If you’re considering getting your property for lease or any mortgage activity, you would need the help of chartered surveyors for a quick check-up of the building’s stability and material quality. On the other hand, buying these properties would also require you to have the help of surveyors to protect your right to buy quality properties.
Often times, the need for surveying a house or a commercial building is often overlooked, missing the most important things to consider when buying properties. Just before you decide to purchase a property, having chartered surveys would be necessary.
On Basic Surveys and Detailed Ones
There’s totally nothing wrong about having basic surveys. The problem is if you would take the risk of superficial surveying in case you’re buying an older property. Basic surveys don’t go into details about how the building is built, but simply look into the basic construction.
This would be alright if the property you are considering is relatively new. Otherwise, you would need sufficient check-up to make sure that everything else, aside from the basic construction is in good condition. In-depth surveying is especially needed when the building or housing unit you’re about to purchase is more than 75 years old, constructed with unusual materials, or has undergone several alterations and additions.
Why do you need an in-depth surveying?
Buying properties serves as an investment to most people. In-depth surveying is an important step for anyone or a business establishment buying a property. Considering the amount effort and finances for property purchase, no one would want to end up with a property in serious structural defects.
In-depth surveying covers the inspection of all aspects of the house or building. Damages and structural irregularities are not the only things that surveyors check. They also look into the possible presence of harmful chemicals such as asbestos, rights of light, and party wall legislation. When all factors of a good housing or building structure are present, you’ll be able to raise the value of the property. If you’re a buyer, this will ensure the purchase is all worth it.
Since detailed surveys will look into specific details of the property, expect the survey to last for two weeks or more. By the end of the survey, you should be able to receive a complete report stating the current condition of the property. Surveyors will list all the parts of the building they were able to check and describe the damages and defects. The surveyor will also tell you which areas are not inspected and the reason why inspection was not done. Additionally, surveyors usually advise their clients about what to do with the damaged parts based on evidence.
For a seller’s point of view, it is normal for an old building to have various defective parts. Instead of being discouraged, know that not everything needs to be corrected immediately. All you need to do is to look for the parts in which you think will affect the sale of the property or you could get quotes for emergency work.
Image by Flickr
