Hello, and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post, in today’s blog post we are going to be going over Building Surveying services taking a look at RICS homebuyer reports and our unique cost rating system that we use at Stokemont within all our RICS homebuyer reports.
What is an RICS homebuyer report?
An RICS homebuyer report is a visual property inspection that cumulates in the form of a report that can be undertaken on a property by a chartered surveyor, typically this is done prior to the property being purchased.
During an RICS homebuyer report, this will ensure an RICS qualified Building Surveyor inspects all the different elements and services of the property in order to gain an understanding of their conditions.
They will outline in the report through the use of a condition rating system similar to a traffic light system being green being a condition rating of 1, amber would represent a condition rating of 2, and red would be a condition rating of 3, the more serious the defect the higher the condition rating.
Green
Green would be used to indicate that the particular element is in a good condition with the surveyor noting that there are no significant defects, and that the property should continue to be maintained in the normal way.
Amber
Amber would be used if the particular element does have some defect or wear and may require some maintained or to be replaced, but they will tend to be minor and not require immediate attention, but it would be wise to replace or repair it in the future.
Red
Whereas red indicates that the element will have a major defect and will require immediate repair or replacement or that further investigation may be necessary to find the extent of the defect.
If a particular element could not be inspected at the time the inspection is being carried out, the surveyor will use a NI to indicate not inspected.
RICS Pre Purchase Reports Level 2 & Level 3
RICS Pre Purchase Reports are also split into two different levels being a level 2 & level 3 survey.
Both are similar in approach and will include the condition and cost rating, but the level 3 Building Survy report will see the surveyor go into more depth and detail about the different elements of the property and the nature of the defect.
The surveyor will attempt to give potential causes of any of the damages and defects that they may find and how the defects may be rectified.
The Cost Rating system
At Stokemont we use our unique cost rating system that can be used as an indication of what would be needed to bring the element inquisition back to working order or the cost to replace it entirely.
Just like with condition rating we break down the cost rating into 3 different categories and apply the one we feel is best suited for the particular defect.
The 3 categories are broken down into low, medium and high, with low indicating cost that would be on the low end of the spectrum and high indicating cost on the high end of the spectrum.
Low
A cost rating of low would indicate that the particular defect would cost under £1000 to repair or replace.
Medium
A medium cost rating would be used to indicate that the part inquisition would cost in the region of £1000 – £5000 to repair or replace.
High
This is our top cost rating and if the surveyor gives a cost rating of high it would be to indicate that the cost of repair or replacement would be above £5000.
The surveyor will also use NA for not applicable, for when they are not any cost considerations to take into account for that particular element or service.
Thank you for taking the time to read today’s blog post. If you have any further questions or queries on today’s topic or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont, then please do not hesitate to get in touch today.
