bit late in the day for survey?

[delisha]

hey everyone, feel like bit of an eejit asking this we bought our house 2 years ago and like a pair of twits didn't get a structural survey done(stupid-i know) we had already paid for one on a previous house only for the seller to pull out last min and EA said we wouldn't really need one as house was under a builders guarantee for 10 years-presume after reading other posts its the homebond thing. anyway now i'm terrified that if we go to sell the house in the future some major fault will arise. nothing so far other than really bad mapping on the walls and some cracks- is builder liable for these? is there any point in getting the survey done now or is it just tough luck? we bought off a guy who had bought it new about a year previous if that makes any difference. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Caveat]

You might be worrying about nothing. Depending on the actual scope of the "survey" it could well have been a waste of money anyway - the small print in many so called "surveys" often absolve the surveyor of any and all liability.

Are the cracks your main area of concern? Can you describe them exactly? They might just be settlement cracks which are entirely normal.

 

[teachai]

If you want a survey get it done. It'll either put your mind at rest or tell you you have issues to address.

If there is a problem, the earlier you find out the better.

And in future, don't listen to the estate agent. Always get a structural survey.

 

[Vanilla]

If there are cracks in the wall you are worried about then get an engineer in to look at them. Preferably before your homebond protection runs out and even better if it is less than 6 years since the house was built.

 

[juke]

didn't get a structural survey done

Preferably before your homebond protection runs out

Even if there were a problem, I suspect they'd have difficulty in relying on the HomeBond guarantee at this stage as they didn't avail of opportunity of carrying out a survey before purchasing (the devil is in the small print)

 

[DavyJones]

As other posters have said, it depends on the cracks, are they internal or external and how big are they?

 

[Vanilla]

Even if there were a problem, I suspect they'd have difficulty in relying on the HomeBond guarantee at this stage as they didn't avail of opportunity of carrying out a survey before purchasing (the devil is in the small print)

Yes, there is an exclusion in the case where a reasonable survey would have disclosed the defect in the homebond protection. But to be honest homebond protection is really very poor in any case.

Best to get it checked out regardless as it is still possible to make a homebond claim or possibly, depending on what defects ( if any) present, claim on your household insurance.

 

[delisha]

hey guys, thanks for all your advice. few cracks internally where the ceiling meets the wall and few outside of house coming from eaves right down to back door. they are not massive so probably just the settling alright. suppose what frightened me was friends of ours got a survey done on house they wer interested in and it turned out the entire sewage system needed to be changed at a cost of 20k! and it was a brand new house. so thinking now i might get one done just for peace of mind. hmmm....