The main reason a surveyor will visit your property is for the purpose of providing your lender with a house valuation. This house valuation will allow the lender to ascertain the terms and amount which they will lend to you. But there are other services besides the house valuation that are more pertinent to you, the buyer, namely the HomeBuyer Report and the Building Survey.
Unlike the house valuation, these surveys provide an in depth look at your property and often offer insight into issues that may allow you to renegotiate the asking price. You may argue that the Property Valuation will also provide you with an accurate value of the property, whilst this is true the property valuation doesn’t go into the nitty-gritty areas of both minor and major issues that will need to be resolved in order to make your house a home.
There are three types of survey and house valuations
There are three main types of report and survey which are recognised by The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors: Standard Mortgage Valuation, The HomeBuyer Report and thirdly a Building Survey sometimes referred to as a Full Structural Survey but not to be confused with a Structural Engineers Report. The latter two surveys are intended for the buyer and are much more in depth than the Standard Mortgage Valuation which will do little more than provide a property valuation.
Mortgage Valuation Report
Unless you are fortunate to be paying cash, as a house buyer, you often pay for a mortgage valuation report in order to secure a mortgage offer. A mortgage valuation is as you would expect a property valuation of your house to be, it merely confirms to the lender that the property is worth more than what they are lending you – what it does not do, is focus on any repairs that need correcting or any defects that may need to be sorted out in the future which would be the case in a HomeBuyers or Building survey.
HomeBuyer Survey and Valuation
In many respects the HomeBuyer report compliments the mortgage valuation report in that it is a survey including a property valuation done to a precise format set out by the RICS. It is a fairly comprehensive survey which includes all major sections of the property that are clearly visible to the surveyor. The aim of this survey is to provide an indication of what the overall condition of the property is, identifying which areas are in need of further tests or more specific investigation, it also includes a property valuation towards the rear of the report.
Conventional properties that have been built within the last 150 years and that have had minimal change are most suitable for this type of survey.
Building Survey
This type of survey is the most thorough one available, and each one can take several hours to complete. The survey will examine all accessible parts of the property and, if you wish to have any specific areas looked at, this type of survey is the right choice. These surveys are much more detailed than the standard mortgage or property valuation. This survey will focus in on the condition of the property as opposed to the value.