Fee for survey of previously surveyed house

thewiseowl12

Quick query which I'd be grateful for any advice on.

Need to get a property survey done on a house, which as it turns out, was surveyed by the surveyor I approached 4 months ago for a different client. There is no conflict of interest as the previous client purchased a different property.

The surveyor has offered to give me a €50 discount (10%) due to the previous survey (and I suppose them not having to do everything from scratch again or write a report). They will meet me at the property and go through things.

Now obviously the surveyor should charge for their time, but since the proposal is to meet me at the property and run through the previous report, I'm surprised the discount is not greater? The exact same report will be used.

If the work is almost the same then fair enough (the surveyor does have an excellent reputation), but if the work is half then I can't see why I should pay 90%.

Seth Brundle

The surveyor needs to check everything again as who knows what has changed. If they didn't it could end up costing them quite a bit if they're wrong!

thewiseowl12

I can completely understand that - however the way it was presented to me was that they not be carrying out an exhaustive survey like previously. They will run through the previous report and have a quick look over things.

Given the disclaimer associated with every point, it would be very hard to prove they were negligent in any regard.

domrush

They're not obliged to give you any discount, I'd just be happy with the stroke of luck you're getting a discount. It's a win for both parties.

thewiseowl12

Oh I'm delighted about the discount - I just can't help feeling a little shortchanged since it appears that they will reissue the same report, and make a substantial saving on inspection time.

astrofool

Larry David did similar overthinking and lost his musical

The other way of looking at it is that you have a surveyor who has a history with the house, so he can see if any of the items from the previous survey turned out to be problems or not, giving you further peace of mind on top of the 10% discount.

He could have told you he didn't survey the house before and charge the full amount. You could also have pushed him for a further discount and see if he accepted it.

C3PO

You could always get another surveyor!

beeno67

I haven't had a survey done in years but I would have thought €500 for a survey was a lot.

Seth Brundle

beeno67 wrote: »

I haven't had a survey done in years but I would have thought €500 for a survey was a lot.

My understanding is that it's the engineering survey rather than the valuation survey.
€500 is about right

beeno67

kbannon wrote: »

My understanding is that it's the engineering survey rather than the valuation survey.
€500 is about right

Fair enough.
Price has obviously gone up in last few years.

KOR101

Was in this situation once and I just paid €200 for a talk through of the previous survey. I told surveyor I didn't even need a copy of the survey as all I wanted was to see if he had spotted anything rather than have a legal claim over him. The survey had cost the first party about €500.

Metric Tensor

KOR101 wrote: »

Was in this situation once and I just paid €200 for a talk through of the previous survey. I told surveyor I didn't even need a copy of the survey as all I wanted was to see if he had spotted anything rather than have a legal claim over him. The survey had cost the first party about €500.

This could work for you OP. I'd suspect if you say you need nothing in writing and a verbal walkthrough only you may get a bigger discount.

davo10

Metric Tensor wrote: »

This could work for you OP. I'd suspect if you say you need nothing in writing and a verbal walkthrough only you may get a bigger discount.

Op said he/she "needs to get a survey", not sure a bank will accept a verbal survey.

I really don't get this, the op commissions a survey and gets a discount, what business is it of the ops if the surveyor had prepared a report previously?. If you are not happy op, go to another surveyor and pay full price.

caviardreams

Very unlikely I know, but what if something has come to light just in the last few months that would be missed by the original surveyor? For peace of mind and the sake of €50 I would go with somebody who will do it from scratch tbh.