Property Valuations and Surveys explained.
If you are buying a property the chances are you will need a mortgage, your lender will require a valuation, but these can be very basic some lenders only ask for a drive-by valuation, which as you can imagine will not give you much of an assessment to the condition of the property, and you may want to instruct a surveyor to carry out a more in-depth report.
The basic mortgage valuation.
As mentioned above this cannot be described as a survey, even though you pay for it, it is for the mortgage companies benefit.
The survey will normally be carried out by a RICS Surveyor appointed by your mortgage company, and its purpose is to make sure the property provides adequate security for the mortgage loan, the surveyor will give their indication of the value of the property and if this is not the same as the purchase price the mortgage company will normally take the lesser of the two figures, which can in some cases create a big problem.
The valuation normally has comments about the condition of the property is identified by the surveyor, this can be damp problem, structural problems, infestation such as woodworm concerns amongst others, if they do highlight any concerns you will probably be asked for further specialist reports and your estate agent should be able to help with this, who pays for any additional reports are a matter for discussion between you and the seller.
The basic mortgage valuation will be accompanied with a full disclaimer so that you will not have any comeback on the surveyor, you should not consider that this is a survey.
The Homebuyers Report.
Approved by the Royal Institute of chartered surveyors the home buyers report in its present format was introduced in 2010 from 2016 came with two options both are far more extensive than the mortgage valuation and is designed to give you peace of mind about the condition the property.
The two options are
A Homebuyers report with survey contains the standard RICS report and give advice on any problems affecting the property.
A Homebuyers report with survey and valuation as above but with a valuation, if you are having a mortgage valuation undertaken via the mortgage company it is worth speaking to them to see if you can arrange this together with the same surveyor as it could save you money.
These reports are very good and the improvements on layout make it very easy to read, it doesn’t cover everything about the property but it will pick out the important ones, important points that are excluded is the wiring will not be included and they will not inspect under floors.
There is limited recourse to the surveyor should they be found negligent on the report.
Full Building Survey.
Sometimes known as a full structural survey is the most comprehensive inspection of a property you can instruct.
The report you receive will cover every aspect of the house's condition, any problems what has caused the problem and details about the repair, priority of the repair and sometimes approximate cost.
Whilst you can instruct any survey for any building if you are buying an older property or one that you know needs a lot of work you should defiantly consider this type of report.
As with the homebuyers report and the full building survey, the information provided will put you in an excellent position to renegotiate the purchase price should the reports show up anything, and can end up saving you money.
Completing a full building report will take a surveyor a lot of time and can cost up to £1500, we would recommend that you obtain a few quotes before instructing.
If there are problem highlighted you may still need specialists reports.