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

If you’ve had an offer accepted on a property in Doncaster, the next question is usually a practical one: “Do I actually need a survey?” Buying a house is already an expensive and complex process, so it’s understandable to look…

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If you’ve had an offer accepted on a property in Doncaster, the next question is usually a practical one: “Do I actually need a survey?” Buying a house is already an expensive and complex process, so it’s understandable to look for ways to save money, and a survey can feel like just another cost to add to the list. However, here are a few important reasons why a survey is worth having.

A mortgage valuation is not a survey

If you’re buying with a mortgage, your lender will instruct a valuation, and it’s easy to assume that covers you. It doesn’t.
A mortgage valuation is carried out for the lender, not for you. Its purpose is to confirm the property offers adequate security for the loan and meets the lender’s own 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

Analysis of completed purchases found that just 9.7% of buyers instructed a RICS Home Survey in early 2024, meaning more than nine in ten went ahead without one. That’s a risk that often catches up with people.
In separate research among 2,000 recent buyers, 44% found they needed to carry out repairs within the first year of moving in, and 61% of those repairs were considered significant. Around half of the buyers affected spent more than £3,000 putting things right, and 15% spent in excess of £10,000.

What makes Doncaster property different

Three things about how Doncaster was built are worth understanding before you buy, and each highlights the importance of getting a survey done.

The mining legacy

Much of the housing around Doncaster exists because of coal. Villages like Armthorpe, Rossington, Edlington and Askern expanded rapidly in the early twentieth century to house colliery workers, with many of those houses still lived in today, even after the closure of the coal mines.
Most of the borough sits within a coal mining reporting area, so your solicitor will usually order a coal mining search, known as a CON29M. It’s a useful document, but it’s worth knowing what it does and doesn’t tell you. It reports on shafts, workings and recorded subsidence claims near the property, though claims are only recorded from 1994 onwards, when the body now known as the Mining Remediation Authority (formerly the Coal Authority) was established. Anything before that date won’t appear.
A search tells you about the ground and its history. It doesn’t tell you what the building above it is doing now. Judging whether cracking is historic and stable or active and worth investigating further is part of what we look at on inspection.

Non-standard construction

Not everything in Doncaster is brick and block. Post-war council and Coal Board building added a different kind of housing, including the concrete houses put up around Scawthorpe in the early 1950s.
Types of houses such as Airey and Cornish Units were designated defective under the Housing Defects Act 1984, and unless a property has been repaired to an approved standard and certified, lenders may be unwilling to offer against it.
These homes can look conventional from the pavement, particularly where they’ve been rendered or re-clad. Identifying construction type is a standard part of what we do. Where a property looks non-standard, we’ll flag it, explain what it can mean for value and mortgageability, and point you toward the right specialist if certification needs checking.

Flood history

Parts of Doncaster sit on the floodplain of the Don, and the November 2019 floods are still fresh in local residents’ memories. The river reached its highest recorded level at Doncaster on 8 November 2019, and around 1,600 properties across South Yorkshire were affected, the majority of them in Bentley and Fishlake.
Flood history matters when you’re buying, and not only because of the repair work that follows. It can affect what insurance is available, what it costs, and in some cases whether a lender is willing to offer against the property.
That’s why we take a broad view of flood risk rather than relying on mapped flood zones alone, and the assessment starts before we arrive. It means checking official flood mapping for rivers and sea, surface water, groundwater and reservoirs, reviewing the surrounding area for watercourses, culverts and existing flood defences, and noting where the property sits in relation to them. Local reports of past flooding are worth picking up too. It’s also worth asking the seller directly about any previous flood events, insurance claims or flood-related repairs.
At the property itself, there’s plenty a trained eye can pick up:
  • Floor levels relative to gardens, roads and nearby watercourses
  • Door thresholds, air bricks and openings into basements or lightwells
  • Where surface water is likely to run or collect, and how external drainage is coping
  • Internal evidence of past flooding, such as tide marks, low-level replastering, salt deposits and raised damp readings
Where something warrants a closer look, we’ll flag it and point you toward the right specialist, whether that’s a hydrological report or a drainage survey. The approach is broadly the same for both a Level 2 and a Level 3 survey; the difference is the level of detail you get back.

It helps protect your investment

If a survey does turn something up, that isn’t a reason to panic, it’s the survey doing its job. Findings give you options. You can renegotiate, ask for work to be carried out before exchange, or simply go ahead knowing what’s coming and having budgeted for it.
Without a survey you don’t get to make that choice. You find out afterwards, when the property is already yours.

Independent, RICS-regulated advice for Doncaster 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 Doncaster 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-doncaster/