Selling a home to retire, how Surveying

advice helped resolve problems with the

property, a review

Independent Building Surveyors

If you are in the process of purchasing or selling a property our Building Surveyors at 1stAssociated.co.uk can provide you with help and advice. If you are planning on selling a property in the not too distant future we can carry out a pre-sale building survey to help resolve any problems with the property, such as dampness, and to make you aware of potential issues before you put your house on the market.

We also offer structural surveys, home buyers reports, independent valuations, property surveys, Engineers reports, structural reports, defects reports. Please free phone 0800 298 5424 for a friendly chat with one of our surveyors.

Rising damp

Free phone 0800 298 5424

Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware

Caveat emptor means Buyer Beware and is why a buyer needs to have a Building Survey carried out to show any issues with the property. If you are selling your house it can help to sell the property if you have a Pre-Sales Survey carried out. This means that you can rectify any issues with the property before it goes on the market making it easier to find a buyer and speeding up the whole sales process.

Damp to floor joists

Why should you have a building survey carried out?

In this case our client had lived in the same property for over thirty years and the plan was to retire shortly. Although they knew there were issues with dampness in the property they were unsure on how to resolve these and so decided to commission us to carry out a building survey and report for them.

Dealing with the dampness found in the property

After we had carried out our survey we advised our client that the problems were being caused by a number of issues including:- 1.  The property being on a sloping site The problem had been made worse by the extremely wet weather that had occurred recently.
	Sloping site

2.  No French Drain around the property

Example of a French Drain	French drain

French Drain defined

A French Drain involves pea shingle, with a perforated pipe underneath that feeds into the drainage system which takes away any rainwater.

3.  Lack of air movement in the property. This was caused by:- 1.   The windows having no trickle vents. Trickle Vents Defined Trickle vents are small vents to the windows to allow air movement inside the property to stop/reduce a build-up of fumes or humidity.
	Trickle vent in a window allows air flow in a property

Air movement with trickle vents	Trickle vents

2.   No extract fans in humidity generating areas such as the kitchen and bathroom

3.   Radiators being positioned on internal walls rather than under windows.

Internal Radiators defined An internal radiator is one that is located on an internal wall rather than an external wall or under a window. Radiators located underneath windows help air flow in a property as warm air rises and hits the cooler air above the windows it then circulates around the room and helps the air circulation
	Air movement

Here are some surveying links that we think may be of interest to you;

Condensation and Ventilation Problems

Why you have never seen any Building Surveys or Structural Surveys like ours

Condensation and Damp Walls

What do the ovals or circles in our building surveys and articles mean?

Within our reports and articles we utilise a system of ovals and circles to highlight problem areas or characteristics within a property to better explain the issues. If this does not explain the issue completely then we can also use one of our sketches that have been commissioned exclusively for us for use in the reports.

Black mould	Black mould

What to expect from your Estate Agents

When the time comes to sell the property we told our client that they need to commission an estate agent that is familiar with selling similar properties to yours and also one that will market your home correctly and advise you on how to present your house.

Don't forget kerb appeal and spring cleaning

When selling a house always remember that the presentation of the outside of the property is just as important as the inside, if not more so! Kerb appeal is very important in selling a property as it is thought that it often takes a buyer about three seconds to decide whether they like a property, this is often decided made by the kerb appeal of the property. In the case of our client we were able to advise that simple things such as cutting the grass regularly and tidying bins away can make the property appear tidier and that hanging baskets and pots of flowers could bring colour to the front of the house.

A good spring clean should always take place no matter what time of year you sell your property. A clean house is always well received and a lick of paint can help to freshen up a dated décor.

Example of our survey reports

We are more than happy to email you examples of our Surveys that we have carried out on similar properties to the one that you are looking to buy although we do appreciate that all properties are unique. We really believe that you should see what you are getting in the form of an example Survey before you purchase a property. Please free phone 0800 2985

We have many other articles on our website for you to read

Please have a good look around our website to see how much detail we go into regarding property and its associated problems in our articles. We go into this much depth and detail within our reports as well.

We trust you found the article of use and if you have any experiences that you believe should be added to this article that would benefit others, or you feel that some of the information that we have put is wrong then please do not pause to contact us (we are only human). Your comments will be appreciated.

All rights to this website are reserved by 1stAssociated.co.uk

All rights are reserved the contents of the website is not to be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole or part without the express written permission of   www.1stAssociated.co.uk

The contents of the web site are for general information only and are not intended to be relied upon for specific or general decisions. Appropriate independent professional advice should be taken before making such a decision.