[0:15] Alec: Hello and welcome to the SME Business Show with me, Alec Drew. Each week we focus on one particular topic and so invite an expert from that sector to share their knowledge, insights and tips to help you with your business and personal challenges. This week’s topic is all about the importance of a civil engineer when buying or selling property and I’m delighted to be joined by Niall Hare, Managing Director of Building Matters, who is going to share his knowledge today with us. Hi Niall.
[0:43] Niall: Good morning.
[0:44] Alec: Tell us, what’s a civil engineer do?
[0:47] Niall: Civil engineering is pretty broad. It covers most areas in construction. On my side, I cover more the general building and more importantly, the residential area.
[1:00] Alec: That whole area. Great. And who’s typically using a civil engineer these days?
[1:05] Niall: I focus more on engineering and surveying. So it’s more for people buying and selling properties. properties, so it would be first time buyers for both new and second hand properties. Also solicitors would be a good source, estate agents, mortgage advisors are also a very good source for surveying services.
[1:25] Alec: If I’m sort of buying a property, why should I spend money on say purchasing your services?
[1:31] Niall: Buying a property is probably one of the biggest things you could ever do in your life, you know, a couple of hundred thousand for the sake of a couple of hundred euros, it could could be just that extra peace of mind just before you sign the dotted line you know.
[1:42] Alec: I’ve been reading a lot about sort of pyrite and mica which has caused ructions throughout the construction industry over the last 10 or 15 years talk a bit about that and what what problems there are there and what we should be looking out for.
[1:55] Niall: Yeah so just as you mentioned like it kind of was highlighted maybe about 15 years ago pyrite would be more the common rather than mica. Mica is more up in the the Donegal areas and stuff, but specifically about pyrite, it’s something that has been flagged. It was never really regulated as such until we seen that the country had a problem with it, then just kicked off a whole series of enforcement and making sure that the paperwork was right when you, now when you buy a new property. So that covers you on that end. So for older properties that could be maybe 15 years or older, there is a potential that there may be pyrite in it. From my end, from surveying, there are some very clear items that you can pick up. So for argument’s sake, like if you had a pyrite in the floor, you could walk into that room and the floor would be partially lifting up in the middle. There’s loads of these little tell tale signs, you know. If I see that, I would be quick to diagnose and pass that information on to the client and then it’s up to them then what they want to do with that information.
[3:00] Alec: Is it not because the banks are giving the mortgage approval, it’s not up for them to discover all these things or are they reliant on people like yourself?
[3:09] Niall: So I suppose sometimes there’s a bit of confusion when people are buying properties, the banks may be involved. If the banks are involved, they will usually have an evaluator who is an estate agent and it basically goes out and just puts a value on the property. Sometimes the buyers might get a small bit confused. They think they’re both the same, but they’re not. So it’s more just for pricing purposes or value purposes, whereas a survey such as my services cover more the ins and outs of the property, from structure, fabric and right through to the very end.
[3:45] Alec: When do you get involved in the whole process? I mean, it’s a long process of buying a property these days or selling one? Where do you get involved in that process?
[3:53] Niall: Usually when a property goes sale agreed, that’s when they’d be instructed to possibly get your surveyor in to just to survey and highlight any problems within the property, you know. So usually when it’s sale agreed.
[4:10] Alec: If you spot issues, what then happens? Because obviously this is going to hold up the sale of the property.
[4:16] Niall: Every property, it always turns out that there are some items it it all depends on how we want to qualify them as big problems or small problems if it was more significant a lot of the times when you’re buying a second-hand property you’re buying it as is but sometimes you know the older properties have to have a certain level of defects free uh if they’re right if there are defects with the property the the owner would be obliged to to make sure everyone is in order for example a big hole in the roof there was is letting in water, that would be a defect that would need to be fixed. But there’s loads of different ones. But ultimately, that list is created, brought back in and reported to the client, and then they can choose on what they can go back to the seller on then like, you know, but if it’s if there are significant defects, the seller definitely should be should be fixing them, you know.
[5:09] Alec: I mean, in terms of something like a hole in the roof, that’d be quite obvious to an estate agent, but what might be happening underneath that may not be. So that’s more your area of expertise that you can spot the potential.
