Essential pre-purchase checks you can do yourself
Before arranging your survey there’s a lot you can find out yourself online.
Our checklist below shows how to identify potential risks from flooding, subsidence, radon and ground contamination, along with local crime rates. It’s also worth visiting the local authority’s website to search planning applications for the property you’re buying.
Surprisingly, standard conveyancing searches don’t check whether your new neighbours have made any planning applications – so be sure to check this too! Armed with this information you could ask your conveyancer and surveyor for their professional advice
Is your house an insurance risk?
Risks such as flooding and crime can have a significant impact on your stress levels as well as affecting property values and insurance premiums.
So it’s a good idea to do some detective work yourself and quickly check the all-important potential dangers listed below that conveyancers don’t necessarily pick up in their searches.
- Pollution risks & ground contamination
- Subsidence risks & tree roots
- Check your radon risk
- Check your flood risk
- Local crime rates
- Know your neighbourhood – is it a nice place to live?
- Old maps & photos of the area you’re buying in
Pollution Risks
Your conveyancing solicitor will carry out standard searches and check things like rights of access, proof of ownership and planning & building regs consents for any extensions etc.
But conveyancers don’t normally flag up things like pollution risks unless something comes up in their local authority searches (unlikely).
For example high levels of ammonia used by farmers can blight properties next to fields and cause serious health risks.
So the following online maps published by Government Departments showing different types of pollution risk are well worth checking before you buy:-
https://naei.beis.gov.uk/emissionsapp/
https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map?network=namn
Ground contamination
If the site a property was built on was ‘brownfield land’ – i.e. former industrial / non residential use – your conveyancing solicitor should be able to confirm this from local authority land searches.
In areas where there was any significant risk the developers would normally have been required to make the site safe as a condition of their planning consent, and the methods used approved by Building Control.
The problem with paying for a special ‘Enviro Report’ is they tend to be very long-winded yet rather vague, hence they can worry you unnecessarily.
Testing for contamination involves digging boreholes which can be very expensive. So the Local Authority is normally your best bet in the first instance.
Subsidence Risks
Check if your home is in a subsidence risk area.
The ground beneath our homes is not uniform across the UK, and types of soil such as shrinkable clays create a higher risk of natural ground subsidence.
This guide and subsidence map allows you to check by postcode and can help you understand your local risk and what it means for your property.
https://www.geobear.com/en-gb/subsidence-risk-postcode-checker
Tree roots
Click here for advice on tree roots and subsidence, including safe distances to plant trees from buildings to prevent subsidence.
The links below provide guidance on sensible tree planting distances (mainly related to trees growing on shrinkable clay subsoils). Planting distances on other soil types are likely to be less rigorous. But bear in mind that some experts argue that these distance tables are too conservative.
- Tree distance tables
- Which? The law and trees (PDF download)
- Your rights on trees and overhanging branches
- Royal Horticultural Society advice on trees near buildings
Check your radon risk
Opinions vary about the risks posed by radon. Radon is a colourless and odourless naturally occurring radioactive gas formed by radioactive decay of small amounts of uranium in rocks and soils.
The main danger from extensive exposure to radon is an increased risk of lung cancer. For most UK citizens radon within buildings is the largest source of radiation exposure. If radon can’t be dispersed into the atmosphere it can be potentially deadly in larger amounts.
Although in most parts of the UK levels of radon are low, you can still hit problems where in areas where it is more prevalent. Some buildings in these ‘Radon Affected Areas’ have higher levels and should be tested for radon.
It’s possible that mortgage lenders may in future refuse to lend on homes in high risk areas unless they’ve been treated. So before finalising your purchase it’s a good idea to check the National Archives records for any known radon risk.
If you find that the risk is ‘high’ in the postcode area you’re buying in – don’t panic! The maps are quite small scale, and your property may be in a lower high risk location.
Advice on works to defend your property from radon can be seen at www.ukradon.org
Check your flood risk
Surveyors should flag up any obvious flood risks that they know about. But you can still hit problems with mortgage lenders who are getting increasingly twitchy about lending on homes potentially at risk of flooding.
So before finalising your purchase it’s a good idea to check Environment Agency records for any known flood risk. Just type in your post code to find out if your property is at risk – from sea/river flooding or from surface water & reservoirs.
England
https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/
Wales
https://naturalresources.wales/flooding?lang=en
Scotland
https://beta.sepa.scot/flooding
N.Ireland
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/check-risk-flooding-your-area
If you find that the risk is ‘high’ in the postcode area you’re buying in – don’t panic! The maps are quite small scale, and crucially they don’t show the height of the plots containing buildings.
This is important because sometimes roads near brooks or streams may occasionally flood if the watercourse isn’t cleared each Autumn, but the houses and gardens may be several metres higher than the road and have never come near to flooding.
Check local crime rates
Compare crime rates and outcomes in your postcode area.
One of the most important factors to be aware of is local crime rates. Even the loveliest homes soon loose their appeal (and consequently sink in value) if the local area is afflicted by criminal activity.
So it’s well worth checking out the Police UK website ‘Police.UK‘. Under ‘Your Area’ you can compare crime rates and their outcomes in your new postcode area.
Uklocalarea.com generates area profiles detailing quality of life, crime rates and unemployment statistics.
Know your neighbourhood – Is it a nice place to live?
Surveyors should have a pretty good idea about the mix of private and public housing in their local area, so it’s always worth asking them about the immediate location that you’re thinking of buying in.
You can also research this yourself on the website www.socialhousingmap.co.uk which also provides information on crime, noise, house prices per m², schools, parks and broadband for every UK area.
Zoom in on a map of your house
Get a dizzyingly good view of your whole area using Google Earth, a free service that uses mapping technology to give aerial views from space.
Also check out Geograph, where users submit photos with the aim of capturing every square grid in the UK.
Old maps & photos
A surprising amount of useful information can be gleaned by perusing old maps and photos of the area you want to buy in.
https://www.archiuk.com/maps/uk/oldmaps
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/node
FREE GUIDES TO DOWNLOAD
Home-Surveys
Subsidence
Party Wall Guide
Flooding
Boundary Disputes
Buying a home
Buying a home SCOTLAND
