Survey

Never bothered with one. Walk around the house, look for obvious structural failure. If it's on an Urb look at other properties on the estate. Check the age it was built

Thanks

Sometimes things can be covered up before a sale here in Scotland the seller gets a home report done at their cost so if you are buying a property at least you know it’s ok 

Thanks for the reply we’re going to buy soon still would like to get one done

Cheers drew

It's hard to cover things up on Spanish property. Most are single skin of brickwork and render. Roofs are usually just a single pitch with a ceramic tiles. 

My house is full of cracks inside and out. But it's mostly the render, not structural. 

You will find someone to take 300e off you for a survey. They will the probably identify work, which surprise they can arrange or do for you.

We had a survey done. It cost 500 Euros. We received a written report and a video report, narrated in English. 

The report was done by (the equivalent of) a Chartered Surveyor. It declared the house sound, and provided insurance cover in the event of structural failure.

The estate agent selling the house was neither surprised nor obstructive. Our survey was written into our purchase contract. We had the option to recover our deposit in the event of an adverse survey report. 

Not all houses have single skin construction. Some single skin structures suffer from condensation. 

If you feel uncomfortable without a survey, insist on one.  

Ye valid point 

Seen a property recently and there was a hose pipe in the pool trickling water in went for a second viewing two days later the hose was still there and still trickling l pointed this out to the agent as the property was empty I suggested there must be a problem with the pool she dismisses this saying she was sure it was fine

I don’t think so was my reply I’m just trying to guard myself against these rip off merchants 

Seems to me all the agents are con men/women I’ve been over five times now viewing and every one of them is the exact same 

Thanks really helpfull 

Cheers

Re the pool .... in summer ours evaporates about an inch each week. 

In winter, an inch every 3 weeks. 

Our pool has a sliding cover. I'm guessing that a non-covered pool will evaporate a bit more.

But, we can top up that evaporation in an hour or two with the hose running full bore. 

Thanks for the reply

Hello Drew, it´s a difficult one, is all I can say. In UK, most of us wouldn´t dream of buying without a survey but in Spain it is a rarity. It is not a rarity for estate agents to say something is not a problem, like a house being illegal, no habitacion certificate, needing a tourist licence etc. All I can say is that if something is particularly bothering you, get it checked out. Where is the water in the hose coming from? Get the estate agent to ask the vendor because it´s coming from somewhere and you will be paying for it. Run all the taps because just having a mixer tap doesn´t guarantee there will be hot water there. Be wary of air fresheners. The waste from both our kitchen sink and outside kitchen simply ended under the driveway. On removing an internal wall we couldn´t believe the mixture of bricks, blocks, stones, rocks, tiles and general rubbish which had been used to build it. Our shower didn´t have a trap so we had an unhindered airflow straight from the old style septic tank. The woodburner was incorrectly installed leading to dangerous fumes being emitted. We had one electrical socket per room and there were junction boxes outside with bare wires buried underground so every time it rained, the electric tripped. Many parts of the property were not showing on the deeds but we insisted this was remedied by the vendor before we proceeded. Make sure the swimming pool is listed as such and not as a water store (balsa).
We bought our property knowing we were going to gut it totally to bring it up to date and install necessities such as safe electrics, insulation, heating and hot water to every tap but even we have been surprised at almost every turn as to how the vendor could have lived in it for over 30 years. Quite how much of this would have shown up in a survey I don´t know so the advice from 271935 is sound.

Finally, do a google search for flooding in the area: Flood-prone areas: …laopiniondemurcia.es/2016/12/20/690x278/cat…