[5:20] Niall: Yeah, so like again, when you’re looking at a problem, it could be just a small leak versus a big leak, you know, a small leak could do a lot of damage if it was left to fester for weeks, you know, it could damage the roof underneath it, the ceiling and finishes, the surfaces, floors underneath that, like so it could have a knock on effect. So, yeah, like it does structurally, it might do, it might make any difference, but more aesthetically inside, it could be a problem, you know, but it needs to be identified and addressed. Hopefully, if it’s only a small issue, it can be fixed very easily, you know.
[5:55] Alec: So, we’re possibly talking about negotiation with the estate agent or something like that, or putting the onus on the seller to have it remedied before the sale is completed.
[6:03] Niall: Absolutely. You know, you would be hoping that the seller would remedy any of the obvious problems. But sometimes, you know, you would be, you know, you might just accept it for what it is. If it was significant enough, you could go back and try to negotiate the price. And if it’s accepted, then you just have to deal with that problem then in your own time. Time you know yeah but at least if you’re informed you have a decision to make whether you’re prepared to take on that extra expense because you like the property sufficiently and the expenses of a minimal nature yeah look absolutely but i suppose if that’s renegotiated now you know the extent of it and you know it does cost associated to put it you know against that so um but you know you’re fully in the loop on this whereas if that wasn’t highlighted you didn’t get a report you know it’s on you within like you know you can’t go back afterwards oh nobody taught me this or nobody taught me that you know so um but that’s that’s buyer beware buyer beware yeah so sold as is let’s just talk about some of the more common issues that you see on a regular basis in terms of people buying properties and you go along and you go wow here it is again recently i i i i did one survey and you know but just when you look at a house like you know usually outside the house there could be uh boundaries and stuff quite simply um a recent one you went up the walls look fine as soon as you put your hand on it it’s just it’s a bit shaky or a bit wobbly you know and you’re saying to yourself like how is this even standing but if that wasn’t flagged you know the whole process of going next thing the person would have to deal with that so quite simply. I put together a proposal on a budget to to fix this remedy this so you can go back to the sellers and say right this is something that can be addressed at your cost or we’d have to renegotiate the price for us to to to do it on our end you know that was just something that happened similar or sorry, recently. But look, there’s…
There’s all, like every property has a few items, you know.
At the end of the day, when it comes to reporting, you don’t want anything in there. You want everything to be run smooth. And that’s the perfect survey, you know. Have nothing other than just say, this is a good…
[8:08] Alec: But at least you’re informed. I mean, if we take something where people are not aware of, that any sort of major structural changes to a property has a knock-on effect, which maybe the seller is not aware of.
[8:19] Niall: When the person has a property from, you know, when it was built or bought previously, there’s an obligation on the homeowner, if they do any internal alterations structurally, that they would now flag where you’d need services, everything is in order. Not aesthetic stuff such as, you know, floors or painting or this or that, but structural. On top of that if they built extensions or did attic conversions and this and that that would also have a knock-on effect that you’d need all compliance certification on that. Assuming it’s all exempt great but in some cases planning may have been required and we’d need to have they’d need to have all that paperwork have it in order for the legal file as part of the of the sale you know.
[9:09] Alec: I heard you talking about a case where there was a new staircase put into a property that didn’t comply that ended up being very expensive. Maybe tell our viewers a bit about that.
[9:19] Niall: A case like that would be if you bought an older property that had an old stairs in, the property could have been maybe 40 or 50 years old.
There were different regulations backed in and the stairs was built back in the day.
But if you altered that stairs in today’s standards, you’re obliged to put that into current regulations. If you were a place that like for like what was there originally, now there’s a compliance issue, you know, and, you know, which falls back on the seller. So they may have to renegotiate, the buyers may need to have to renegotiate that with the sellers because if the people buy that house, they may decide to sell it in the future and then they run into the same problems. And there’s costs associated with that. So it could be five, it could be 10, it could be 15,000. and it’s, you know, everyone is different, like, you know.
[10:13] Alec: Yeah, so, I mean, in terms of buying a property, there’s always a potential you’re going to be selling it in the future, so you’re better off knowing now if there’s going to be issues because they may come back to haunt you.
[10:22] Niall: Absolutely, and again, get your paperwork in order, so the surveying is one side of it. Just have all your legal stuff, all your compliance, that goes together with the file, which will be passed on to the legal side and that will be stored away and then when you go to sell that property, then there’s no issues, it can be just sold quite simply, you know.
