Residential Surveys and valuations

RICS Home Survey Level 1

Usually provided for banks, building societies and financial institutions, Level 1 valuations are used to assess whether a property is suitable security for lending purposes. This level of report would usually consist of:

• A brief description of the subject and location.
• Comments on the general condition and whether any major defects that were apparent from a limited inspection.
• Overview of legalities such as tenure, rights of way, covenants that are available for us to comment on.
• Evidence of any environmental issues such as contaminated land etc and local planning consents.

For this type of report, the surveyor is only required to comment on visible parts of the building fabric and therefore will not force open or uncover any other parts of a building. Recommendations for further investigation by third party contractors may be stated within the report.

RICS Home Survey Level 2

Bramleys can provide a more in-depth valuation that will give you further assurances on the purchase of your chosen property.

To conduct the survey, our RICS qualified surveyors will inspect all accessible areas inside and outside the main building and all permanent outbuildings.

The report will include, but is not limited to,

• The locality of the property and any relevant environmental factors i.e flooding, mining, presence of Japenese Knotweed.
• Any evidence of structural issues or other major defects.
• Health and safety issues i.e fire escapes, asbestos.
• Legal issues including building regulations, planning permissions, rights of way.
• Any other general or relevant information that could affect the average consumer’s transactional decision.

Each section of the report will provide you with the construction of the element, the condition and advice as to whether any remedial works are required. The report uses a traffic light system to help to avoid the over use of technical jargon, allowing you to clearly see which elements require immediate attention.

Traffic light system

• Red - Defects are serious and/or need to be repaired or replaced urgently, or further investigation may be needed.
• Amber – Defects that need repairing or replacing but are not considered serious or urgent.
• Green – No repairs currently needed.

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