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Do I Need a Survey When Buying a House in Sheffield?

If you’ve found a property in Sheffield and had an offer accepted, you may now be asking yourself, “Do I need a survey when buying a house?”, before you go ahead with the purchase. Moving house can be expensive, and…

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If you’ve found a property in Sheffield and had an offer accepted, you may now be asking yourself, “Do I need a survey when buying a house?”, before you go ahead with the purchase. Moving house can be expensive, and a survey can feel like just one more cost on an already long list. Here’s why it’s one of the few costs on that list you shouldn’t skip.

A mortgage valuation is not a survey

This is the single biggest misunderstanding buyers have. If you’re getting a mortgage, your lender will arrange a valuation. This is often mistaken for a survey, but this is not the case. Rather, it’s a check carried out for the lender to ensure that the property is worth the sale price and that it meets their own lending criteria.
A mortgage valuation won’t give you a comprehensive report on the property’s condition. A valuation will likely only flag issues like damp if it is immediately visible or severe enough that it threatens the property’s structure or market value. A survey is entirely different: it’s independent, it’s commissioned by you, and it’s carried out solely in your interest to help protect your investment.

The cost of skipping a survey

Recent industry data found that just 9.7% of buyers instructed a RICS Home Survey (Level 2 or Level 3) when purchasing their property, meaning over 90% of buyers are still choosing to take a risk.
This risk can evidently be a costly one, with 44% of recent homebuyers discovering they needed to carry out repairs within one year of moving in, with 61% of those repairs considered to be significant. Almost half of these repairs reportedly cost more than £3,000 to remedy, and 15% cost in excess of £10,000.

Sheffield’s housing stock makes this especially relevant

Sheffield has a huge amount of character in its housing, such as the stone-built Victorian and Edwardian terraces around areas like Nether Edge, Crookes and Walkley.
Homes like these are more likely to be hiding issues that only a trained eye will catch, whether that’s stonework in need of repointing, old drainage, or the after-effects of a previous conversion. A survey gives you the full picture before you commit.

It helps protect your investment

If your survey does turn something up, that isn’t a reason to panic, it’s exactly what the survey is there for. You can use the findings to make a more informed decision, whether that be to renegotiate your offer, ask the seller to carry out repairs before you exchange, or simply go in with your eyes open and a realistic budget for the work ahead. Without a survey, you don’t get that choice. You just find out after you’ve already bought.

Independent, RICS-regulated advice for Sheffield buyers

At Avery & Co, we’re fully regulated by RICS and all our surveyors are fully RICS qualified.
We offer a full range of survey and valuation services, including:
If you’re buying in Sheffield and want to talk through which survey is right for your purchase, our friendly team is happy to help. See our full range of services or get in touch today.
📧 hello@averysurveys.co.uk
📞 0148 4819747
🌐 https://averysurveys.co.uk/rics-surveyor-sheffield/