Martin & Mortimer

When you buy a property, most people have to have a mortgage valuation report carried out by the bank or building society. Often, they will give you the option of upgrading the valuation (often referred to as a survey, although, it is anything but) to a Homebuyers report (also known as a scheme 2 or property check) or a building survey.

If you opt for a homebuyers report, this will usually be dealt with in house. Be very careful, however. You are unlikely to have any contact with the surveyor undertaking the survey. On some occasions, the surveyor may not be particularly experienced or necessarily local.

If you opt for a building survey make sure you find out who is undertaking the report and check what experience they have in that type/age of property and location. If you are not convinced that they will do a good job for you, don’t instruct them.

I am often told by potential clients that they have been told that they must use the banks chosen valuer to undertake a survey for them. This is not true. It is simply an attempt to extract more money from you or ignorance.

My advice; let the bank instruct who they like for the valuation but instruct, privately, your own independent, local, surveyor to undertake a homebuyers report or, preferably, a building survey.

Remember, you get what you pay for. It is not a positive if the surveyor quotes a low fee. There is always a reason (perhaps low work flows (why?), inexperience, desperation). You should pick your surveyor not on price but on what they can offer you. After all, this is the biggest expense in most peoples lives and chosing the right surveyor even if they are £100 more expensive represents a tiny fraction of the overall value of the property.

Another offering has come on line from the RICS – the Home Condition Report. This is similar in style to the Homebuyers report but will not include a valuation. The key difference, however, is that the Condition report will not advise on future maintenence issues. It is purely a statement as to the condition of the property on the day of inspection.

So….will Martin and Mortimer be offering this report – not a chance!

The thought of purchasers relying on a ‘dumbed down’ version of the Homebuyers report fills me with horror. Buying a house is likely to be the most expensive purchase you ever make and yet we have a professional body representing surveyors trying to encourage buyers to rely on a cheap and cheerful inspection.

I suspect the very nature of these reports will mean that they are carried out larger surveying companies and by newly qualified surveyors.

My advice; don’t rely on a mortgage valuation, don’t have a condition report, have a Homebuyers report if you must, but if you can stretch to a little more money (possibly only £100 more) commission a Building survey.

In all my time as a Chartered Surveyor, I have never stepped into the realms of paying for referals. I have, of course, taken solicitors, estate agents and mortgage brokers out to lunch and have been known, at Christmas, to drop round the odd bottle of wine. It is becoming increasingly apparant, however, that more and more surveyors are reaching agreement with estate agents (in particular) whereby, exclusive recommendation is reciprocated with a financial payment.

The rules of the RICS state that whilst a financial arrangement of this kind is permissable, it must be fully disclosed. I have first hand knowledge that this is not happening. The NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) also insists that such arrangements are disclosed as there is a clear conflict of interest.

Put simply, do you want to employ a surveyor who is paying money to an estate agent acting for the person whose house you are buying?Independence goes out of the window.

My advice – if you want to have a survey done, by all means ask the estate agent, solicitor etc for a recommendation but also check that there is no financial arrangement. Ask the surveyor also and get it in writing. Never allow the estate agent to  ring the surveyor on your behalf. If they do this it may well be to make sure that the surveyor knows the instruction is from that estate agent and this allows the estate agent to ensure they receive their commission.

Ring round two or three surveyors and choose the one that offers best value for money (not the same as the cheapest), who has best local knowledge/experience and most importantly is fully independent.

Regretably, from time to time, I am asked to inspect sub-standard work undertaken by damp specialists, timber repair companies and builders.

This week I looked at a period farmhouse, principally in relation to building work but was taken aback by the unsympathetic approach to resolving a damp issue. It was absolutely apparant that the damp specialist had not understood the type of property in question and the materials employed. The remedial work extended to injection of a chemical damp proof course (partly in to stone!) and internal replastering with a modern ‘hard’ plaster.

This was not, however, a property suffering from rising damp but from poor external repair, inadequate disposal of rain and surface water  and a combination of other factors which prevented the walls from ‘breathing’. Because the causes of the damp had not been addressed, the damp was still present and problems of cellar fungus had continued to spread behind new plaster and skirtings. In short, all the work undertaken was a waste of time and money.

Not all damp specialists are bad. Some take a very sympathetic approach but be careful that they do not have a vested interest in simply selling a product. More often than not, a so called cured damp problem as a consequence of chemical injection is actually a concealed damp problem.

In the vast majority of cases, chemical injection damp proof courses are neither required or desirable.

It looks like time has been called on the Home Information Pack (HIP). As from tomorrow (21st May 2010) there will no longer be a requirement for a HIP to be produced before a property can be marketed. The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will still need to be produced under EU Directive.

So was it worth it? The concept behind the HIP was, principally, to reduce delays in the home buying process and increase transparency. In reality, the delays were simply shifted from during the process to before the process.

The situation was compounded by the fact that the legal search carried out in most HIP’s was limited and most Solicitors refused (probably quite rightly) to rely on them. This necessitated a further search, additional delay and more expenditure.

When the HIP was first mooted, there was to be a condition report included. In their wisdom, it was decided that rather than rely on thousands of able and very well qualified surveyors, they would throw the market open to anyone to train as a Home Inspector (no previous experience required). Anyone wanting to be a Home Inspector had to pass through this training. Not surprisingly, most surveyors felt this was rather insulting to their professional qualifications and expertise. As a result, come implementation day, there were nowhere near enough Home Inspectors and the idea of a condition report was scrapped.

I strongly suspect that the HIP will not be missed by solicitors, surveyors, estate agents or the majority of the general public. I do, however, have a great deal of sympathy for the 3000 or so people who spend their days compiling the HIP’s who come tomorrow will have lost their livelihood.