[10:39] Alec: There’s a couple of other issues come up. For example, subsidence on a property, which could be very old. But if it’s not documented, you have no idea going in how it has shifted, say, over the last 50 years.
Let’s talk about subsidence for a minute, which is, you know.
[10:54] Niall: Yeah, so I suppose just before we get to subsidence, it’s more like every property settles, you know. It could take a year to two years. A lot of the older properties would have that level of settlement as well, but when it stops. But if it doesn’t, you know, it may continue to settle. That’s when you’re classifying it as subsidence. You may have hairline cracks that probably open up. But at some stage, it may stop. So then you may be happy enough with that. But if I was to survey that property and I wasn’t happy with it, it’d be flagged. There’s no guarantee to say that it has stopped. So you have to choose a worst case scenario here. I’m not happy with this. We need to investigate this more, where it’s more monitoring or this or that. But look, the buyers want to buy this, so they need an answer now. So once they have all the facts, then they can make that decision.
[11:50] Alec: So if we take something like encroachment, which is quite a common thing, particularly with extensions and roof overhangs from extensions, just talk about that because, I mean, you’ll spot those very quickly.
[12:01] Niall: Absolutely, yeah. Most of the properties I would survey have some form of that. You know, so for argument’s sake, like if you have two semi-D’s house, they’re back to back. There’s a party wall down in the middle. People may decide to extend that party wall and build an extension on one side, which is fine. You know, the builder comes in, does all that, and then he puts a roof on it, and then he doesn’t really mind. He just decides to build part of that roof in next door. Nobody says nothing. The people that own it don’t know anything about it either, but it may be a problem down the future when the next door neighbours look to, you know, if they were selling and then the new buyers come in, they come in to see this encroachment. But look, is it a red flag? It’s just something that people need to be aware of. It can be easily addressed, but it’s more of a nuisance. But more than likely, it’s going to be at a cost to the buyers anyways. But once they’re aware of it, they can deal with it. But it is very common all the same, you know.
[13:03] Alec: Yeah, so what you’re saying is, in essence, if I want to then build my extension up, I’m going to have to take into consideration this overhang that’s going to cause me a problem.
[13:13] Niall: Absolutely, yeah. So that’s going to be, it is going to be a nuisance. But if you do interfere with that roof, you have to now consider your neighbours. So you don’t want rain to be going in on their side. So you have to be, you know, you have to be doing as best you can. But there’s also a positive, if there’s a parity wall there, the buyers can also build on that if everything is okay, you know, which is a positive. So that would save money as well, you know.
[13:40] Alec: There’s another area too, which I came across more recently, and people tend to think it’s more of a rural problem, but I do know it’s in areas around Dublin too. People have their own septic tanks. And the one I had heard about was somebody selling, they had a septic tank, all right, but they discovered it was on somebody else’s property.
[13:58] Niall: Yeah, that’s, it’s funny, like that’s a very common problem, especially out in rural Ireland, like, you know, you have somebody that has a site, you know, someone has a big field and they’re given planning for a corner of it. There’s no boundary set as such, but in the planning and all of that, all the boundaries will be there. But builder arrives and he starts building the house and he sends someone down to dig a big hole for a safety tank. He didn’t pull out no drawn he’ll ask her a little it’ll fit in down there and next thing it’s put in and wherever the septic tank is they usually just put the boundaries around it anyways and what that could have in a knock-on effect in five ten twenty years time is that when that property is is potentially sold and a surveyor like me goes in and sees this um i could see like if i if i see a septic tank very close to a bone straight away i said this needs to be properly surveyed um but it has has happened a lot of times where the septic tank isn’t the wrong isn’t it’s not in the right site like you know and that’s an expensive problem yeah absolutely yeah it’s a cost but, If that was found out, that could be something that you go back to renegotiate to get it moved, which may work out as a positive for any buyer if it’s dealt with right, you know.
[15:19] Alec: Just one final problem I’m just going to put here because these are the ones I know about and I’m not a buyer or seller on a regular basis. Just talk about things like shared driveways, you know, where people have lived, cohabited quite happily, semi-detached houses, sharing a driveway, then somebody sells up. Now it becomes an issue.
