Good Work Isn’t Cheap – Cheap Work Isn’t Good

Generally speaking, in life you get what you pay for and that is certainly true when it comes to professional opinion and home surveys.

Moving house is an expensive business and it can be tempting to cut costs wherever possible, but this may be false economy when it comes to commissioning a proper home inspection and report by an RICS regulated and experienced property professional.

According to Property Wire:

  • 42% of UK home owners have needed unexpected works doing to their property within 12 months of moving in.
  • More than half of people whose new home needed major work within 12 months of moving in, said they may not have gone ahead with the purchase if they had been aware of the problems. 

If you have never had a home survey completed for you before, you may be surprised to know that there can be a huge variation in the standard and content provided, even within the RICS Home Survey formats.  For example, some larger surveying practices have a ‘high turnover, low cost’ business model which means that each survey they produce must be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.  One way in which this can be achieved is to use a tick box type system on an iPad during the inspection, then all the correct clauses and comments are automatically generated, and the finished report can be created and sent to the client within 24 hours.

Here at Jones Battye we believe that every property is unique and that it takes time to properly inspect a property and write a well-thought-out report.  This ensures that any issues identified can be properly considered and that the correct advice can be given.  Our reports are written in Plain English and it is important to us to make sure that the client has understood everything.

Here are some of the things our clients have said about us recently:

  • “Thank you for the homebuyer report –  it was very detailed and the people I have spoken to about it said they were very impressed.” Mr R Jackson.
  • “Gareth was very thorough and informative and answered all my questions.” Tim H, Cardiff
  • “It’s been extremely useful having this expert advice. I feel much more well-armed with information about the property and the sale.” Mr C-R, Cardiff

That said, we also know that our clients want their report as soon as possible in order to make important decisions.  The industry standard turnaround time is 3-5 days from the date of survey, and this is always our target.

So how long does a survey take and what goes on during that time?

We offer 2 main levels of survey – the RICS HomeBuyer Report which is a mid-level survey and a top-level full Building Survey. In general, an RICS HomeBuyer Survey on a basic property will take a minimum of 1-2 hours to inspect. Larger or more complicated properties will take longer. The actual report writing will then take 2-3 hours depending upon the nature of the issues identified.
Full Building Surveys are more detailed in nature and will typically take a minimum of 2-3 hours to inspect. The more descriptive and detailed report also takes longer to produce. In short, the travelling time, property inspection, reflective thought and dictation of each report takes our surveyors the best part of a full working day. It is then up to our dedicated admin staff to produce a hard copy of the report and send it to our client and to their legal representative.

All surveys are not equal!

It’s a very competitive market out there and we always encourage home buyers to shop around a bit and get a few quotes. However, it is important to make sure that you know what you are getting for your money. We aren’t the cheapest and we certainly aren’t the most expensive, but we do pride ourselves on the standard of the surveys and reports we write, and when you consider the amount of time and effort that goes into each report, we think we provide good value for money.

For more information, or to discuss how we can help you today please contact Kay (Aberdare) on 01685 378894 or Elizabeth (Cardiff) on 029 20625433 or email us at enquiries@jonesbattye.com.