Chartered building surveyors are well educated and professionally trained and recognised individuals. They are experts in property and construction with a broad understanding and knowledge of spotting defects in buildings and explaining their possible causes. Chartered building surveyors are therefore the ideal professional to undertake a full and detailed review of your property and prepare a building survey report.
A full building survey undertaken by a chartered building surveyor will provide:
- The most extensive general property investigation and report readily available today.
- A comprehensive analysis of your property.
- Inspection of every visible, exposed and accessible area of the building.
- Information on defects and their probable causes.
- Information on further investigations to confirm causes of defects.
- Information on the costs of remedial works.
- Can be particularly beneficial for older (pre. 1900 construction) and listed properties, to fully understand their composition and eccentricities.
Buying a home is the most expensive purchase that most people will undertake in their lifetime. Around 80% of homebuyers will not invest sufficient time or money in finding out if the property is in a good condition. They often rely on the simpler or free surveys; damp, asbestos etc. Investing in a full building survey will ensure you are as informed as possible on the condition of your future home.
When purchasing a property, a full building survey will provide you with the information to help you make an informed decision about buying the property. It may also provide information to help you negotiate on price. Obviously other market forces affect the price of a property. If the report highlighted a specific defect and an indicative cost of fixing it this could give you a tool for negotiating the price or persuading the current owner to undertake the required remediation works before the purchase is completed.
The photo above shows a property where we undertook a full survey. You may have thought there were no defects. However, in Figure 2 we have shown some of the defects the chartered building surveyor noted during their survey. In this instance the client used the findings of the building survey report to negotiate a reduction in the price of the property. They were also able to fully plan their proposed extension and the SJA architectural team has just achieved planning consent for a rear extension.
If you are planning construction work, having owned your property for a few years a full building survey is also vitally important. The added benefit of working with Stuart James Associates on the survey is our multi-disciplinary understanding and approach to development and design. The survey work allows for early consideration of your project and can be used as an investment in starting to consider how we might best help you on a future project brief and the options for a potential building project, as was the case for Property A in Figures 1 and 2.
Here at SJA we understand the importance of your time. So once approached by you to undertake a full building survey we will clearly set out the time required to survey the property and provide you with the report. We will also be able to review the impact to the of proposed works to the property be it removing a wall, a loft conversion, ground floor extension or basement.
At SJA we are passionate about this extra thought and consideration and we’d be delighted to talk further with you on this or on any specific aspect of your project.
Get in touch on office@stuartjamesassociates.co.uk Or call us on 0207 228 8522
