The 25-point property viewing checklist

Plan the viewing like a survey, not a stroll

A good second viewing has a running order. Arriving early buys you the street; leaving the questions until you are outside again keeps you observational rather than conversational while you are in the rooms; and writing notes within the hour is the difference between evidence and a blur of "nice light".

Outside (1–7)

Start across the street. The building tells you more from twenty metres than from the doorstep.

• 1. Roof line and tiles — sagging ridge, slipped or patched tiles, crumbling chimney pointing. Roofs are five-figure money.
• 2. Gutters, downpipes and drainage — green algae streaks on walls mean long-term leaks; check where downpipes discharge and whether the ground falls towards the house.
• 3. Cracks and movement — hairline cracks in render are normal; diagonal cracks wider than a pound coin’s edge around doors and windows deserve a surveyor’s eye (see our ground-risks guide).
• 4. Brickwork and damp course — eroded mortar joints, spalled bricks, soil or paving banked up over the damp-proof course line, blocked or painted-over airbricks.
• 5. Windows — material, age and condition; misted double glazing means failed units. Replacing a houseful is thousands.
• 6. Garden orientation — take a compass reading (your phone has one). A north-facing garden gets little evening sun; decide whether you care before you pay for it.
• 7. Boundaries, fences and access — who owns which fence, any shared access or visible rights of way, and whether boundaries on the ground match the plan later in the title.

Inside (8–15)

Now slow down. Agents plan viewings for twenty minutes; take forty-five.

• 8. Damp — sniff on entry to each room (your nose beats your eyes), look for tide marks and bubbling paint on chimney breasts, behind furniture, under window sills, inside built-in wardrobes.
• 9. Water pressure — run the hot tap in the highest bathroom while flushing the loo. Weak, fluctuating hot water hints at boiler or plumbing money.
• 10. Boiler — age, brand, last service date (the sticker is usually on or in it). Ask what heating costs per month, then sanity-check against the EPC.
• 11. Fuse box / consumer unit — a modern unit with breakers and RCD protection, or a museum piece? Old boards often flag old wiring throughout.
• 12. Windows and doors from inside — do they open, close and lock? Condensation between panes, draughts, painted-shut sashes.
• 13. Floors and ceilings — bouncy or sloping floors, fresh isolated patches of paint or paper (what is being covered?), staining on ceilings below bathrooms.
• 14. Storage and loft — open the hatch if you can: insulation depth, daylight through the roof, water tanks. Note where a buggy, bikes and a vacuum would actually live.
• 15. Phone signal, room by room — check your bars in the kitchen, main bedroom and any would-be office. No signal in the office is a daily tax on your life.

The area (16–20)

You can change almost everything about a house except where it is. Two free official checks worth doing from the sofa: street-level crime data at police.uk, and address-level broadband and mobile coverage on Ofcom’s checker.

• 16. Noise, at more than one time — visit on a weekday evening and a Saturday. Listen for the road, the pub, the school run, and check flight paths and railway lines on a map (a plane every 90 seconds is invisible on a 20-minute viewing).
• 17. Parking reality — not what the agent says: come back at 7pm and see if you could actually park. Check for permit zones and what a permit costs.
• 18. Walkability — time the actual walk to the station, school and nearest shop. Estate-agent minutes are measured in a car.
• 19. Broadband — look up full-fibre availability and realistic speeds for the exact address (Ofcom’s checker, or a Housometer report) rather than trusting "superfast area".
• 20. The street itself — the state of neighbouring gardens and parked cars, to-let boards clustering, boarded windows, or three skips in a row (a street being renovated is usually a good sign).

Sources: Police.uk — local crime maps · Ofcom — broadband and mobile checker

The paperwork (21–25)

Five questions that cost nothing to ask and reshape negotiations. Put them to the agent in writing — answers in writing are answers people stand behind.

