Home surveys information and tips
UK Home Valuation and Surveys - We are an Independent UK based expert providing information on home surveys and home valuation services.
There are now three types of home survey, the basic survey or valuation, home buyers report and the full structural survey. We shed some light on the ins and outs of what you should know when buying or selling a property...
Surveys are essential part of the home buying process. A survey will ascertain the information you need to make an informed and sensible property purchase. Why do you need a survey? Because both you and your mortgage lender need to know whether the property is actually worth the amount of money you have agreed to spend to make the purchase. The level of survey you need depends a lot on the individual property you are buying.
The Basic Home Survey
The survey in its most basic form is commonly known as a mortgage valuation. A mortgage valuation is conducted on behalf of the lender i.e. your bank/building society to ensure that they are not lending you more than the property is worth, a wise move that means their loan to you is secure i.e. if you do not keep up the re-payments on the loan they can recoup their money by selling it. You should remember that a basic home survey is carried out for your benefit and may help to reveal any problems with the property that could later affect the value of that property, and as a buyer you can use any faults revealed by this survey to renegotiate the price you are paying.
Things you should look for in your survey
- Subsidence - it is always a good idea to take a step back and view the property from across the street to see if the horizontal and vertical lines are in their proper place or visibly out of line. Look out for any distortion, in particular in and around doorways and stairwells. it is worth noting that most buildings will have moved at some point, but rest assured if the property you are buying has been around longer than you have then the likely hood is it' going nowhere fast.
- Damp -The very mention of damp in a house seems to spread fear across the prospective buyers face, the truth is that most houses have damp in them somewhere or other. The main issue is to find out whether or not it will cause significant problems.
- Trees - Not always an obvious one but nevertheless an important one. Nearby trees can suck moisture out from under the house, eventually leading to cracking in the structure of a building.
- Cracks - Cracks in the structure of a house can be caused by a variety of things, as part of the ageing process for example, however the majority of these are completely normal and nothing to worry about unless of course a surveyor has told you otherwise.
The Homebuyers Report
A Homebuyers report is when a professional surveyor checks the structural state of the property you wish to purchase. This survey falls in the middle of the three surveys, it is much more detailed than the basic valuation, and is for your own benefit rather than your mortgage lender's, however it is less detailed than the full structural survey. It is worth knowing that this report is optional and you will be the one to pay the bill, but this report should pick up any hidden problems and give you the chance to negotiate a lower price. Some points covered by the Homebuyers Report include;
- The recommendations for repairs and alternations to the structure and soundness of the building
- Produces a final report with advice on whether to make to purchase or not - with detailed reasons for and against
- The report provides a conditions list for the property
- The report lists any faults and the impact these faults may have on the final value of the property.
- Gives you an accurate market valuation of the property
- Gives an indication to the costs of any building work that may need to be carried out
- Informs the buyer of conditions of walls, roofs, drainage and any asociated land, pointing out any areas that will need work straight away or at a later date
Your new home will no doubt be one, if not the biggest purchase of all. So it is no wonder that the majority of buyers decide on obtaining a Homebuyers Report when buying a new home. A Homebuyers Report is increasingly seen as being an essential part of the home buying process and one that is definitely worth it to be sure that your new home is in good condition. A Homebuyers report allows you to evaluate whether you want to continue with the purchase at the present price, and to consider any urgent problems with the property that may allow you to start negotiating a revised price. Guidelines recommend that a Homebuyers Report is carried out on houses that are between 50-75 years old, of regular construction and are in generally sound condition, furthermore a homebuyer's report gives a good indication of the state of the property and its level of repair and maintenance.
The usual method of obtaining a Homebuyers Report is to ask your mortgage lender to arrange for the surveyor doing the basic valuation or survey to carry out a Homebuyers Report at the same time. The inspection should be carried out no more than five days after you have instructed it to be conducted, however on average the report is completed well within this limit. The inspection will usually take somewhere between one and two hours to complete depending on the size of the property, and you should receive the results three to five days after completion. The report comes on a standard report sheet and is anywhere between about 8 and 20 pages long, again depending on property size and condition.
The Full Structural Survey
This is a much more in detail study of the property than what the basic survey is. It is by far the most comprehensive of the three main options open to the property buyer. The aim of the Full Structural Survey is to pick up any serious problems that may exist with the building and covers you in the unlikely event that the survey doesn't pick up on these problems, as by then you should have more than enough to build a detailed case against the surveyor. This means you would be covered to repair them and probably at the surveyors cost!
The Full structural survey involves an extensive investigation of the property and a thorough examination of all the major aspects and the minor details that are visible. This type or survey is more flexible than either the basic or the Homebuyers Report, as you can request the surveyor to concentrate on any specific features of the property. A good reason to have this type of survey would be if the property you are buying is larger or older than usual as these contain potential for problems. In general a full structural survey should be carried out when you are buying a home that is older than the 50 - 75 years suggested in the Homebuyers Report. It is also recommended that this survey is carried out if the property is constructed over three stories in height is a building of unusual construction or if you plan to extend in the future, convert or renovate the property.
A full structural survey can cost four or five times as much as a basic survey anything from £400 to £1000 depending on the particulars of the property and any special requests that you make. Once the survey is complted you will end up with a detailed report containing approximately twenty pages and can come complete with floor plans, diagrams and pictures to enhance the reports content. This level of detail may seem unnecessarily extensive to some, but is carried out to such an extent in order to “cover the surveyors back” so to speak, usually leading to the surveyor highlighting the worst case scenario and detailing any defect they can possibly find, again this is done due to the legal consequences of the surveyor failing to point out any problems that may then cause concern at a later date. All this means that you should end up with a priced list of all major and minor pieces of repair and maintenance work that need to be carried out on the house.