The home condition report and what to look for.

The home condition report, although, not a legal requirement, is the real indicator of the upkeep of your property, it forms the heart of the home information pack, and the best reports will provide quicker property sales and offers near or hitting the asking price of the property.

The document goes into detail about the condition of your home and highlights any deterioration in the upkeep of the building.           

It is vital that any documentation to accompany any work conducted on your home is bundled with the home information pack. The more guarantees, certification and receipts you can show your potential investors, the greater the chance of converting into satisfied home buyers.

To achieve a good home condition report, its no good papering over the cracks. a lick of paint and a few rolls of wallpaper may have fooled some buyers in the past, but the home inspectors are competent and qualified professionals, and they know what they are looking for.

Checks will be made for movement, both inside and out.

Here are a few tips for you to check for yourself, but you should always seek specialist advice when you are not competent to carry out the work yourself.

On the outside, movement is normally seen in the form of cracks to the masonry superstructure, the less cracks, the better the structural integrity of the building.

Check up the side of windows and doors, if your home is next to concrete, without a border, check to ensure that there is not an old line showing where either the property, or the concrete has dropped.

Check door and window heads, for level, use a spirit level if you are unsure.

Inside your home, the tell tale signs are also cracks, very few properties have no cracks, they are a natural part of the building process in this country, Wet trades are involved in the construction of a building and it is exposed to the weather during construction. Once completed, the property begins to gradually dry out, this can take several years and most cracking will show up during the first 12 months of occupation.

If a crack is wide enough to put a penny into, then professional advice should be sought. Check around the ceilings and floors. The ceilings will always show movement, and older properties, with moulded plaster work display this quite frequently. Coving can drastically improve the line of a ceiling to wall joint and should be considered.

Here's the one that gives the game away every time, the skirting boards.

There should be no gap between the skirting boards and your floor, snugly fitting carpets will not put your home inspector off, he will check this area.

Again, if the gap is more than 3mm, or if the gap tapers this is a sign of the floor sinking, the reasons are many. You may have had your skirting boards poorly fitted at the construction stage, the floor may have been excessively damp during construction, a concrete floor may have settled too much, or a timber floor could be rotting.

Dry rot and wet rot will sink a timber floor, and you won't see it by looking at the floor from on top, the only way to check the integrity of a timber floor is by lifting the boards and getting dirty.

Some professional trades people will evaluate a rot problem and offer the best solution, try to work from recommends, rather than a random name from the phone book.

If signs of wet, or dry rot are found, the chances are that it has spread, rot can affect the entire house.

The rot is caused by fungus, and the spores can travel throughout your property, even into adjacent properties, so make sure to check everywhere, then replace the damaged materials and treat the rest with a proprietary product.

If the floor is sound, but has an unexplainable, unsightly gap beneath it, do not tack a beading around the gap, unless you have a laminate floor fitted, this is a dead giveaway.

The best overall solution is to fit new skirting boards, the tip here is to ensure they are slightly deeper than the previous ones. So if your faulty skirting measures 100mm then choose the 125mm replacement, this will hide both deviations in the floor levels and also the plaster line, where the old one was fitted.

Damp is a major factor in the UK property market, and broken down, or non existent DPCs (damp proof courses) can often be to blame.

Do not be under the illusion that because you have excellent double glazing and a lovely warm house that you are free from damp, because properties need to breath, your home also needs adequate ventilation to escape the scourge of damp.

The home inspector will have equipment to measure damp in your home, but here's a quick, builders guide.

In a normally warm room, place your hand on an area of wall that you think may be affected by damp, if the wall warms to the touch of your hand within 10 seconds then you are probably ok, if the wall still feels cold to the touch after 10 seconds, then that is almost certainly a sure sign of damp, seek specialist advice.

The insulated properties of your home will go into the energy efficiency report, this report will also take into account the age and rating of your heating system. Roof insulation can flatten over time, especially when items have been stored on it, upgrading your loft insulation is one of the most cost effective methods of boosting your homes overall thermal insulation.