Speculative Surveyors Report
As someone once said, 'let me tell you a story' about a Speculative Surveyors Report.
I'll try and keep this brief and not go in to too much detail.
The story began in 2014, my wife and myself wanted to move to the coast, found a house, put an offer in which was accepted, commissioned a full structural survey which was excellent, moved in and enjoyed 7 happy years.
Last year for various reasons we decided to move away from our village, put the house up for sale, found a buyer and started the conveyancing process. All was going smoothly or so we thought.
We decided to take a few days holiday, while away the Surveyor phoned to book a visit. To accommodate her diary we came home a little early from the holiday and waited for the Surveyor. She duly arrived on time, didn't say a great deal, spent just over an hour doing whatever Surveyors do, then departed. Now we can make real progress with the sale.....or so we thought.
What happened next scared the living daylights out of both of us.
A few days later my phone rang, it was the Agent, I assumed to give us an update...how wrong I was. For the next 5 minutes I listened to a list of (potential) problems with the house and the conversation concluded with the agent saying the buyer had withdrawn his offer due to the asbestos in the loft. Fortunately for us the buyer kindly agreed to let us have a copy of the report.
We contacted a builder in our village, who immediately stated due to the nature of the speculative comments he wasn't qualified to comment, however he knew someone who was. We then contacted this person who specialises in remedial work who agreed to come the following week.
The days and nights following receipt of the report were a nightmare, to say we were anxious, frightened and didn't sleep is an understatement.
Then the qualified builder arrived, he spent half an hour looking round the house. lifting carpets, inspecting the loft and his reaction to the report....'what a load of nonsense, she's just covering her back'.
However he did say the 3 big speculative issues needed investigation to prove the report wrong. The investigations have now taken place with drilling into foundations, unearthing the foundations outside the property and sending materials for lab testing.
After all that what do you think the result is, there isn't a problem and there isn't any asbestos.
However lab reports, photographs and inspection reports have all made a considerable dent in my bank balance.
I have complained to this firm, but naturally they are indifferent to all the upset they have caused, so my only course of action is to ban this Company from ever entering any of my properties.
As a friend of mind told me who refuses to have surveys when buying a house, they charge excessive fees and don't know what they're doing.
This should be a lesson to all of us.