Property Searches

Buying a house is one of the biggest transactions most people will make in their life. Here at Oliver and Co we understand the process can be overwhelming and for first time buyers especially, a lot of it is completely unknown. One of the most frequent questions we are asked in the conveyancing department is ‘what are these searches for?’ or ‘why do I need these searches?’.

Why do you need searches?

For most buyers the searches we carry out are a requirement of their mortgage lender, meaning if we do not carry out the searches the lender will not release the mortgage advance to us for completion. Although not a requirement for completion, for cash buyers we strongly recommend that searches are carried out on the property.

The searches are totally different to a structural survey you or your lender may carry out. The searches reveal any issues with the property, for example the drainage report will reveal whether or not the property is connect to mains water, or if foul water drains from the property; the environment search will reveal if there are any ground stability issues which could potentially cause subsidence, or if the property is at risk of flooding; the local search will reveal if there are any planning applications which could affect the property, such as a housing development.

If anything is revealed in the initial, standard searches we conduct, we would then recommend additional searches for example a flood report, or coal mining search to ensure the risk of these issues would not substantially affect the property. This also enables your conveyancer to raise any enquiries with the seller to determine if these risks have affected them whilst they have owned the property.

All of these risk factors would be otherwise unknown and may affect the property value, future re-sale of the property or could mean the buyer will end up spending a fortune on repairs to rectify any issues caused by something which would have been revealed by the searches.

By conducting the searches it allows the buyer to make an informed decision as to whether they wish to proceed with the purchase of a property, and ensures the lender’s security over the property is safe.

What could happen without searches?

An example of why these searches are so important is recently a cash buyer opted not to conduct searches, therefore the flood risk was not flagged, a flood report was subsequently not carried out and a week after completion the property flooded. This cost the buyer thousands and could have been easily avoided if they had just carried out the searches which would have cost a couple of hundred pounds.

It is important you read through and understand the search reports provided to you by your conveyancer, if you do not understand something or have any queries, please contact your conveyancer who will be more than happy to explain the search results to you.