You've just gone sale agreed and now you need to get the house surveyed, but how do you find a house surveyor and when you do, how do you know they are good?
Buying a house is the single biggest investment most people will every make, so you want to ensure your house surveyor will deliver you a detailed survey which you can rely on.
Here are our top tips to make sure your house surveyor is up to scratch!!!
Tip 1: Ensure the house surveyor is registered!
House Surveyors can come from many fields. The most common are engineers, architects, quantity surveyors, former builders and a few more. But, regardless of their background, you want to ensure they are registered with one of several governing bodies in Ireland.
These governing bodies include the following:
RICS - Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
SCSI - Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland
RIAI - Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland
IEI - Institute of Engineers of Ireland
MCIAT - Member of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologist
By being registered with one of these governing bodies, you can be sure that the surveyor is qualified in their field!
Tip 2: Ensure the house surveyor carries Insurance
Professional Indeminty Insurance (or PI Insurance) is a type of insurance which is required for many service providers. It insures that if there is an issue with their work, they are insured for any claims. Surveyors are legally required to carry PI Insurance. At any point after you have hired a surveyor you can request proof of their insurance.
Tip 3: Experience, Experience, Experience! A pre-purchase survey is a visual inspection of the property. Although the house surveyor may use some basic equipment, they do not carry out detailed inspections which need specialist equipment.
But you can tell a huge amount from a visual inspection and to be blunt, the more experience a surveyor has, the higher chance they have of spotting issues which a less experienced surveyor may not spot.
Tip 4: Use GetHouseSurvey.ie (and let us worry about the first 3 tips!)
At Get House Survey, we ensure that every house surveyor we work with carries professional indemnity insurance, is registered with the governing body of their trade and has at least 10 years of experience.
We do this so you don't have to worry about it! So instead of ringing around 10 different house surveyors trying to find someone available and then checking they are up to the job, book with GetHouseSurey.ie, then spend the time you save planning what you'll do when you get the keys!