When you buy a house you usually begin by looking at its good points. For instance, you might like it for its character; its location ... or you might even have fallen in love with the garden. But you need to be harder headed when you are making one of the greatest financial commitments of your life.

It's usually only after an offer has been made that people start to worry about the state of the roof, the fences that may be about to fall down or possible structural defects. And it is not just older houses; new house can have defects as well.

What you want to know is: what are the major problems? How urgently do they need to be solved? You cannot rely on the vendor to point out any faults: it's up to you to discover them.

The answer is to have the property inspected by a surveyor. The next questions are "what kind of inspection do you need? And "who should conduct the inspection?" 

WHAT KIND OF INSPECTION?

Deciding what kind of inspection you need depends on a number of factors. They include the type of property it is, its age, its general condition and how much you wish to spend. Essentially there are three different kinds.  (CLICK BELOW)

MARKET VALUATION

Homebuyers survey and Valuation

Building Survey