Get a survey

You should strongly consider hiring your own surveyor, engineer or architect to carry out a detailed structural survey, especially if you are buying an older property. This will help highlight any issues you may not have been aware of when you made your offer. For example, if your surveyor discovered that the roof needed to be completely replaced, you could change your offer to account for this, or decide not to buy.

If you are buying a property at an auction, you would usually have your survey completed before the auction. Ask the auctioneer for the terms and conditions of the auction, which will be available before the auction date.

Get a valuation

Once the property is ‘sale agreed’, you can arrange for a valuation. Your lender will want a professional valuation completed on a home before they formally agree to lend you the money to buy it. You may need to hire a professional valuer yourself, or your lender may have a valuer they use. The valuation will only look at the general state of the property and the location. The valuer will send their valuation to your lender who will base their formal loan offer on this valuation.

Snag list

If you are buying a newly built home, you and your solicitor will receive a “completion notice” from the builder once all the work is finished. As soon as you receive this, it is important you arrange to have a ‘snag list’ drawn up. This is a list of incomplete jobs or things that you want put right. Examples of item for snag lists include:

• cracks in ceilings or walls
• skirting boards not correctly placed
• doors that don’t open and close correctly
• uneven plaster work
• broken light switches
• loose wiring
• leaking pipes

You can make a snag list yourself, but it is recommended that you hire an architect, engineer or chartered surveyor who will have experience in this area and knows what to look for when snagging new homes. Once the snag list is complete, you give a copy to the builder. The builder will then work on fixing all the snags.

You should do a final inspection of the new property to make sure that all the snags have been fixed. You can do this on your own, or with the person you hired to do up the snag list. The cost of hiring them may be higher if you want them to inspect the property with you.

You should think about agreeing a “defects liability period” with your builder before you sign any contracts. This means that you agree that the builder will fix any further problems that arise free of charge within a certain period of time. Sometimes you can withhold a small percentage of the purchase price of the home until the end of this period and then pay it to the builder. Discuss this with your solicitor first to see if this is possible.