There are a number of types of building survey available and these can be adapted to suit your particular requirements.

If you are purchasing the freehold of a building for owner occupation, then it is important that a building survey concentrates on costs that would be necessary to keep the building performing throughout your occupation, coupled with ensuring that statutory requirements are met. A building survey will give you advice as to what regular maintenance would be needed and the likely costs involved.

If you are acquiring the freehold for investment purposes, then the purpose of the building survey report may be to assess what responsibilities may fall upon you as a landlord. Many of the day-to-day legislative and maintenance issues will normally fall on the occupying tenant, under the terms of their lease. It would, therefore, essential that your building survey concentrates on identifying matters that would specifically affect your investment.

If you are acquiring a leasehold interest in a property and will occupy the premises as a tenant, then you will need to consider both ongoing maintenance requirements throughout your lease term, coupled with an understanding of potential dilapidation liabilities at lease termination. A building survey is, therefore, important, as failure to budget for such expenditure can often place a large and unexpected financial burden on companies.  Costs like these are often not factored into commercial business plans.

If, as a commercial business, you are considering a sale and leaseback transaction to release capital from your property assets, then a building survey is vital as matters which may normally have been acceptable to yourselves, as a former occupier, in terms of the standard of repairs to buildings, may not necessarily conform to the standard of repairs required under a normal Full Repairing lease. Any investor wishing to purchase the freehold of your building and then lease it back to you will wish to ensure that, as tenants, you maintain the building in a good standard of repair. A building survey is therefore helpful as these standards often vary between the two parties and it is essential that these issues be considered during such a sale and leaseback transaction.

You may have one or several properties that you are considering disposing of. It is often the intention of the seller to sell the property as quickly as possible so as to release funds for other purposes. We are increasingly being asked to carry out Disposal Surveys for vendors so that they may assess the condition of their own buildings prior to sale. By doing this, they are fully aware of costs that a potential purchaser may wish to negotiate upon and are better placed to deal with negotiations when these issues arise. A disposal survey can often speed up the whole transaction; if the vendor is advised from the start of the disposal, any future negotiations by a prospective purchaser do not usually come as a shock, at the last minute.

Smith Marston LLP can undertake all forms of the above building surveys and are happy to discuss your requirements with you.