Building surveys explained
Ensuring you know exactly what you are getting yourself into when buying a property to renovate is essential if you don’t want to end up the proud owner of a money pit. Chartered surveyor Ian Rock explains which surveys you should have carried out in orde
Chartered surveyor Ian Rock provides his advice in our beginner’s guide to renovation
If there’s one thing above all that can determine whether your renovation project ends in success or failure, it’s finding the right property to ‘do up’.you want somewhere that looks worse than it really is, so your budget doesn’t get blown sorting things that buyers take for granted, like functioning drainage systems and structural stability. A property that’s superficially grim but basically sound can also work in your favour when it comes to negotiating the purchase price if competing buyers are deterred by the peeling wallpaper and the limescale-encrusted, mustard-coloured bathroom suite.
So just how can you differentiate between a building that’s merely ‘tired’ and one that needs virtual rebuilding? Opinions dispensed by well-meaning friends and family need to be taken with a generous helping of salt, while estate agents acting for the vendor are unlikely to provide reliably impartial guidance.you also need to be sceptical of ‘free’ advice from firms with a vested interest in drumming up business, such as glazing salespeople and dampproofing contractors. So for a professional assessment of a property’s condition it’s essential to instruct an independent survey.
Which surveys are required?
Probably the best known type of private survey is one that no longer exists — the ‘Full Structural Survey’.today these are known as Building Surveys.the change of name was due to the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) reasoning that other types of survey, such as the less expensive Homebuyer Report, are also ‘structural’ since they similarly report on a building’s structure.
Although there’s a cheaper and more basic type of survey called a ‘Condition Report’ these are much briefer and are aimed at buyers of “conventional houses or flats built from common building materials and in reasonable condition.”the new ‘Homescore’ budget survey is similarly geared towards buyers of conventional properties in ‘reasonable condition’. So to assess the viability of a potential renovation project it’s normally advisable to opt for the more extensive (and expensive) Building Survey. However, it’s worth noting that a good surveyor carrying out a Homebuyer Report should give you enough information to judge whether or not to proceed.
Surveyors with minimal mileage on their clocks are more likely to ‘play it safe’ by over-reacting with a blanket condemnation of minor defects
Homebuyer Report vs Building Survey
Homebuyer Reports are appropriate for most properties built from the late Victorian period onwards, with the inspection taking around 90 minutes on site and covering the whole house, including the loft.you can also request that a valuation and insurance rebuild cost calculation is included.
Building Surveys are more detailed and can take a surveyor half a day or more on site. These are recommended for period properties such as thatched cottages, larger homes with five bedrooms or more, and properties in obviously poor condition.
Both reports utilise a ‘traffic light’ grading system for grading defects so at a glance you can see how many reds and oranges there are in each part of the building, indicating the need for attention. A red condition rating applies to defects which are ‘serious and need to be repaired, replaced or checked urgently’, whereas orange indicates defects that ‘will need repairing or replacing but are not considered serious or urgent’.
How much do surveys cost?
How much you pay for a survey will depend largely on the purchase price, but also on the size of the property (the number of bedrooms) and its geographical location (London normally being dearest).
Prices can also depend on how busy the surveyor is and whether they need to charge VAT (many individual sole traders have annual turnovers below the VAT threshold). As a rough guide, for a £300k house you might be looking at paying from around £375 for a Homebuyer Report
and between 50% to 80% more for a Building Survey.to get accurate figures you can see a range of actual quotes on price comparison websites such as www.rightsurvey.co.uk.
Picking the right surveyor
Anyone can call themselves a ‘surveyor’ — you need a chartered surveyor with the qualifications MRICS or FRICS after their name (related qualifications such as ASSOCRICS indicate surveyors at early career stages).
Not all surveyors specialise in surveys of residential property, so ideally you want a local ‘building surveyor’ operating independently or with a small firm. Surveyors working for national target-driven corporate firms are generally more familiar with mortgage valuation work and are often under greater pressure to cram more jobs into the day with less time to discuss reports with clients. Probably the most important quality to look for, however, is experience, because surveyors with minimal mileage on their clocks are more likely to ‘play it safe’ by overreacting with a blanket condemnation of minor defects such as localised damp or the odd slipped roof tile.
Once you’ve found a suitable candidate be sure to mention that you’re buying the property as a renovation project and flag up any particular concerns or questions, such as whether there’s potential for converting the loft.
Payment for surveys is always made in advance and you will be asked to sign standard Rics-approved terms of engagement.
There is one proviso, however.where your chief concern is serious cracking or structural movement, it can make sense in the first instance to appoint a structural engineer to focus solely on these issues. Look for ‘chartered engineers’ who have the letters ‘Ceng’ after their name, and will also normally be members of either the Institution of
Structural Engineers (Mistructe) or the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE).
Interpreting a survey report
You should normally receive your report within a couple of working days of the inspection and it’s a good idea to talk it through on a one-to-one basis with your surveyor.very few clients take advantage of post-survey dialogue, but this gives the surveyor scope to explain their findings in more detail and in plain English, to help you get a clearer picture. With a bit of luck they may even agree to meet you on the day of inspection at the property once they’ve finished looking around.
Another reason for talking things through is that auditors are increasingly requiring surveyors to post red condition ratings in the sections of the report devoted to the building’s services, even in cases where no significant defects are evident. The rationale behind this is that surveyors are not qualified electricians or plumbers and don’t actually test the services.while a visual once-over with an experienced eye can reveal a lot, it obviously won’t detect any defects in hidden gas pipes or electric cables which could potentially be life-threatening.the trouble is, at first glance this ‘sea of reds’ can appear seriously perplexing, although a good surveyor will take the trouble to give examples of any defects they’ve noted. The upside to this over-cautious approach is that it can add weight to re-negotiating a lower purchase price.
To help you decide whether or not to proceed with the purchase, your surveyor will also flag up other risks such as any apparent legal rights of way, concerns about planning and Building Regulation compliance (e.g. extensions, conversions and listed buildings), as well as things like flooding, radon, knotweed or potential sources of noise or nuisance.they will also alert you to any problems with non-standard construction that could make a property unmortgageable, significantly detracting from the market value.this sort of broader information that surveyors pick up on site can be invaluable and should be passed to your conveyancers to pursue in their searches.
Specialist property reports
The aim of a survey report is to provide an overall picture of the property’s condition, flagging up areas where there are concerns, but effectively giving an ‘all clear’ where no problems are noted. Your surveyor should briefly explain the likely causes of any significant defects they’ve noted and also suggest possible solutions, along with likely future maintenance requirements. The survey report should, in effect, distil the property down to a handful of concerns, which may then need further investigation in the same way that GPS refer patients with potentially serious maladies to specialist consultants.
To explore specific issues in more detail and to obtain costings may require specialist reports to be commissioned, notably with things like electrical systems and drainage testing. You may be able to kill two birds with one stone where your mortgage lender also requires specialist reports before confirming the valuation. However, where evidence of damp, beetle or rot has been identified by the surveyor, it is particularly important that they explain the likely causes and solutions (usually a question of maintenance work) rather than simply referring you to salesdriven timber and damp contractors prescribing ‘precautionary treatments’.
Once you’ve secured the property, your surveyor should be able to assist in drafting a schedule of works to get the renovation project underway.
NEXT MONTH:YOUR essential renovation checklist