The Importance Of Structural Surveys For Homebuyers

The Importance of Structural Surveys for Homebuyers

There was a time when almost all homebuyers commissioned a structural survey on the property that they were intending to purchase. This article takes a look at why more and more homebuyers are prepared to purchase a home without a full structural survey.

What is a Structural Survey?

Almost every property ever built suffers to some degree from movement and in some cases the movement is so severe as to undermine the value and integrity of the property. Older period houses were built on very little foundations, mostly a dept of about 200cm and made up of coke to help with the rising damp and a wider spread of bricks below ground level which acted as the foundations. In a way this was reasonable practice as it was a wildly held belief at this time that brick built homes would only last about 30 years.

As we have since found out however, there are millions of these homes still around today and almost all of them have to some degree suffered some form of subsidence. The most crucial aspect of any form of subsidence is to discover if this is an on-going situation or if it is something that has occurred many years ago and has now stopped.

Without a full structural survey on the property that you intend to purchase you will have no idea of the structural integrity of the property and you could be making one of the largest financial mistakes of your life.

Given the cost of the average home today and the fact that you are likely to be paying for it for a period of 25 years and will in the end pay back during the life of the mortgage around three times the amount borrowed, it is unthinkable that you would make such a financial commitment that will cover most of your working life without bothering to commission a full structural survey. Its quite clear that as the age of our period housing stock grows so will the risks increase with regard to structural problems so why would you take such a risk?

Worst Types of Structural Problems

Probably the worst types of structural problems are subsidence which insurance companies nor appear to be excluding from their house insurance. The simply wont take the risk because they odds are not in their favor.

Subsidence is a failure of the house foundations to support the load and can happen to any part of the house. One such location on Victorian houses is the front bay window. These bays were build on even less foundation than the main building and have in the past been prone to dropping more than any other part of the house. In cases where the drop is excessive the only real remedy is to remove and rebuild at a cost of about 25,000. Clearly, it would have been a whole lot cheaper to have a full structural survey and then you would have been aware of the problem before you purchased the property and included it your negotions.

Conclusions

You would have to be mad to buy any kind of period property, flat or house, without having a full structural survey. You can find a local surveyor and compare costs for any kind of structural survey at Surveyors Supermarket, the UKs fastest growing price comparison site for homeowners.

by: Tom Norris

POST COMMENT

Tulum Real Estate Buy A Condo For Leisure Or Investment Kitchen Extension Plans - Do I Really Need Them? Yucatan Real Estate History, Community, Low Cost Of Life Tulum Real Estate; Invest Early, Enjoy Life Replacing a bathroom ceiling panels Metro Cherry Creek Listings - Whittier Denver Homes Creating Value How to installing bathroom wall paneling: advice and tips Shower panels for bathroom Planning a Remodeling Project or Room Addition? Here's Some Advice by Randy Mate Office Supplies That Create A Home From Home In Home Gym - 4 Questions To Ask When Planning Your Home Gym Indoor Waterfalls Help Unfold The Drama Indoor Waterfalls A Stylish Way To Decorate Your Home Or Office