[15:39] Niall: Yeah, look, it happens the whole time. Shared driveways, like I suppose, it’s more down to what’s on the maps and what’s in the legal file. And both parties may have understood that and then some party decides to sell the next in the new party not even aware just thinking and of all these different rights and start causing a big fuss um which it does happen so it’s it’s more on the surveying side of it is just make them aware of what what they’re entitled to do um but again that’s usually taken as a reference from from the from land maps and stuff, you know, and used the legal as a guideline in on just how to deal with it, you know.
[16:19] Alec: Your reports seem to be quite comprehensive. I mean, we’ve talked about quite a number of things. These are all, I suppose, issues that you would be spotting straight away, plus a rate more if they happen to be there.
[16:30] Niall: Absolutely. There are three different types of surveying. There’s type one, type two, and type three. I usually go for kind of mid-range, which is type two. Um um this this report basically is just it’s it’s it’s not very technical it’s it’s it’s it’s a pretty black and white report that the language is i believe is is very simple you know so the person that’s buying that’s that service fully understands if you decided to go either way a type one or a type three type three be more forensic um which means you need another person like me on the other end to go through that be extremely technical it’s more for commercial and bigger properties wouldn’t be recommended for a house sale or whatever. But then you’ve also a type 1 which would be more of a two or three pager. Some information in it but very, very basic. That’s why I choose to go with trying to give enough information without too much.
[17:27] Alec: Another issue that has come up in terms of people buying properties and well worth knowing is getting insurance for your home. That’s become a real issue with flooding and things like that. Would you be aware of those sort of issues when you’re surveying a home?
[17:43] Niall: So, yes. So, from a surveying point of view, you go in and you look at a property. You know, you’re looking at the property, but you also need to be aware of the environment and landscape around you. So, if it’s close to a river, you know, if the ground seems naturally low, if it’s a new housing estate, you know, know also these things need to be considered because um you know there may be a knock-on effect and insurance is a good way of identifying if there’s any potential problems like by just a quick phone call into your insurance they’ll have all the maps to say if you know there’s a flood plain here this or that like so that would be one good call to make on my side of things i suppose it’s just picking up on them little things outside of the house but also if there’s Sometimes there is evidence to suggest that there could have been past flooding.
But just, you know, it’s just more of an experienced call to make, you know.
[18:35] Alec: As somebody who’s well familiar with the construction industry, do you have sort of a panel of trusted people that you can bring in or recommend into people if they need work done?
[18:45] Niall: Absolutely, yeah. So I suppose once my job is done and it’s passed on, now the next step for the potential buyer is to look to the future. So if the property is pretty dated or if it needs work, I’d have a full list of people that I’d recommend. Professionals like myself and in all the trades and so on and so forth and can be easily set up and connected with. So yeah, people that I’d highly recommend you.
[19:11] Alec: How long does it take to get a report from you once you go into the property?
[19:15] Niall: So my turnaround as guideline would be a week to two weeks. But once I’m booked in, from when I arrive on site to do that survey, you’d probably have your report returned within two to three days. So it’s a pretty fast service and turnaround as well, you know.
[19:34] Alec: And let’s talk about costs. Everybody wants to know about costs. What are we talking about in ballpark terms for people?
[19:40] Niall: Yeah, so any of my surveys usually start around 500 euros. That would be for a standard two or three bedroom house. it’d be somewhere located generally around Dublin. Obviously, if there was requests coming in from elsewhere, I wouldn’t turn down anyone. If I can help them, I can. If I have other surveyors that I could recommend to be closer to that area, I’d also do that as well. But look, if it helps people get it over the line, I do what needs to be done. Yeah.
[20:08] Alec: So you are prepared to travel, but there is obviously travelling costs involved.
[20:12] Niall: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
[20:13] Alec: I suppose the final question is, where can people find out more about you and Building Matters?
[20:17] Niall: I have my own website, it would be buildingmatters.ie. There is some kind of a booking system there, but quite simply, just a quick phone call, a text message, get the whole process going. Most of my work generally comes from the likes of solicitors and professionals like that.
[20:41] Alec: Yeah, so you won’t turn anybody down.
[20:44] Niall: I won’t, exactly, yeah.
[20:45] Alec: All right. Special thanks to our guest today, Niall Hare, Managing Director of Building Matters, for coming into the studio and sharing so many valuable tips for those who are wishing to buy or sell a property. If any of the topics we discussed today resonated with you in any way, why not reach out to us across any of the social media channels, the SME Business Show. Thank you for your company, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
