Property Surveyors Costa Blanca Spain

HOUSE SURVEYORS AND PROPERTY SURVEYORS - COSTA BLANCA SPAIN

Normally anyone buying a house would use the services of a surveyor to inspect and survey the house they are going to purchase for defects.

But when it comes to buying property on the Costa Blanca coast of Spain, the vast majority of people do not use a surveyor to perform a house survey on their future home or investment.

So why don't people use a surveyor to inspect their potential property purchase?

The most obvious reason for not having a house survey in Spain is the fact that people feel out of their depth because they are in a foreign country and therefore rely much more heavily on those guiding them rather than trusting their own gut instincts.

Typically people will be shown a property by an estate agent and will be told that the common practise in Spain is not to have a house survey done at all!

Reasons given will most likely be that the building is still standing after all this time and if there were any problems they would be obvious and that the cost of the house survey is a 'waste of money'.

Of course most people will take this information as gospel and not question it. Do realise that the estate agent is pushing for a sale and they won't want to jeopardise their commission by you having a house survey carried out and finding out there are problems with your 'dream home'.

If you were told the same information in any other country you wouldn't hesitate to dismiss it and get your own house survey done!

Using a property surveyor in Spain can save you a fortune!

You would realise that using a property surveyor may cost a fair bit but if you are buying a house with problems you may be stuck with repair bills in the thousands!

It is even more crazy when you consider the fact that for a long time the building standards in Spain have been considerably lower than for Northern Europe and many of the houses have been badly built with problems that may only be about to manifest.

What problems can a surveyor in Spain spot?

Many of the potential problems of property in Spain are of course similar to elsewhere i.e. minor defects, damp, wood rot, water damage etc that wouldn't necessarily be too costly but in Spain there have been many examples of horrific problems. These often involve problems such as walls not being strong enough and people's swimming pools and gardens disappearing down the mountainside - or cracks appearing in walls where the foundations have not been built strongly enough for the structure and houses literally collapsing.

These are serious problems that involve huge expense and could easily have been avoiding by using a Spanish house surveyor. These problems could just as easily apply to newly built houses - it often takes a bit of time for these problems to appear. In many cases people have found the builders have disappeared or refuse to deal with the problem. When you are in a foreign country a serious problem like this suddenly becomes even greater unless you are fluent in the language and have knowledge of legal possibilities.

How much will a survey cost?

House surveyors on the Costa Blanca or elsewhere in Spain typically charge around €545+IVA for a structural survey fee (including report). A basic service from a surveyor on the Costa Blanca would be an inspection to see if there are any obvious problems and the possible costs in fixing these. A more advanced property survey would be providing a report on the structure and services.

If there are problems arising from a property survey then you can use this information to potentially negotiate a discount with the seller or you could just accept the defects knowing the potential cost in dealing with them. If a seller is unwilling to be flexible or the problems are just too big then you at least can walk away from them having avoiding a potential nightmare.

Don't put down a deposit until you have had a house survey because in Spain once you have put down the deposit you are committed and if you pull out you will lose your deposit which is typically 10%.

If you are experiencing some of the problems above then you may be wise to contact a Spanish property surveyor for a professional assessment of the situation, likely remedies and costs.

Hopefully this information informs you on an important part of buying property in Spain whether or not you use a property surveyor in Spain, but if you don't, be aware that we might be seeing you soon on one of those TV shows where it all goes horribly wrong!

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Advantage Building Surveys Mark Paddon BSc Hons Building Surveying. MCIOB. Costa Blanca Surveyor for buyer’s Structural Surveys, defects advice, expert witness reports. Valencia, Alicante, Murcia. markpaddon@terra.es T: 0034 962807247 - M: 0034 653733066 Free 17 page property buyer’s guide available from website www.surveysspain.com

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While some properties in Spain need obvious improvement others may look like they are in very good condition, but have hidden defects that have been ‘faked’ over or other serious issues that are not obvious to the untrained eye.

New properties in Spain can also include serious defects as well as the normal smaller ‘snagging’ issues. Unless the vendor knows that the property has significant defects, (and knows that you know), they will probably stick with a ‘what you see is what you get’ attitude and hence be unlikely to budge significantly on price.

When choosing a Spanish property either as an investment e.g. to rent out or sell on, or as a permanent or second home, it is valuable for the buyer to :-

• Understand the condition and build method of the structure and building fabric.

• Have an idea of likely repair/renovation costs and implications.

• Be able to make a justified offer which takes account of these defects/costs, or at least be able to assess the asking price against the building condition.

By ensuring the above, the buyer will normally save significant amounts of money and is far more likely to end up owning a true asset in Spain rather than an impractical liability.

Most buyers in Spain know they should have a survey, but some are rushed or smoke screened by agents or simply don't have time to find one.

Fortunately structural surveys do exist in Spain and Costa Blanca surveyor Mark Paddon of www.surveysspain.com has produced a free 15 page buyer's guide to help increase awareness in the market highlighting common pitfalls and ways to avoid them ...

Download the FREE 15 page e-book by clicking the click below:

Structural Advice For Property Buyers In Spain

After you click on the link you will see then have a choice - either click on OPEN and the e-book icon will show up which you can then read by clicking open again (this doesn't get saved to your computer) OR click SAVE to save the e-book to your computer where it will remain until you decide to delete it. It is usual practice for most people to select to save the e-book to your DESKTOP.

If you have a problem reading it then you most probably will need to download the Adobe reader which will enable you to read ebooks in PDF format. However most computers already have this installed so it shouldn't be necessary.

Enjoy your free gift from costablancacuncovered.com

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