A Home survey Level 2, also known as a “HomeBuyer Report”, is a very common choice for a standard house survey.
The reason this survey is a common choice for buyers is that it works with a variety of properties built from common materials which are in reasonable condition. These buildings include houses, bungalows and flats.
The RICS Level 2 Survey provides property buyers with a detailed house report of the condition of the property they want to buy.
With the level of detail offered in the survey, such as possible repairs that need to take place or replacements, homebuyers can make a better-informed decision when it comes to deciding whether or not to buy the property.
As homebuyers have a lot of paperwork to work through and things to think about, the survey uses a simplistic method to describe the condition of the property.
This is the ‘traffic light’ style of rating. This rating system covers the assessment of the main features of the property such as the roof, electrics and the exterior of the building.
The HomeBuyer Reports offers an easily digestible set of information which has been gathered from internal and external inspections, including the history and background of the property.
If you have any particular worries or concerns about the property you want to buy, you can let our surveyors know and they will assure that, along with an inspection of all visible and accessible areas, your concerns are also inspected and that any findings are detailed in the final HomeBuyer report.
It is invaluable, when buying a home, that you are made aware of all the fine details and elements of the property. This is guaranteed when you get a HomeBuyer report.
Roof
Ceilings
Ceilings
Floors
(if not covered)
Fireplaces, chimney
breasts and flutes
Built-in
fittings
Woodwork
(staircase and joinery)
Bathroom
fittings
Chimney
stacks
Roof
coverings
Rainwater pipes
and gutters
Main
walls
Windows
Outside doors
Conservatory
and porches
Other joinery
and finishes
Garages
Conservatories
Tenure
Services
Our trusted RICS surveyors will offer a detailed and reliable assessment of the property you’re buying. We always assure that our experts have a broad knowledge of the area which you are buying and understand what potential problems you will need to keep an eye out for.
The assessment conducted by our surveyors will assess the exterior of the property and the condition of the timber, roof, walls and pipes. The goal is to find any potential defects which are or could become significant and costly problems for the buyer.
Serious defects which need urgent investigation- possible replacement or repair.
Less serious defects which require replacement or repair.
No requirement for replacement or repair.
It is common for a homebuyer to assume that a mortgage valuation will provide them with the relevant information on the property’s condition and possible defects which may need tending to in the future. However, it is important to note that a mortgage valuation is not done to protect you and your potential costs, it is done for the lenders and their security.
This is why we strongly encourage you to have an independent survey done by experts who want to assist and help in your home-buying process so that you aren’t faced with significant and costly defects after buying your home.
As buying a home can be a huge financial commitment, it is increasingly important to assure that you are investing in a property you know as much about as you possibly can.
A great advantage that a HomeBuyer report offers you is a potential renegotiation tool. Though finding defects doesn’t always mean that you should decide against buying the property you want, the evidence of defects shown in the report can be used to renegotiate a buying price with the sellers.
It could be argued that the decrease in buying cost will assure that you, as a buyer, have the money to make the necessary repairs to the defects of the house you are buying.
You can expect a HomeBuyer report to be received via email 3-5 working days after the assessments are conducted. The assessments usually take 2-4 hours to conduct.
To avoid any delays in the chain, it is most beneficial for buyers to book their surveys as soon as their offers have been accepted. Assure that this is agreed with any current occupants of the building.
Your estate agent will usually suggest that you make the offer on the condition that a survey does not produce any significant or costly findings. Once the survey is complete, there’s nothing to stop you from going back to the seller and attempting to negotiate the house price based on the findings.
Although an estate agent might tell you to conduct a survey before the offer has been accepted, it won’t stop you from being able to renegotiate a price even if it did afterwards.
Having the survey done after the offer has been accepted will save you the risk of getting one done and then having your offer get turned down, rendering the whole process pointless.
Depending on the property size and the surveyor’s accessibility of the property, a HomeBuyer report generally takes 2-4 hours to complete. Whilst others may be much quicker to conduct, they require different levels of inspection.
To assure your surveyor can get the most out of their visit and no important factors are missed, make sure to ask them what accessibility they will need so that you can prepare ahead of time with current occupants.
You will receive your Homebuyers Report within 3-5 working days. It’s usually sent via email but can request a hard copy if you prefer. This can vary based on the size and condition of the building as well as how busy the surveyor is.
A Homebuyers report will take 3-5 days to be written up into a document and you should receive it via email. However, if the property was especially unique in size or condition, you should expect these timestamps to vary slightly.
A HomeBuyer Report will use a traffic light system to highlight the severity of repairs. As the name suggests, the traffic light system works based on three colours: red, amber and green, with green meaning no repairs needed and red meaning urgent repair.
To define the severity of the repairs required to the property, the HomeBuyer report will use an easy-to-understand traffic light system. These colours will be as followed:
There are two main types of surveys which buyers can choose when they find a potential new home, the building survey and the HomeBuyer survey. Below, we have compared these surveys to assure you choose the survey that will best assist you:
Opted to go for House Smart Surveying for my full home buyers survey and I can confirm they did not disappoint. From booking in the survey right to receiving the survey report they were professional, reliable and helpful with the info.
I asked House Smart to complete a survey for us and it was very detailed and carried out professionally. Many thanks guys and we highly recommend your services.
