I am a qualified, accredited and experienced Home Condition Surveyor offering a personal, professional and efficient service. For a modern 1-3 bedroom property with a value of up to 250k I only charge £299.00 VAT Free for the BRE Home Condition Survey. I am so confident in the standard of my survey I will give you FREE OF CHARGE an Insurance Policy to cover work on any defect in the advent that I miss that defect/s when I carry out your survey. This Insurance policy is subject to the terms and condtions of the Insurance Company that issues the policy (click here to see a sample of the Insurance document), this policy is yours and in your name. The BRE Home Condition Survey is a level 2 building survey (a level 3 building survey used to be called a structural survey, now called a full building survey) If problems are found on the survey, you then have informed options to work with, first you could renegotiate the price to reflect what has been found in the survey, secondly you might decide to pull out of the sale, you will have that informed choice. The price of the survey is a small price to pay if the problems found would want to you pull out of the sale. £299.00 VAT Free is a good price to pay for professional help when buying your new home, you will know if your new home will be a dream or a nightmare. I only cover the following cities and towns in Oxfordshire: Oxford, Banbury, Bicester, Witney, Chipping Norton, Kidlington and surrounding areas.

Why have a Home Condition Survey?

The first thing people think when they have made an offer on a property, is why should I pay out £500-600 for a Home Condition Survey when I will get one carried out when I apply for my mortgage. The valuation survey you get carried out when you apply for a mortgage is just a Valuation, its a survey that is carried out for your mortgage company. It is not a Condition Survey, this means that the survey is only concerned that the mortgage company will get its money back if you default, unless there is a major fault that affects the value of the property the mortgage company is not concerned, the surveyor will come and look at the property, sometimes just driving by only to see if the property is there (depending on the mortgage company), the surveyor will then check the prices of 3 or more similar types of properties that have been sold in the area and make a price comparison on the property, the only condition rating they carry out is to put a tick in a box for poor, good or excellent, which is just a general comment. This is a valuation survey, not a Condition Survey, they are entirely different surveys. Another reason is why should I pay for a Home Condition Survey when I can see there is nothing wrong with the property I want to buy. You are not alone in this, a recent report by Which pointed out that less than 20% of people who buy a new home have a Home Condition Survey carried out.

The BRE Home Condition Survey

The BRE Home Condition Survey, why should I have one carried out, What is it and what does it tell me?

First of all, why should you have a BRE Home Condition Survey carried out? You say to yourself the property looks fine and there is nothing wrong with it, this may well be the case, but can you be sure? A Doctor needs to know about human pathology to diagnose an illness or injury in a human being. It's easy for you to say someone has broken their leg, if you can see it all twisted, but could you be sure if it was just a hairline fracture? or if you are feeling ill, can you say to yourself with certainty I will be alright with 100%? A building is the same, except it cannot tell you if it is feeling ill or is injured. You can see if the property is dilapidated and have concerns, but do you really know if it is serious or not? There are many points that you cannot see and need to know the signs to look for, can you tell for example if a building has dry rot? Dry rot will cost thousands of pounds to cure. Also, as a building cannot tell you it feels ill, you need to look for the signs and symptoms to diagnose illness in a property. If you don't know building pathology and the signs and symptoms of a buildings illness or defects you have no way of knowing if there might be a problem now or in the future. If there are problems you might want to renogotiate a lower price or even decide not to buy the property because of the defects to the property, at least you can make an informed choice with a BRE Home Condition Survey Report

Who are BRE?

BRE stands for The Building Research Establisment which is an International recognised authorrity within the built enviroment.(click here to learn more about BRE)

The BRE Home Condition Survey

Click here to see an example of the BRE Home Condition Survey Report

The sample report tells you all about the report, please read before you commision a report

There are many other types of Home Condition Surveys on the market, all Home Condition Surveys are classed as a level 2 surveys and follow the same format as all Condition Reports, this includes: The Institute of Home Inspection (IHI) Home Purchasers Report, RICS Home Conditiopn Survey, RICS Home Buyers and Valuation Survey (albeit this survey has a valuation within the report), The Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA) Home Condition Survey and The SAVA Home Condition Survey. You have to be Accredited by each body, BRE, RICS, RPSA, IHI etc to be able and qualified to carry out their Home Condition Survey, their Accredeitation means that the surveyor is qualified and an expert in carrying out their survey. Each body strictly controls the standard of their surveys, as these are their own building survey products, and as such there is a rigorous quality control procedure in place which means that surveys have to meet the standards set by each body, all bodies have a high standard they adhere to, so no matter which survey you choose you are are always guaranteed a high standard of survey. Should you have any complaints about the survey the surveyors have carried out, each body insists that their surveyors have a formal complaints procedure (click here to see my formal complaints procedure for BRE) in place with an option that if you and the surveyor cannot agree you have the right to appeal to the appropriate Accreditation body, this process does not affect your legal rights.

To get your BRE Home Condition Survey carried out now or for more details just call me on:

01869 349164 or 07790 549279 or click here to email