A second hand house is on the market
The notary appointment is a fortnight away, the walls have just been repainted and you want to know what is underneath. We walk the property with you before you commit.
Building assessments for Bedburg and the Rhein-Erft-Kreis
A building surveyor for Bedburg and the Rhein-Erft-Kreis
Before you buy a house, sign off a handover or decide that a crack is nothing: let somebody look at it who builds for a living.
- The visit
- We come to the building and record what can actually be seen at the component.
- The document
- You receive photographs, an explanation and a written assessment.
- The area
- Bedburg, Bergheim, Elsdorf, Grevenbroich, Kerpen and the neighbouring towns.
Viktor Knop is a master mason and concrete construction master, and he runs a building company for structural work and refurbishment. If you need a property assessed in Bedburg, Bergheim or Elsdorf, we come out to the building, record the condition at the component itself and write down what we saw and what it means.
Reasons
Four situations that make people in Bedburg pick up the phone
Almost every enquiry starts the same way: a decision is due, and nobody can say what the condition of the building means for it.
A developer handover is coming up
The moment you sign the handover record, the burden of proof moves to you. Beforehand we go through the work that has been delivered and note down whatever is still open.
A crack or a damp patch is new
Something has changed, and opinions in the household differ. We describe the finding plainly, instead of dramatising it or waving it away.
Things have stalled with the contractor
You need a sober description of the condition that you can hand to your solicitor, your insurer or the building firm.
What we do
Four ways of looking at a building for you
Which one fits depends on where you are standing right now. If a site visit will not solve your problem, we say so on the phone.
Pre purchase inspection
A joint walk through the property, from the cellar to the roof space. We show you what has been looked after, what is due over the next few years and where there is a sum you should build into your calculation.
Handover inspection
We attend the handover, check the work carried out against the specification and word every open point so that it stands unambiguously in the record.
Condition survey
We document the condition at the component: position, extent, direction and surroundings. That becomes a document you can plan with, negotiate with or put a repair out to tender with.
Construction monitoring
We call in at the decisive stages, while the components are still open. Something spotted now costs a day. Something that disappears behind plaster costs considerably more later.
How it runs
From the first call to the written assessment
The process is deliberately short, because most enquiries arrive under time pressure.
You describe the situation
By telephone or through the form. What matters is the location, the year of construction, what you have noticed and the date you need an answer by.
We agree the scope
You hear what we will look at, how long the visit takes and which documents to have ready. After that the appointment stands.
The visit at the building
We work through the property systematically, photograph every finding and talk each one through with you on the spot. Questions get answered there and then.
You get it in writing
An ordered document with photographs, description and explanation. You can negotiate with it, plan with it or pass it on.
If a site visit is the wrong route for your situation, we tell you in the first conversation.
Enquiry
Tell us briefly what this is about
Two sentences are enough to start with. The more precisely you describe the property, its age and the reason, the more accurately we can tell you whether and how quickly we can help.
Call02165 171 666
Contactviktor@knop-bauunternehmen.de
To the main company sitewww.knop-bauunternehmen.de
Knop Bauunternehmen GmbH, Frohnstr. 43, 40789 Monheim am Rhein
We use your details solely to answer your enquiry. We do not pass them on and we do not add you to any mailing list.
Findings
What we look at during a site visit
Six groups of components that come up at almost every visit. Tap an image to see it larger.
Example photographs illustrating the groups of components. None of them shows a property belonging to a client of ours.
Preparation
What to have ready for the visit
None of it is compulsory. Every document that exists, though, saves time on site and makes the assessment more solid.
- Floor plan and section, if they can still be found
- The building specification or the agent listing
- The draft purchase contract or the building contract
- Earlier reports, tradesman invoices and maintenance records
- The energy performance certificate
- Your own photographs of whatever caught your eye
If none of it exists: we have driven out to houses where nothing survived except the land registry extract.
Plain terms
What a visit from us delivers, and what it does not
This list is here so that nobody books with the wrong expectation. It is the most honest part of the page.
What we do
- We look at the building on site and describe the condition at the component.
- We photograph every finding and explain what it means for you.
- We tell you what is urgent and what can wait.
- You receive a written document you can carry on working with.
What we do not do
- We are a building company holding a master craft certificate, not a publicly appointed and sworn expert.
- We do not produce court reports and we do not represent you in proceedings.
- We do not open up components and we carry out no destructive testing.
- We give no valuation and no market value for a property.
Where we work
Bedburg and the Rhein-Erft-Kreis
Bedburg sits on the river Erft, between the opencast lignite country and the arable plain. Settlement in ground affected by the water table, older housing stock in Kaster and Kirchherten, new estates along the edges: those are the three subjects we deal with most often here.
Detached and semi detached houses make up most of the site visits we attend.
Bedburg
Bergheim
Elsdorf
Kerpen
Grevenbroich
Rommerskirchen
Jüchen
Titz
Pulheim
Frechen
Appointments outside this list are possible. Just ask, and we will tell you whether we can fit it in.
Questions
What callers usually want to know first
If your question is not here, ask it in the form. We answer even when nothing comes of it.
How quickly can you be on site in Bedburg?
It depends on the week and on the reason. Call and name your date: if a notary appointment or a handover is pressing, we tell you straight away whether it works rather than keeping you waiting.
What does a site visit cost?
That can only be answered honestly once the size, the age and the scope are known. You get a figure before the visit, and it holds. There is no price list on this page, because it would not apply to your property anyway.
Do I have to be there?
It is better if you are. A great deal gets settled in the moment when you are both standing in front of the spot. If it cannot be arranged, that is no reason to call it off.
Will I get a report for court?
No. We produce a technical building assessment with photographic documentation. For a court report you need a publicly appointed and sworn expert, and we say so plainly before you instruct us.
Can you repair the damage as well?
We are a working contractor, which is the reason we can read components. Whether we carry out a repair ourselves is a second decision and never part of the assessment.
Do you look at apartments too?
Yes. With an apartment the communal property comes into it as well, so roof, facade, cellar and stairwell. Describe briefly in the form what belongs to the flat and what belongs to the block.
Contact
You have a decision in front of you and only a gut feeling
A phone call costs you five minutes. After it you will know whether a site visit solves your problem.