Why Have a Re-Establishment Survey Before You Buy a Fixer-Upper?
While you know that older properties need to be surveyed before you buy them, you may want to look beyond structural reports if you're buying an old fixer-upper. Of course it's important that you know how sound the house is; however, it's also a good idea to look at other issues, like the property's boundaries.
It may be worth hiring a land surveyor to run a re-establishment survey before you commit to the purchase. During this process, the surveyor marks out property boundaries and officially and legally records them. Why is this worth doing?
Know Exactly What You're Getting
While you may think that you're buying a specific property and area of land, you can't always rely on old boundaries being accurate. If your potential new home has been up for years, then its boundary lines may not be all they should be.
For example, the people who owned the house over the years may have done work that ate into somebody else's land. Or a neighbour may have inadvertently encroached over the property lines into your garden when they were putting up fencing in the past, for example.
If you have a re-establishment survey, then your surveyor accurately measures and sets out the actual boundaries of the property. You can check that you're getting everything you expect. If there is a problem, you can look to rectify it before you buy the house.
Plan Future Development Projects
As part of your redevelopment plans, you may want to do more than fix up the main house you're buying. For example, you may want to extend the property or build other structures like a pool, garage or shed. You may simply want to put up better fencing around your garden.
You may already have a rough plan in your head of what you'll do and where. However, if anything you build or change is close to the boundary of your land, you may run into problems later.
For example, say you want to put up a garage at the side of your home. You have just enough space to do this based on what you can see right now. However, if the boundary line isn't accurate and this comes to light later, then you may not be able to build the garage at all.
If you did encroach on your neighbour's land and they found out, then you might end up having to take the garage down again. If you have a re-establishment survey before you buy, you'll know exactly how much land you have. This helps you decide if your plans have legs.
To learn more about re-establishment surveys and whether you might find one helpful, contact local land surveyors.
