Using Your Senses

You can spot many small details that may indicate problems by simply using your senses as you walk around the property. If you're still interested, then you can then ask a surveyor to check them out.

Use Your Ears

As you walk from room to room and out into the garden, what can you hear?

• Noisy plumbing. Run a tap or flush the loo, then listen in the bedrooms. Loud plumbing could mean that the pipes are faulty. Check the location of the boiler. If it is on the other side of the bedroom wall it may wake you up when it comes on in the morning.
• Neighbours. Visit when the neighbours are likely to be home and check if you can hear them through any party walls. If you are viewing a flat, can you hear people upstairs? Noise carries more easily if a flat has bare wood floors. Although they are currently very popular, some flat leases do not allow bare wood floors.
• Traffic. Try to visit when the traffic in the street outside will be at its worst. Can you hear it from the back garden?

Use Your Eyes

• Look around the loft. Check whether it offers good storage space, whether the roof timbers are sound, what sort of insulation it has, and whether the water tank is insulated.
• Look for signs of condensation and mould in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet. This means that there is a ventilation problem. Windowless bathrooms and toilets should have an adequate extraction system to remove moisture.
• If the floorboards are covered up by carpet, ask to see a corner of them in each room, if possible. If you are planning on bare wood floors, rotten wood and boards with big gaps may need to be replaced. Boards in bad condition may also be a sign of dry rot or wet rot or beetle infestation.

Use Your Sense of Smell

Try to overlook smells that you will be able to get rid of - cats, dogs or cigarette smoke. It's the smells that may point to problems that you have to watch out for.

• Toilet. If the toilet smells dodgy, it could mean there is a leak into the floorboards.
• Gas. If you think there is a faint whiff around the boiler, then it may need to be replaced.
• Damp. A musty odour, rather like potting compost. You would not expect a lived-in property to smell damp unless it had problems such as cracked walls, bad ventilation or water penetration.