Isn’t a Survey Just a Survey?
Yes, and no.
You see, if you choose an RICS qualified surveyor to do your home survey, your surveyor will be required to stick to the Home Survey Standard published by the RICS in 2019. So you’d think that a Level 2 survey done by one surveyor would be the same Level 2 survey by another. But that’s not really the case.
In our time, we’ve been asked to explain to a potential client what a competitor’s report means. Sometimes it’s because the surveyor they use is fairly recently qualified. Sometimes it’s because they’re looking to protect their professional indemnity insurance through the excessive use of caveats. Or sometimes, it’s just missing the most basic of details, which means it doesn’t make sense. We’ve even seen one surveyor describe the Home Survey Standard as
‘Having enabled a transformation of the residential sector into an industry characterised by rapaciousness and inexperience.’
Which isn’t great for the consumer! It just does to show that, as with everything in life, you get what you pay for.
What Factors Influence the Cost of a Survey?
There are a lot of things that can influence the cost of a survey. The size and location of the property, the extent of the disrepair, the level of the survey, and whether there will be a referral fee paid. These factors will be common among any of the surveying firms you choose – it’s just the exact numbers that will vary (although, we never pay or receive referral fees – we have a blog on this, too!).
However, there are other things that impact the cost. For example, there’s supply and demand. If the residential property market is quiet, then the big survey factories will decrease their prices so that they can maintain turnover and reduce their exposure to loss. This kind of firm will also cut costs and sacrifice profit to keep their turnover stable and avoid major redundancies. That all sounds good on paper, but if they’re in this position then they’re also likely to be shedding their most experienced (and expensive) staff, leaving them with mostly newly qualified surveyors who aren’t able to command the same salaries as their more experienced counterparts.
But say you’re not working with a big survey factory, but rather a smaller, independent business. You’ll find that many surveying companies like this will offer a greater diversity of service lines, with their surveyors providing services to most of the commercial sector as well as the domestic. Commercial surveying services are often more lucrative, as well as providing the surveyor with valuable experience and knowledge of what’s really important to property purchasers – which will normally mean that their reports are more comprehensive and much easier to understand. This type of surveyor won’t need to reduce their prices during quiet times, since their commercial work will keep them buoyant. In fact, this is often the reason why there’s such a big fee disparity between bigger survey factory firms and a trustworthy, local company.
Finally, the survey factories might expect their surveyors to complete 7 or more building surveys a week! Those surveys get done, but they’re also rushed out, done by tired, stressed and overworked surveyors and overall, of lower quality. Compare that to a smaller, local surveying company, who won’t expect their surveyors to complete more than four or five surveys a week, which are more thorough, better thought out, and offer more valuable and meaningful insights to the purchaser.
What Does This Mean for Me?
It’s very understandable that you want to pay as little as possible for your survey – buying a home is expensive, and you’ll always be keeping an eye on costs. But with a survey, it’s likely that you’ll be comparing apples with oranges. Instead, you should consider what you want from a survey. Do you want high quality advice from an experienced and well-qualified professional, with transferrable knowledge from much more complex property deals, so that you can make a fully informed purchasing decision? Then you need a survey from an experienced chartered surveyor.
Or are you happy with a newly qualified surveyor who might miss things, reporting in a way that’s really complex? Then you might only be getting a survey because your dad told you to.
At Harrison Clarke, our surveyors have the time to not only carry out thorough surveys, but ensure that our clients are supported after the survey is done. We are always willing to offer further advice after we’ve sent the survey out, and clarify anything you aren’t clear on. Time and time again we see our clients being able to renegotiate the purchase price of their property to a value that’s much more than the survey cost in the first place! So if you’d like to best advice, we would be delighted to discuss your survey requirements. Just give us a call on 023 8155 0051.
For more expert advice on surveying and property matters, check out our range of informative videos on our website or YouTube channel. Harrison Clarke Chartered Surveyors is here to guide you every step of the way!
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