Owning your own home

surveyor with local knowledge may pass comment on local things, e.g likelihood of mini moped trouble that another not local surveyor may not mention, not vital stuff, and again full of caveats but good to know. could always ask your furure neighbours that sorta stuff.

In my case the local surveyor had done our block quite a few times already so knew exactly what the condition of everything was. Buying again I'd probably not bother with a survey unless it was a special or particularly old building.

is that east drinks or just east in general Dammit ?!

and thankyou for the invite Blue, ( doths cap)

Don't listen to Dammit. He lives in the badlands and is insanely jealous of us East london types with our hot running water.

Hot running water !! now that is a Bounus i wasnt counting for, sod the survey im moving in tomorra!!(clicks heals in jaunty cockerr'ney fashion)

Speaking of hot water. Owning a house is well expensive. I have to fork out about £1100 for new boiler and about £500 to get it installed.
Could have a decent holiday for that money. The alternative is to wait until it packs up again in winter. Only the next time, I think it will be terminal.

That's what I would do if I were a landlord anyway :)

For me;

Surveyor Cost = £200
Renegotiated decrease in price = £2,500

Profit from survey = £2,300

Cost of fixing what the surveyor pointed out as being wrong/dangerous?

Speaking of hot water. Owning a house is well expensive. I have to fork out about £1100 for new boiler and about £500 to get it installed.
Could have a decent holiday for that money. The alternative is to wait until it packs up again in winter. Only the next time, I think it will be terminal.

That's what I would do if I were a landlord anyway :)

My boiler died 18 months ago and I keep putting off paying for it to get fixed. Partly because of the cost (although a plumber mate can get me a new boiler at mates rates), but mostly because i'm weirdly phobic about having strangers in my flat.
I'm used to cold showers now, and the washing machine works just as well with just cold water.
Winter is a bit of a bitch, but If you wear socks and a hat in bed, and have two duvets, it's not impossible.

I'd get a survey, everything is so expensive when you're buying a house the marginal cost is pretty small. They'll caveat everything that is serious to the point that it's not useful, but mine pointed out a couple of things that were helpful (loft convesion that hadn't got the right certification from an engineer for example - he knew this as the fire door was not installed in such a way as to have got the sign off; something I obviously wouldn't have known about) that made it worthwhile.

In my opinion - if you are reasonably on the ball then a standard survey is a waste of time - it won't tell you anything more than you can spot yourself - and may even be very misleading (certainly in the case of damp in old buildings....)

I would instead recommend getting a Structural Engineer to do an overall report - you can ask them to look at specific areas too if you have specific concerns.

We are currently in the process of buying and selling (both Victorian terraced houses c1860) and have got a structural engineer who will even be getting up on the roof to inspect it...

danb, i was thinking this, get a basic survey then fork out on structual engineer to do a proper scope out of the place, was speaking with my better half about this last night. ho hum more money!

My boiler died 18 months ago and I keep putting off paying for it to get fixed. Partly because of the cost (although a plumber mate can get me a new boiler at mates rates), but mostly because i'm weirdly phobic about having strangers in my flat.
I'm used to cold showers now, and the washing machine works just as well with just cold water.
Winter is a bit of a bitch, but If you wear socks and a hat in bed, and have two duvets, it's not impossible.

It might only need a few parts. Most things on most boilers are replaceable.

Don't listen to these idiots- simply put a paving slab underneath your boiler and build a fire on it.

The paving slab will protect your home from scorching, and the flames will warm your water again.

No need for British gas- simply forage for your wood in the urban landscape.

You could join Velo Libre in his FreeGanism aka bin-diving.

Move to Atlantis, I hear housing there is at rock-bottom

boom tish

Yeah, but people who bought when Atlantis real estate was at its height, have ended up underwater.

bwa bwa bwaaaaaa.

I don't blame you for getting one first time out as it should give you some reassurance, but surveys on London Victorian houses could mostly just be photocopied and handed out on street corners, they are so similar.

As mentioned ^^ they will say blah blah looks reasonably sound but you need to speak to a damp / roof / subsidence / electrical / plumbing expert (delete as applicable) to get proper advice.
Surveyors = another massive rip-off in the house buying process. IMO.

Yeah we got fucked by ours - we didn't even go for the cheapest grade of survey but the report was basically all caveat and boilerplate, and the bastard didn't even notice that the roof wasn't watertight, the bathroom plumbing leaked constantly, and the electrics were dangerous. We made the mistake of going with the mortgage company's surveyor, and in future I would always engage my own - recommendations above noted.

To have provided a report that truly stated what was wrong with our flat the surveyor would have had to have removed sections of wall, and done quite a bit of investigation of the plumbing.

We got the flat cheap because it was in a bit of a state (alka "typical long term rental property"), and were prepared to do work to it to bring it up to spec.

If we'd spent £700 on a surveyor they would, I am sure, not have taken down parts of the wall to spot that the internal studwork was rotten, neither would they have removed the bath and traced back all the leaking pipes.

That £700 we "saved" has paid for 1/3rd of the new boiler that has been fitted over the last two days.

The survey that the mortgage lender commisions will spot whether or not the building is going to fall down- they won't lend on something that is not going to secure their loan.

|Thought I'd share I bought my first place about 3 months ago through an Auction. I got fed up of dealing with idiot estate agents, offers and counter offers, gazumping.

It was a brilliant experience. Found a place we liked, went to auction, won and now we're in. Also saved ourselves a shitload of cash too.

The only issue was I didn't get a little paddle in the auction like I had seen in Homes under the Hammer :-(

Didn't both with a survey as it is £800 I was spending on other items - the house was a probate property so needed lots of work such as central heating, pipes, electrics etc

How easy is it to get a mortgage to buy at auction?

How easy is it to get a mortgage to buy at auction?

I've often wondered this too, I always thought you had to have the money up front for an auction property

Nope - exactly the same as buying normally. You pay 10% deposit there and then (once hammer goes down) so you need to have mortgage agreed in principal before you go.

You then have 4 weeks to complete and exchange so there is no f*cking about

Before the auction the properties have open days - eg every tuesday between 12 and 2pm so you can check them out

p.s. When the mortgage provider send the Valuer/surveyor round my sphincter was twitching though. Luckily he gave the big thumbs up.

It might only need a few parts. Most things on most boilers are replaceable.

Can't have people in the house.

Make a massive saving and the plumbing and electrics should come in at £7k max,

Any photos?

+1

relevant to interests.

the auction part i mean. not so fussed about the specification of your boiler

So, these part-buy, part rent things. How do they work? Are they a good deal? Should I do it?

have a read here:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=14379&st=0&p=173776&#entry173776

personally i wouldn't touch a part buy/rent property with a bargepole.

Right now the people who are 'having it off' in the property market are chain free buyers. Case in point - a repossessed house identical to mine (I bought mine just over a year ago) was snapped up for £75,000 less than I paid and I thought I got mine cheap (cheaper than it cost new back in 2003). This house was basically up for grabs to the highest bidder who was able to complete the purchase, ie chain free.
If you are seriously thinking of buying I would speak to a mortgage broker and establish what you can raise together with any savings and look for repo'd properties around that price range.
A good clue, as a lot are sold via high street agents, is anything that has the toilets taped shut in the photos.