Pre purchase survey
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Paul O Mahoney
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I'm glad someone has started a thread on this as its been a while since we bought and I really don't know what is required nowadays.
If I'm permitted to ask...
We are looking at a house down the country and we are aiming to buy and be mortgage free, using equity and savings house will be 600k plus, obviously we will still need to get an engineer to survey, the house is 15 years old, and about 3000 sq feet.
What would be the "standard " inspection and additionally would it be wise to do a more detailed inspection as it's a rural setting with Septic tank, and water well oil Central heating
It also has a stream on two boundaries.
Sorry if this is a silly question but we are townies and this is all new...and head wrecking if I'm honest
If I'm permitted to ask...
We are looking at a house down the country and we are aiming to buy and be mortgage free, using equity and savings house will be 600k plus, obviously we will still need to get an engineer to survey, the house is 15 years old, and about 3000 sq feet.
What would be the "standard " inspection and additionally would it be wise to do a more detailed inspection as it's a rural setting with Septic tank, and water well oil Central heating
It also has a stream on two boundaries.
Sorry if this is a silly question but we are townies and this is all new...and head wrecking if I'm honest
@Paul O Mahoney - not sure on the inspection costs, but there might be an issue with the two streams on either boundary, in relation to home insurance. I constantly get asked, at renewal time, if the property is within 200meters of a body of water / river / stream. Might be worth checking.
Septic tank will need to have been registered - if it was inspected (could be as it's close to the streams), then there should be an inspection report for that. You may need to get an inspection camera into the drain system to make sure it's ok - not covered by standard inspection. Also, there should be some record of the tank being emptied over the years (if applicable), so could look for that from home owners (via the EA). I don't think the standard inspection would cover the septic tank...
Re the water well - the inspection report should detail that - whether it's in good condition / functioning and /or an old system that could do with being replaced etc. Oil tank & pump - again, you should be able to get records of it being serviced and whether it's functioning as expected. Inspection should detail that the radiators / water are being heated when it's on etc, but not much more :-/ if memory serves me right. Also, look for recommendations for inspections. Speaking personally, when I sold my home a few years back, the engineer that came in to inspect my home, did very very little - mostly just a boundary check and a chat about the house with me.
Best of luck with things, and yes, it's definitely a head wrecker
Septic tank will need to have been registered - if it was inspected (could be as it's close to the streams), then there should be an inspection report for that. You may need to get an inspection camera into the drain system to make sure it's ok - not covered by standard inspection. Also, there should be some record of the tank being emptied over the years (if applicable), so could look for that from home owners (via the EA). I don't think the standard inspection would cover the septic tank...
Re the water well - the inspection report should detail that - whether it's in good condition / functioning and /or an old system that could do with being replaced etc. Oil tank & pump - again, you should be able to get records of it being serviced and whether it's functioning as expected. Inspection should detail that the radiators / water are being heated when it's on etc, but not much more :-/ if memory serves me right. Also, look for recommendations for inspections. Speaking personally, when I sold my home a few years back, the engineer that came in to inspect my home, did very very little - mostly just a boundary check and a chat about the house with me.
Best of luck with things, and yes, it's definitely a head wrecker
Paul O Mahoney
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Thank you so much , the stream while beautiful is within the distance you mentioned.@Paul O Mahoney - not sure on the inspection costs, but there might be an issue with the two streams on either boundary, in relation to home insurance. I constantly get asked, at renewal time, if the property is within 200meters of a body of water / river / stream. Might be worth checking.
Septic tank will need to have been registered - if it was inspected (could be as it's close to the streams), then there should be an inspection report for that. You may need to get an inspection camera into the drain system to make sure it's ok - not covered by standard inspection. Also, there should be some record of the tank being emptied over the years (if applicable), so could look for that from home owners (via the EA). I don't think the standard inspection would cover the septic tank...
Re the water well - the inspection report should detail that - whether it's in good condition / functioning and /or an old system that could do with being replaced etc. Oil tank & pump - again, you should be able to get records of it being serviced and whether it's functioning as expected. Inspection should detail that the radiators / water are being heated when it's on etc, but not much more :-/ if memory serves me right. Also, look for recommendations for inspections. Speaking personally, when I sold my home a few years back, the engineer that came in to inspect my home, did very very little - mostly just a boundary check and a chat about the house with me.
Best of luck with things, and yes, it's definitely a head wrecker
Another viewing tomorrow so I'll prepare a list based on your experience, again thank you.
A property surveyor will do an inspection for you but in my personal opinion they are not worth the cost. They will highly caveat all of their findings and simply suggest you engage a structural engineer, heating specialist, electrical specialist, roofing specialist etc etc to do a detailed assessment of all of the systems in the house. What you are left with is some faily useless commentary about the visual condition of the house, 95% of which you'd pick up on the vieweings yourself if you're anyway technically minded.
Seperate to this, would be a structural engineer's inspection, which will give you a written report on the structure and fabric of the building. These are typically not required unless the building is old or in poor condition or there is a potential issue with an extension or something like that. If the strutural engineer is concerned or cannot give piece of mind from a visual assessment they require some opening up to expose beams etc.
Seperate to this, would be a structural engineer's inspection, which will give you a written report on the structure and fabric of the building. These are typically not required unless the building is old or in poor condition or there is a potential issue with an extension or something like that. If the strutural engineer is concerned or cannot give piece of mind from a visual assessment they require some opening up to expose beams etc.
Best of luck with the viewing - mortgage free in a rural setting, near a stream - sounds idyllic. Just make sure to take the rose glasses off for a viewing too
just to get a balanced view of things - heart v head kinda thing. If you do see issues, remember everything can be addressed - just a matter of money & time.
Paul O Mahoney
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That's where we are to be honest, but she's just back from the US working/ firefighting for over 2.5 weeks and her enthusiasm has waned as its looking like her travelling will be even higher than pre pandemic.Best of luck with the viewing - mortgage free in a rural setting, near a stream - sounds idyllic. Just make sure to take the rose glasses off for a viewing too
If you do see issues, remember everything can be addressed - just a matter of money & time.
Of course she works from home and we still don't know the internet situation , now add in your great points and the fact that this house went sale agreed in Nov/Dec and came back on the market 5% more than previously had my , and our solicitors , sceptical radars in full flow.
See, the house is built on daddy's land farm...and ??????...theres a right of way too apparently???
I'm off now to research insurance and streams, wells, septic tanks thanks to your knowledge.
Edit and of course work out the type of pre purchase survey (s) and inspections that will need doing, of course we haven't helped the OP one jot and I apologise for that...mods.
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Enter the Eircode on the broadband service checker sites (e.g. Vodafone) and they should be able to tell you pretty accurately what the line can support. If they say no coverage, try the NBI site to see if they have plans to roll out broadband to that area.
On the septic tank, they must be registered and maintained by law, so make sure the agent can confirm those details. A competent surveyor will lift the covers and that should be enough to see if all is in order.
Strange? No.
Expensive? Yes.
I paid €750 inc VAT in Dublin for a large house a couple of months ago. Same guy was €400 about 5 years ago, house was quite a bit smaller.
We got great peace of mind from the first survey as there were some issues that looked like they could be major and were putting off other bidders, turned out they weren’t and we bought.
Feels expensive but even being fairly into DIY I would 100% spend the money again.
We got great peace of mind from the first survey as there were some issues that looked like they could be major and were putting off other bidders, turned out they weren’t and we bought.
Feels expensive but even being fairly into DIY I would 100% spend the money again.