G C Rainsbury Chartered Surveyors

If you are looking for a reliable and accurate full survey I would advise you to keep looking and avoid this company. We relied on their "full survey" before buying a house and ended up spending thousands on remedial work to put right faults not documented. What we got was not even a basic condition report. Had we known of the defects and general neglect we would not have paid the price we did for the house but were told it was a "good property, no significant issues"! There were plenty of "significant issues" but no photos were taken of the inside of the house and all of the defects we have had to remedy were missed. We had a ceiling collapse due to a tank in the loft that had leaked previously and he missed all the water staining around walls on the two floors that pointed to a problem. Yes the work was covered by insurance but nobody could compensate us for the months of mess, stress and redecorating and not being able to have family to stay at Christmas. We have had to have the dilapidated conservatory completely rebuilt as all the double glazing had broken down and the polycarbonate roof was brittle, holed, stuck in with 18-year-old double sided tape and loose in the frames. Under the side door frame there was a 4mm gap. The large sliding worn out aluminium patio doors had to be replaced, plus the shower in the bathroom had to be ripped out and replaced due to mould and rust dripping from inside the unit which had eaten into the shower tray. There is a pivoting Velux window that won't open as it hits the top of a shower which we will have to live as it is too costly to change. With all the other lesser defects we have spent 30k in total, some of which is betterment like the glass roof on the conservatory but had we known about it all we would have offered 20k less for the house which has now cost us way more than it was worth according to his own valuation. Throughout the complaints process which has taken 10 months to complete the communication was appalling and each response was taken to the very limit of the requested time for reply which dragged it out needlessly. All in all a very unpleasant and costly experience which I hope nobody else has to go through.
Feb 8th, 2018

I'd also say avoid them. Geoff didnt given any indication whatsoever the (1970s) house needed rewiring - just a throwaway comment of "specialist reports can be commissioned if required" re a variety of different things. So - I had an electrician in when I bought it and asked for various additions/alterations to be done to house I thought was okay electrically (as surveyor hadnt so much as hinted it needed rewiring). He had specifically advised I "should" deal with a couple of other issues - and hence very surprised that the electrics hadnt been specifically mentioned (as "Will need complete rewiring" or "Strongly advise getting an electrician in to check them thoroughly"). As electrician didnt tell me it needed rewiring either - I just had the additions/alterations I wanted (as most householders would - if not advised they needed to rewire). Fast forward to wondering why a couple of electrical things have gone wrong with my house and got another electrician in to check and been told "The house did need rewiring/there arent even any earths in some of these sockets". It's all a bit late - now that I've completely finished the house (I thought) and its replastered/new bathroom/new kitchen/etc and I literally cant run wires to/fro inside the internal walls (as they are concrete block - not plasterboard). I can see I'm going to land up just having to "take the risk" on using some of these duff sockets - and make sure I have all the paperwork to hand for someone else in case I land up electrocuted by one of them (as I cant start pulling apart brand new expensive kitchen or brand new bathroom). So I'm here for an estimated 20 more years - feeling scared of my own house thanks to him. BTW - I understand it's the norm to give a "Condition rating" for everything in a house (so buyer can assess whether work is urgent/to be done some time/etc). There was no "condition rating" given for anything.
Jan 13th, 2018