• 21. Tenure — freehold or leasehold? If leasehold: exact years remaining, ground rent and its review clause, service charge, and the last two years of accounts.
• 22. Council tax band and EPC — both free to check online (VOA for the band, the EPC register for the certificate); together they sketch the running costs, and the EPC gives you the floor area for £/m² sums.
• 23. Flood and ground risk — Environment Agency / Natural Resources Wales flood check, plus radon, subsidence and mining if the area suggests it.
• 24. Planning — anything granted or pending on the property or its neighbours (the council’s planning portal shows both). The empty plot behind the garden is someone’s development opportunity.
• 25. The seller’s position — why are they selling, how long has it been listed, any price cuts, is there a chain? Every answer is negotiating information.

Sources: GOV.UK — check a council tax band · GOV.UK — find an energy certificate · GOV.UK — check long-term flood risk

What a defect is worth in pounds

The checklist earns its keep when a finding becomes a number in your negotiation. Rough 2025/26 ranges for the common ones (regional and case variation is wide — these are for calibration, not quotation): a misted double-glazing unit, £80–£150 each to replace; a tired consumer unit, £500–£900; a full rewire of a three-bed house, £4,000–£8,000 with redecoration on top; a new gas boiler installed, £2,500–£4,000; recovering a tiled roof, £7,000–£15,000; repointing a gable, £1,500–£3,500.

The sequencing matters: use viewing findings to justify the offer, and the survey to enforce it. An offer can be pitched with "the boiler is 17 years old and three windows have failed units — I’ve priced that in"; then, if the RICS survey finds more, renegotiate on the specific items with quotes attached. Sellers concede to documented numbers far more readily than to general grumbling — and agents, who must treat you fairly under consumer-protection rules, pass documented numbers on intact.

Perspective check: do not nickel-and-dime a fundamentally sound house over £300 of sealed units in a hot market. Save the negotiating capital for four-figure findings — and treat any five-figure finding (roof, movement, rewire) as a genuine re-decision, not just a discount conversation.

Viewing a flat: the extra checks

Flats add a layer the house checklist misses: you are buying a share of a building and a management arrangement, and both are on display if you look. The communal areas are the block’s TA6 form — clean, lit, and promptly repaired says one thing; a broken door entry system, six months of circulars behind the door and a dead lightbulb on every landing says another.

• Communal entrance and stairwells — state of decoration, post arrangements, any damp smell; check the noticeboard for Section 20 (major works) notices, fire-safety notices or angry letters from the managing agent.
• The fabric you co-own — roof, gutters and window frames on the whole block, not just your flat: you will pay your share of all of it via the service charge.
• Noise transfer — stand silent in each room for thirty seconds; visit once on a weekday evening. Ask what is directly above and below (a short-let flat overhead changes your life more than the kitchen finish).
• Bin stores, bike stores, lifts — capacity, condition and smell; an old lift is a five-figure liability on the block’s horizon.
• Parking and the lease’s small print — allocated or first-come? Pets, flooring, short-lets allowed? The lease answers; ask for it early.
• The management — who manages, what the current service charge and reserve fund are, and (best source available) a resident in the lift: "how’s the building run?"

Budget the full cost of getting the keys

The viewing decides whether you offer; this section decides what you can offer. On top of the price itself, a typical purchase carries: survey £400–£1,500 depending on level and property size; conveyancing £1,200–£2,500 including searches and disbursements; stamp duty per our guide; removals £600–£1,800; and the small print — lender arrangement fees, broker fees if any, and the first year’s insurance arranged from exchange day.

Two habits keep this honest. First, total these before you offer, so the offer already fits the cash you actually have — running out of money between exchange and completion is the avoidable disaster of house buying. Second, keep a contingency: 1–2% of the price for a well-surveyed home, more for a project. MoneyHelper publishes impartial checklists for the whole money side of a move.

Sources: MoneyHelper — costs of buying a home · RICS — home surveys explained

After the viewing

Write your notes within the hour — viewings blur astonishingly fast, and photos of the fuse box, boiler sticker and any cracks are worth taking (ask first; almost nobody minds).

Anything the checklist flagged becomes a question for the agent, a line in your offer reasoning, or an instruction to your surveyor. The checklist does not replace a survey — it tells your surveyor where to look, and it stops you paying a romance premium for a home you inspected with the lights dimmed and the coffee on.