Guide to surveys

When purchasing a property, one of the most vital next steps is to arrange a survey. Your mortgage lender will arrange a valuation survey. The main purpose of this is to establish for the lender, whether the property is worth the amount being asked.

In most cases you will want a more detailed survey of the property you are buying. Your mortgage lender may insist on a particular type of survey or you can choose to upgrade you lenders evaluation to a more comprehensive survey type. This depends on your lender. In addition you may pay for an independent survey.

However you decide to proceed with a survey there are several types available, the names of each may change between lender and survey so make sure the detail of the survey meets you requirements.

The depth and name of each type of survey varies but general differences are:-

Mortgage valuation

A qualified surveyor will provide a short report based on a brief inspection of the property. This is normally used to establish the value for the mortgage lender.

Building survey

A more detailed survey of the house noting any structural defects, damp tests, timber damage, drainage, comments on construction, condition reports, any possible problems and rough guide to repair costs.

Full survey (The surveyor may offer this as a structural survey)

Includes everything in the building survey but with further investigations, more detail, photographs, detailed analysis of problems and repairs and is more suitable to older properties or those in need of renovation.

Surveyors may give these levels as rough guides and you can specify even more detail or investigation into specific areas of the property, obviously this may be at an additional charge.

Mortgage or valuation surveys tend to be brief and will provide only a few pages of information the buildings and full survey levels can provide any amount of pages but are usually around a 25-30 page report.

Other more specialised surveys maybe required, depending upon the recommendations of the main survey. These include:- Timber and Damp, woodworm or other specific area surveys.

In all cases check the documentation from your surveyor to make sure the survey you have chosen covers all the aspects of the property that you want surveyed and at the correct detail.

Take Note !

Changes are on the way :-

The 'home information pack' From the 1st of June 2007 government legislation will change the way we buy and sell homes in England and Wales. The responsibility for getting searches and surveys done will become the seller's, that way a buyer can make a more informed choice. The full extent of the change will not be known until after it has come into force.