In Ireland, a survey should be completed before you sign contracts. This is because if the surveyor identifies any serious conditional issues, you want a chance to either withdraw from the sale or renegotiate the price.
Some examples we have identified on surveys that have caused the buyer to either pull out of the sale or attempt to renegotiate include:
Rising Damp
Structural issues with roofs like rotten timbers
Alterations to the property which require planning/retention permission but had been declined
Old electrics which an electrician subsequently identified need a full rewiring and a new fuse board
Signs of Pyrite damage in a know Pyrite impacted estate
Facilities that were shared with neighbour (well and septic tank) but the vendor was subsequently unable to get a legal agreement with the neighbour in place.
If the survey had been conducted after the contracts were signed, the buyer would have been committed to buying at the agreed price. However, since the surveyor identified them before the contracts were signed (during Sale Agreed), the buyer was able to renegotiate or pull out of the sale.
This is not an exhaustive list and over the last number of years we have identified thousands of issues that would be serious enough to consider pulling out of the sale.
If you are Sale Agreed and want to book your survey, just go to GetHouseSurvey.ie and click on "Get Survey Now".