Buying a home

Your home is likely to be the biggest investment of your life, yet many buyers do not commission an independent survey on its condition.

If you have a mortgage your lender will usually require you to pay for a valuation report, but this only answers the lender’s questions about the appropriate security of your loan. Although it is often called a survey this is mis-leading. You cannot rely on it to highlight any defects or provide you with a detailed report on the condition of the property.

Both consumer champions Which? and the Council of Mortgage Lenders advise that all buyers should commission an independent survey on the condition of a property before buying.

Which? found that for those people who did not get a survey, on average one in four had to spend over £2,500 to put right serious defects which would have been identified in a condition report.  For one in ten people it was over £10,000. By contrast, those that did get a proper survey were able to negotiate a reduction in the asking price of the property that averaged £2,000.

Before you buy your next home, ask for a survey from an independent surveyor.