Are You Crazy Hiring a Surveyor when Buying Property Abroad?

Engaging the services of a surveyor to check out a home before you make a final commitment to purchase it is common place in countries like the UK and the USA – but if you’re off hunting for a home in the Med or in an emerging market for example, you might begin to ask yourself ‘am I crazy hiring a surveyor when buying property abroad?’ because of the reactions you’ll receive.

It’s true, it is not commonly requested that a surveyor checks out a resale property in many popular overseas countries, and what’s more, even if you do manage to overcome the objections and get someone in, most buyers will be more than a little reluctant to add a ‘subject to survey’ clause in a preliminary contract.  So, are you crazy?  Or should you stick to your guns and get your potential new home surveyed?

The fact of the matter is, if you’re buying a resale property it is most certainly sensible to have it surveyed.  Now, I cannot preach too heavily on this point as I have bought with and I have bought without surveys and so far I’ve been lucky…but you are running an extra risk if you do not have a property checked out by a professional before you buy it.

There are two main types of property survey that you can consider having – the home buyer’s report type and the structural survey type.

Home Buyer’s Report

This will be a fairly general and basic survey that covers information about the general state of repair of the home and it will give you an indication of what the property is really worth – so you will be armed with both the market value and an idea of the issues that may need addressing should you decide to purchase.

Structural Survey

A full structural survey is especially worthwhile having if you’re thinking of purchasing a property in need of significant renovation or restoration.  This type of survey will cover everything from the wiring to the plumbing, it will tell you about issues with infestation, damp, rot and construction defects as well as highlighting potential concerns that could become serious problems in the future.

This sort of survey often provides the buyer with good negotiating leverage in the UK because if a house needs a new roof for example, an offer can be made taking this into account with the structural survey report to back up the downgraded offer…often a vendor will find it difficult to get away with selling a poor property for top whack as a result.

However, however, however – all of this can go out of the window when buying abroad.  I’ve already mentioned the fact that it is nigh on impossible to get a ‘subject to survey’ clause in a preliminary contract in most overseas countries – well, if you do have a survey done (and you have to have it done quickly before you sign a contract so you don’t risk losing the house) there is nothing to say that the vendor will accept a lower offer on the property just because you determine it needs significant work doing on it.

So, are you crazy?  It’s quite a conundrum isn’t it!  Personally I don’t think you are but I do think you stand a high chance of being considered crazy.  But at the end of the day, if you have it done and it highlights an issue you wouldn’t otherwise have known about and that saves you from making a purchase mistake then no, you are most certainly not crazy – in fact it would be fair to say, you would’ve been crazy not to get your property abroad surveyed in such an instance!

For more information about getting a property abroad surveyed and finding professionals around the world who can assist you, the best place to begin is with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ website.  And finally, if in doubt about what you should be looking for ask your surveyor to check the following: - foundations, roof, concrete and cement quality, air conditioning, heating, drains, sceptic tank, electrics, plumbing, swimming pool and get them to check for rot, damp and infestations of nasty and destructive insects and animals.

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