Chartered Surveyor

If you’re considering ambitious structural renovations, a grand design of your own, or if you just need a valuation for your building society or bank, we would always recommend completing a survey.

Why? Well, surveys offer homebuyers numerous benefits. They can help avoid unexpected and expensive surprises and offer peace of mind about the potential flaws of a property. A survey can be very reassuring, especially for those taking their first steps onto the property ladder.

Looking to buy? Make sure your finances are in order. Speak to one of our mortgage advisers to see how they can help.

The findings from a survey can also influence your decision to buy or give you room to negotiate on price. A property might simply have too much work that needs doing, but negotiating the price down according to the costs quoted in the survey can mean the property may still be a viable option.

They are also often a lender requirement, as a survey is often a condition of the mortgage. Mortgage providers will also do a survey, but this is not for the borrower, who will be advised to carry out their own survey. We can recommend a trusted solicitor to help you with your move.

Homebuyer surveys

This is the most popular survey, and is suited to most standard properties. Often these reports will have a traffic light system of red, amber or green points, some of which may need addressing before the property purchase goes through. We can recommend trusted surveyors, who write their surveys in plain English, so no fancy surveyor terms that you don’t understand. A pretty standard choice of survey, and a popular one, these home buyer surveys will highlight anything on the surface that could be deemed to be a problem and give am insight into the condition of the property.

Building surveys

These surveys are recommended for older or larger properties which might be more structurally complex. In buildings like this, it is often wishful thinking to not anticipate an issue that will require attention. A building survey will indicate what requires urgent work and will advise on what works are recommended in short, medium or long term. The main benefits of a building survey is that it is significantly more in depth than a homebuyers survey, and will flag up any issues that will be expensive to fix before the exchange, meaning you have suitable grounds to ask the seller to reduce the asking price by the cost of work needed.

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