Buying a home is a big risk. It’s a significant investment that you’re going to be responsible for, both financially and in terms of taking care of the property itself. It’s essential to make sure you’re making the right decision when you buy a new home because once you own it, it can take a long time and a lot of money to sell again. To avoid some significant issues that could make you regret buying your home, you can do a few essential checks. Take a look at the following things to ensure you’re making the right decision.
Flood Risk
The risk of flooding might not be the top thing on your mind when buying a property, but it’s definitely something that you should think about. Fortunately, it’s easy to check the risk of flooding in any postcode with the online tool from the government. It will tell you about the risk of different types of flooding, whether it’s from rivers, the sea, reservoirs, surface water, or groundwater. However, it won’t give you information about specific properties. It’s a good idea to try and find out whether the property itself has a history of flooding so you have more information.
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Structural Problems
Of course, you can’t buy a property without checking for any structural problems. You’re not legally required to have a survey carried out, and your lender will do one for valuation, but it’s definitely recommended. There are different levels of report that you can choose, depending on how much detail you want. A full structural survey will give you the most detail. Having a survey carried out will ensure you have all of the important information and might also give you power for negotiating the price of the property. Even if it doesn’t, you’ll be able to work out how much it might cost to make some repairs or changes.
Contaminations
Checking whether a property could be contaminated with anything might be a bit trickier before purchasing a property. However, the current owner might work with you to allow you to carry out tests and checks. You might want to carry out a residential meth test to check for the presence of drugs or test to see if there are radon gas emissions. Some of the types of contamination that you pick up on could be dealt with easily. With the right cleaning or other solutions to protect the problem, you can ensure the property is safe.
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Restrictions on Changes
Make sure you know whether there are any restrictions on changes you make to a property before you buy it. This might be because the property is a listed property or it is within a conservation area, or there could be tree protection orders in place. This sort of thing should be picked up by your solicitor if you haven’t already been told about it when you make an offer on the property. There might be restrictions on what you can change about the property or how you can change it.
Perform these checks before you purchase a property and you can be more certain that you’re making the right decision.
