and how the bricks were different to the neighbours. There wasn't any valuation chat as such.

Whats the forum consensus on getting a home buyers survey?

The property we have had an offer accepted on is about 40 yrs old. New roof in the last 5 years, upvc windows all round and when I went round no visible issues with damp, electrics looked good and a sub 10yo Worcestershire Bosch boiler.

The place looked to be v. well looked after and all quite new.

I'm not sure £800 to spend on someone telling me it looks fine but there might be an issue with xyz so to be safe you should pay another £500 to get and xyz specialist in

Interesting thanks, so the survey is more about identifying work that might need doing, than confirming the property valuation?

our surveyor has said theyre not taking +1s because of covid, so nevermind!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/fullscreen/image-gallery.html?propertyId=72982101&photoIndex=10#

Whats the forum consensus on getting a home buyers survey?

Not sure what a full fat can reveal that a homebuyer’s won’t - in terms of the really fundamental stuff anyway.

so the survey is more about identifying work that might need doing, than confirming the property valuation?

The buyers survey is sometimes both depending on what you ask the surveyor to do and how much you pay them. The lenders survey is there to put a value on what the bank thinks the place is worth.

It was the same with mine (age/condition).

I got a builder friend to come and have a look at mine for peace of mine but in short, yes, a surveyor who caveat everything to death so no real added value for £800, especially if the surveyors just spends an hour and has a quick look without invasive techniques.

My place wasn't falling apart and 2 years on, no nasty surprises as it is relatively "new" and didn't get botched since I bought from the original owner.

On the other side, if you get say a damp specialist in - you're 110% guaranteed the they'll find damp...

So we're just making plans about the new house. I've pretty much negotiated that the garage will be dedicated bike storage/ turbo room/ gym/ workshop (woot!) and should thus be kept clear of other miscellaneous shite. However this means we need somewhere to store all our shite... garden furniture, gardening paraphernalia, and whatever crap my GF buys for work (last week it was 300 electric fencing stakes...).

Looking at the house plan, there is an area of more or less totally dead space in the garden (marked with blue hatching, approx 1.75m x 7.50m). The dead space is bordered on one side by the house and on 2 sides by tall walls (~1.9m tall). The plans and a photo of the exterior of the space (showing the walls) are attached.

My proposal is that we could build something like this onto the side of the house, but with guttering to prevent rainwater flowing off the roof onto the adjacent parking spaces (not ours).

Does this sound like a reasonable solution? Would a shed be a better option (although the walls would eat substantially into the width and would presumably create dampness surrounding it?)? Is there anything I should worry about? I don't think it will require planning permission and I'm asking our lawyer if it will be allowed by the rules on the estate.

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I reckon that's the shed in the garden. There's a kitchen in there too.

£800 is a lot of money but in the big scheme is spending hundreds of thousands it's not a huge amount.

They're probably not going to pick up something fundamental (although I do know a few people who have pulled out of purchases due to issues surveyors have found) but if you move in and a big issue does come up you're always going to wonder "what if".

Also, even if there's nothing big there's a reasonable chance of enough minor issues arising to recoup the cost of the survey by dropping your offer (obviously depending on what you view as reasonable).

Yeah, I hadn't looked at the floorplan but it obviously is.

I wouldn’t put a standard shed in there Unless there was a decent gap either side - a 5’ wide shed would be a bit tight to my mind - remember the roof eaves will over hang a bit.

I think asguard and companies similar do long and thin(ish) metal garden storage With flat roofs - short end opening like mini shipping containers - Might be worth looking at.

Your lean to idea makes sense If you are allowed. If it’s visible above that wall (which I guess it’s going to need to be to use without stooping ) you’ll need to consider Roof pitch and covering material. Slates/tiles have minimum pitch - things That do lower pitches like corrugated sheet or flat membranes would look a bit hokey there. You’d need To Think where the gutter is - you either span between the walls and have a gutter on your side of the boundary - other wise you raise the eaves at the boundary And Have the gutter directly over the wall. Some timber weather board cladding on the open triangle on the front elevation (To match the porch ) would make the whole thing look more intentional and keep the weather out.

Home buyers surveys are useless, generic, arse covering rubbish. Don't waste your money. Get a full survey instead. Speaking as a chartered surveyor who has reviewed plenty of each.

My immediate reactions to the reports of full buildings surveys that have been shared with me was more or less this to be honest.

useless, generic, arse covering rubbish.

If you knew very little about buildings or couldn't practically see the building yourslelf, then sure, maybe they are quite useful. If you are are on your second or third property and you gave a good idea of what you are actually buying, I got the impression that they couldn't really help you, and would take longer to produce, contain more words, be harder to schedule, and cost three times the amount but provide pretty much equivalent value for the purpose, i.e. having a disinterested party eyeball the place and to large extent confirm what you had already identified and your expectations of a building that's x years old.

It's an interesting game, sure.

there's a reasonable chance of enough minor issues arising to recoup the cost of the survey by dropping your offer

There would have to be some fairly exceptional circumstances for the seller and their agent to agree though.

If the buyer of my place had come back with this and asked for a couple of grand off (or even a couple of hundred) for minor stuff I would have chuckled and told them to find another flat.