House Survey - Page 2

So did your  surveyor tell you that the property had a septic tank? Septic tank in this area are very rare although in some situations it is now compulsory in new builds.

Not suggesting that you should not have a survey done, just pointing out as I have said on other topics if everything is already in order the professionals can not get it wrong.

A potential purchaser of a property I eventually sold had a survey done and this is what he said in the survey, " I do not want to be melodramatic but this is the worst plastering I have seen in my career (did not sat if it was his first day on the job or his thousand survey) the plaster is already turning to powder,"  Any one that has ever used "Thistle" will tell you that the final stage is throw water on and float to a smooth surface, this leaves a powderthat is washed of before painting.     

Totally agree with that a survey is advisable and it can be used as a bargaining tool , obviously the owners will want to achieve as high a price as possible and the opposite of course occurs from the buyers point of view.

However , in the past I’ve had numberous surveys , engineers reports etc, unfortunately, the statement of “not worth paper written on “ can also be true. 

Meaning that the surveyour will of course advise at “worse case scenario” because the buyer will expect the very best, but normally there’s not enough access in roof space or similar for that part to be carried out and will always be referred to as “further investigation is required” 

But here’s the main problem , in general the client will take the report literally in other words as a legal and binding contract that your new home to be is 100% , well I’ve yet to see one. It’s not that I mean that the surveys are misleading as they are not , what they can be is misinterpreted but I would still advise , but don’t take it as your fall back protection as it probably won’t be . 

Could not have put it better.

Too true Karl.

I had a full RICS registered surveyor complete a full report for me, it had so many get out clauses it was not really worth all the money it cost. I already knew the majority of the faults he picked up on as they were obvious such as slipping roof slates caused by nail fatigue and movement in leaded glass throughout the windows.

However, I did use it as an additional bargaining tool in re-negotiating a lower purchase price so in that respect it paid for itself.

Never bothered with one since, just fully inspected the places myself and allowed a contingency for things you cannot see until you remove such things like plaster!

The above applies to older properties as if there's no defects obvious in the first few years then it's unlikely there will be. For new builds I'd be more cautious but then they do have a 10 year NHBC type guarantee in the UK but not sure how it works here in Spain.

Must admit I don’t know if any kind of nhbc exists in Spain all I know is there’s lots of property selling fast and has been for past 12 months or more , and this will also mean that there will be more showing as “bad eggs” in the for coming years . 

Then the building trade will get yet another unwelcomed negative response due to very very few builders (percentage wise) taking advantage of the boom. 

Must admit I specialise in mainly kitchens and bathrooms as I’m passionate about the whole process from the selecting of materials down to the finished product and It also still amazes me that there’s more and more so called installers that will go to Install for example a kitchen and manage to convince customers that the Install is not only correct but of high standards. 

I traded in this business in the uk for Just under 20 years and I was invited to carry out a report on recent Installs on regular basis due to fallouts etc 

I always say this , if you employ someone that doesn’t really know what they are doing but trying to earn money from doing so then u could be in for a bit of a ride , cos beleive me so many tradesmen think they can Install but ohhh so many get it wrong . But in the same breath if u employ an installer that isn’t clued up and doesn’t care , then you could be in big trouble . 

I’m sure that’s the case with every business but so many get it so wrong , and my word there’s so many that get it so right , the ones that have failed to deliver tend to be used as the catalyst by the receiving client and the bad blood is thrown back in the face Of tradesmen like myself and we have to justify ourselves every single day of our working life , that’s s but like having an interview every day of your working life 😂 but I still love it .

What Im trying to say is this , I can count on one hand the amount of Kitchen installs that we have estimated on where the existing kitchen was installed well and laid out well etc  , but Doors were dated etc , why ? 

I fact the last 2 reports that I were invited to do were due to clients taking installers to court and quite rightly so as both installs were a high 12-14k and both had 30-40 faults and I can say that both clients won their cases too . Boils my blood . 

Blimey that was a long one 😂 

Hi Mark

Could I have the details of surveyor please visiting in July hoping to find the right property for us.

Thanks

Sam

Hi Tony Sam,

Could I have the details of the surveyor you refer to please as coming out in July and would like to have something in place just in case we find the house we are looking for.

Thanks in advance

Sam 

Dear TonySam,

Please may I have the details of the surveyor as we are looking for a property as well.

Many thanks

Sandra and Neil 

I personally had a surveyor when purchasing, if things arnt correct then the price changes, you wouldn't buy a car without an mot, so even more reason not to buy a villa without a survey.

Dee

Hi Dee. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Survey done, all well. Moving to Los Higuerales at the end of next month. Many thanks once again.