Why it Pays to Survey

Dry rot, rising damp, subsidence: next to 'negative equity' these are the words most likely to turn a self-possessed, articulate home-owner into a panic-stricken, gibbering wreck...

After all, if you've just parted with shed loads of money and are now the proud owner of the house you've always dreamt of, news that its secretly sick must come as a bit of a shock.

There it stands, to all intents and purposes fully fit, as solid and unshakeable as a Victorian patriarch, but beneath that authoritative period exterior it's quietly mouldering, slowly sliding towards full scale structural collapse, or soaking up more water than the first class berths on the Titanic.

It should never have got to this point, of course. But figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reveal that a staggering 80% of home-buyers do not bother to get a professional survey.

Instead they rely on the basic valuation survey carried out on behalf of the mortgage lender, unaware that this merely determines the value of the house and should not be confused with a more thorough assessment of the property you hope to buy.

According to Ian Pearce of Brace Oakley & Partners, quite a few buyers are genuinely confused and don't know the difference: "I turn up and they tell me they've had a survey, which only took 10 or 15 minutes, carried out by the mortgage company. There needs to be greater public awareness of what's involved".

But in other cases people simply don't budget for a survey, look the property over and think it's fine, or rely on a mate tenuously involved in the housing business to cast an inexperienced eye over the property.

" It never ceases to amaze me, " he says. "A survey may seem expensive, but relative to the costs of buying a property, and bearing in mind the problems you might face in the future, it's a small price to pay." Like most in the business, he can reel off a heart-stopping catalogue of cautionary tales.

"One woman I know bought a flat in Woking for £44,000 but didn't get it checked. Later there were terrible problems with condensation and dry rot, but she couldn't afford to put them right. Eventually the property was repossessed and sold at auction for £20,000. You can imagine what this did to her credit rating!"

Another was buying a house from a dodgy builder but didn't bother to have his 'improvements' checked out. Later it emerged that he'd made a complete mess of the roof, much of which had to be removed and replaced at considerable cost. "Had he bothered to pay for a survey at the beginning he would have had no problem. Any decent surveyor would immediately have seen the difficulties".

Types of Survey
Surveys come in three forms: Valuations, usually undertaken by the lender; the Home Buyers Report, generally suitable for most modern homes conventional in type and construction; and Structural or Building Surveys, which are recommended for period homes or properties of unusual construction.

Ian Pearce says he advises clients buying anything which predates the 1930s to have the full structural survey, but for post-1930s properties he recommends the cheaper Home Buyers Report.

The former is a more comprehensive assessment and will include technical details on the construction of the property as well as any defects, major or minor. The latter focuses on essential points and will point to defects or problems which are in need of immediate expert attention.

What You Can Expect
Doubts about dodgy surveyors were recently highlighted by a BBC documentary 'Raising the Roof'. And there's no doubt that as with any profession, there's the usual percentage of shoddy chancers. However, if you are unsure about how to choose a surveyor, talk to local estate agents and solicitors. They deal with surveyors every day and should be able to recommend a good one.

Reputable surveyors will confirm an instruction in writing, with details of costs, qualifications and the nature of the instruction. Those with FRICS, ARICS or Tech RICS after their name are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor and are subject to the RICS's formal complaints procedure if customers are unhappy with the work carried out. They are also usually covered by professional indemnity insurance, which means costs can generally be recouped if things go wrong.

Surveys should be written in clear and accessible language and a good surveyor should be willing to explain precisely what the technical terms in the report mean. The full Structural Survey generally comes with explanatory photographs, but this is not usual with the Home Buyers Report.

If you're really concerned you can probably arrange to meet the surveyor at the property immediately after the survey has been carried out and have him/her run through the details with you. Some will even allow you to be here while they do the job, but this is not common practice. Most will probably find it distracting to have a client there looking over their shoulder during the survey.

At present a survey is not a legal requirement but when the government's new Seller's Information Pack becomes law (2003) vendors will be obliged to provide the buyer with a report. There is still some uncertainty about what this will include and how the system will work –at the moment a Condition Report, a hybrid of the valuation and Home Buyers Report is in use in trials but is a source of some dissatisfaction- but the current reluctance to have a survey carried out looks set to become a thing of the past.

But this may be no bad thing. As Christopher Legrand of RICS points out: "Not having a survey done can be storing up problems for the future and the survey will give you piece of mind knowing that the property you are interested in is sound. When buying a second-hand car most people will spend considerable time, trouble and effort to ensure the vehicle is safe, road-worthy and worth buying. The approach to buying a house should be no different".

Provided by www.Findaproperty.com (Find a property with ease)

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