Advice on buying a house from Dipl.-Ing. Michael Neumann, a publicly certified and independent expert in building and surveying.
Approved by the German Chamber of Commerce (IHK), a publicly and independent building expert for your property
A qualified building surveyor can save you money in the long run!
- Advice on house buying
- Damages and defects
- Defects in construction
- Dilapidated property
- Cost calculation
- Hidden damages
- Value of a proerty
- Surveyor
- Building surveyor
- Expertise from a building surveyor
- Property valuation
- Risks of a house purchase
- Mold
- Documetation
We have made it our job to provide advice and to support you in the run-up to purchasing a property in a way that is professional, competent and skilful.
Having a thorough property check by a highly experienced building surveyor protects you against negative surprises.
An experienced building surveyor can help you save costs.
The condition of residential property across Germany is mediocre!
“Each year, damages amounting to 1.4 billion euros are caused by shoddy building work,” according to Dekra, an officially recognised inspection organisation in Germany.
A Dekra Real Estate report examining Germany‘s housing stock reveals that house buyers factor in an additional 5% of the purchase price to fix building defects.
Conducted by Dekra Real Estate over the last few years, the study looked at apartments, single-family houses and multi-family houses of up six residential units, ones that were built across different years. The study also assessed, in detail, the supporting structure, the exterior of the building, heating, sanitary systems and electrics. Experts from Dekra identified the majority of defects in “conventional building trades”, such as windows, exterior doors, plastering or stucco work as well as with heating systems, piping or installations for gas and water.
Large differences became apparent with the age of the property: a building’s condition deteriorates dramatically with age.
Even with new buildings, the study identified the necessity for building maintenance.
Avoid the significant backlog in building repair work across the German residential real estate. Check your dream property before buying!
Benefit from our expert’s knowledge and expertise!
According to the Central Association of the German Construction Industry (ZDB), tight calculations, underestimating building time and finances are to blame for this misery. The ZDB notes a growing trend of individual building contractors are being properly “squeezed out” of the market by general contractors and/or property developers—a trend that is also connected with late payment.
Considering the strong economic situation and strong company order books, the amount of time required to invest in each order is decreasing, and so too is the quality of the work rendered.
The ZDB claimed that contractors are not solely responsible for these problems, adding “the problems have their roots in the planning phase undertaken by architects and other planners”.
It is not uncommon to experience inaccurate building specifications or such specialisations are not fully complete.
A building surveyor can protect you high costs!
Against this background, the non-for-profit German charity Bauherren-Schutzbund e. V. (BSB e.V.) regularly carries our studies identifying main deficiencies in buildings. These study aim to allocate those defects identified with the area or trade responsible.
In the most recent study, those defects were expressed in percentage terms according to the area or trades to which those defects could be attributed.
Most of the defects identified in the investigation were documented as problems interior plaster / screed / interior construction. Further deficits were noticeable in construction of the building shell / statics / roof construction, thermal insulation / noise protection / fire protection as well as in the building sealing / perimeter insulation. This means that these four areas account for more than half of all deficiencies found.
If a comparison is undertaken across the four studies, all of which draw on the same data baseline, then it becomes clear that issues affected areas and trades have remained unchanged.
What is particularly problematic is the actual nature of the defects: they are particularly prone to yet further damage or are very expensive to repair.
These include areas that suffer rapid deterioration: an increasingly high number of defects were identified in windows / doors, thermal insulation / soundproofing / fire safety protection and technical systems. These concerns pertain to areas or work on the building whose planning and delivery has gained in complexity, increasing the risk of defects occurring.
