What a building survey does and doesn't show

A house in the Marina Alta looks good on a Tuesday afternoon in May. Whether it is in Jávea, Moraira, or one of the villages further inland like Jalón or Alcalalí, the light helps, the garden is full, and the asking price sounds reasonable next to the house you saw last week. That is exactly why we walk through it a second time, with our own surveyor, before you make an offer.

Here is what that round turns up. And what it does not, because that matters just as much.

We start outside

The roof, the facade, the terraces and the walls around the plot. On this coast water is the troublemaker: not the everyday rain, but the two storms a year that bring everything down at once. You see it in cracks under the roof edge, in loose tiles on a terrace that no longer drains, and in stains on a wall that still looks dry from the inside.

We also look at the retaining walls. Many houses here sit on a slope, on ground held in place by walls. A wall that bulges, or has cracks running straight through the joints, is not a cosmetic problem.

Then inside

We measure damp, we do not just look at it. A wall can look dry and not be, especially in a house that stood empty through the winter. Beyond that: the wiring, the pipework, the hot water, the window frames, and whether anything was ever rebuilt without the rest being brought along.

With a pool we look at the edge, the plant room and the pipes around it. With solar panels, at the connection and the age of the inverter.

What you get

A report with what was seen, with photographs, and per item a rough indication of what repair would cost. Rough, because a figure to the euro is only possible once there is a plan and a builder has priced it. For an offer the order of magnitude is enough: you want to know whether you are talking thousands or tens of thousands.

A survey does not make a house good or bad. It makes clear what you are buying.

What a survey does not show

This is the part we would rather be plain about.

• What sits behind the wall. We open nothing up. A pipe leaking inside the concrete only shows once there is a stain.
• The permits. Whether an extension was ever registered, whether the house is recorded the way it now stands: that is paperwork, not building. It runs through the notary and the town hall, and sometimes through our architect.
• The ground under the house. Soil investigation needs different tools than a damp meter.
• What breaks in five years. We estimate the age of a roof or a boiler, but we predict nothing.

Why before the offer

Because you can still do something with it. If you know the roof has to go, that belongs in the conversation about price, rather than being something you find out in September with the keys already in hand. Sometimes the outcome is simply: go ahead. That is worth knowing before you sign as well.

Our surveyor is part of our own team. That saves waiting, and it saves explaining: he knows what we ran into further along the same street.

The long version comes later. If you buy the house and want work done, the architect picks it up: what is possible, which permit belongs to it, and what it really costs. That is a matter of weeks, not an afternoon. For an offer it is not needed yet.