Purchasing a property is an expensive and quite commonly, stressful life event. Costs soon mount up between the cost of the purchase of the property, professional fees, mortgage fees, moving costs amongst a long list of expenses and therefore, many purchasers may feel they the costs of a survey are unnecessary.
We’ll save our list of various reasons as to why having a pre-purchase survey carried out is invaluable to property purchasers for another time/article but understandably, those purchasers that do commission a survey, will of course factor in the costs of having a survey carried out and may obtain comparative quotations from different surveyors. Many purchasers will of course request the most basic level of pre-purchase survey on the basis of opting for what is typically, the cheapest option. However, it is important to remember that surveyors/firms may provide you with advice as to whether they feel the property is suitable to be considered for any of the levels of survey available/offered by them.
The RICS provide guidance for Home Surveys that offers an indication in respect of what type of factors and considerations may be taken into account when considering what level of survey may be appropriate or depending on what information a purchaser wishes to receive as part of their survey/report. At Cockrams, we use our expertise and experience to advise buyers what survey or survey(s) we feel may be appropriate depending on the property type, age, condition etc.
Therefore, being mindful of the variety of older and historic buildings alone in Cornwall, without even considering condition, construction types and other possible factors that may sway our guidance in terms of what Level(s) of survey we would suggest be considered, unfortunately, it can be the case that we feel only a Level 3 Home Survey is suitable. But of course, some properties may be considered suitable for all survey options, in which case it is down to the purchaser to decide what information and level of detail they require when picking which option to proceed with.
The RICS website has a variety of information about the different Levels of Home Survey and our friendly team would be happy to talk to you about your surveying requirements.
