House survey Haarlem

If you typed house survey Haarlem into a search bar, chances are you’re British, or you’ve lived in the UK, and you’re about to buy a home here. At home you know the order. Offer accepted, the lender sends a valuer, you choose a HomeBuyer Report or something heavier, and your solicitor doesn’t exchange until the survey’s back. In Haarlem the order is different. You usually sign first, and the survey has to fit into a week or so. Sometimes into three days.

We wrote this page for expats buying a house or a flat in Haarlem, Heemstede, Bloemendaal, Zandvoort, IJmuiden or anywhere else in Kennemerland. We’re Premiumkeur Haarlem, an independent firm of building inspectors on the Tempeliersstraat. In Dutch the survey is called a bouwkundige keuring; an American would say home inspection. Below we explain what you get, how it differs from a homebuyer survey in the UK and which parts of the Dutch process you have to sort out yourself.

Clients give us 4.9 stars from 704 Google reviews and 104 Trustpilot reviews. You can read them on Trustpilot. Call us on 023-2340040 (from abroad +31 23 234 0040). We can often come within one working day.

Want the full background first? Our English knowledge base for Haarlem covers prices, foundations, damp, roofs, the VvE and the purchase agreement, with 35 cases from our own reports.

What a house survey in Haarlem actually is

It’s a visual survey of the whole home, from the roof down to the crawl space. The inspector looks, measures and takes photos, but doesn’t open anything up. No lifting of floorboards, no drilling into walls. On site it takes 1 to 1.5 hours, and you get the written report within 2 working days.

You’ll hear people call it a home survey, a property survey or a pre-purchase survey. It’s all the same job. The report itself is a bouwkundig rapport, and if a Dutch colleague tells you to get a keuring done, that’s what they mean.

We should be honest about one thing. We’re not chartered surveyors, because RICS is a British body and its titles don’t exist as such in the Netherlands. Our inspectors work to NEN 2767, the Dutch standard for scoring the condition of each part of a building, and to NTA 8060, the agreed method for housing surveys. Premiumkeur is NHG-recognised and NEN 2767 certified. In plain terms, a building surveyor in the British sense and a Dutch bouwkundig inspecteur do much the same work, under different rules.

How it compares with a HomeBuyer Report

Most people we speak to have had a RICS Level 2 survey in the past, the one many still call the HomeBuyer Report. It’s meant for a conventional home in reasonable condition, gives each element a traffic-light rating and sometimes includes a valuation.

Our house survey is visual too, so the starting point is similar. The differences are in what comes out of it. Every defect gets a condition score and a cost estimate including VAT, and the costs are split into three columns: needed now, within five years, and improvements. You can take that table straight to the negotiation. We go into the crawl space ourselves when it’s accessible and onto the roof when it’s safe, which a Level 2 surveyor in Britain often wouldn’t. And there’s no valuation in it. In the Netherlands that’s a separate report from a separate person.

If the house is old, altered or showing cracks, you may want more: the foundation quick scan further down, or the fuller building survey Haarlem buyers tend to pick for older homes.

The mortgage valuation isn’t a survey

In the UK plenty of first-time buyers think the lender’s valuation visit was their survey. Here the same mistake is easy to make. You or your mortgage adviser order a valuation report, a taxatierapport, from a registered valuer, and the bank relies on it. The valuer’s job is to put a figure on the house. Wet floor joists or a leaking flat roof aren’t really part of it.

Since 1 April 2026 every valuation report includes a foundation label (funderingslabel) from A to E. The valuer bases it on what’s visible and on online data. It’s a risk indication, nothing more, and for class D or E the valuer advises further investigation. So a label is a reason to look closer, not proof that the foundation is fine or rotten.

Nobody else books a survey for you. Not the bank, not the notary, not the estate agent. Because we’re NHG-recognised, you can use our report for your mortgage lender, and your adviser can tell you whether the repair costs in it count towards your loan.

When to book, and why three days matter

Here’s what catches most British buyers and other expats out. There’s no exchange and completion as you know it. Once the seller accepts your offer, the agent draws up the koopovereenkomst (purchase agreement). When you’ve both signed, the sale is binding, apart from any conditions in the contract and the 3-day cooling-off period (bedenktijd) the law gives buyers of a home. Pull out after that without a valid condition and you’ll normally owe a penalty, usually 10% of the price.

So the order is everything:

1. Make your offer subject to a building inspection condition (bouwkundig voorbehoud). It lets you cancel free of charge if repair costs go over an agreed amount. That threshold is often around € 5,000, but it isn’t fixed by law.
2. Call us straight after the verbal agreement. The condition usually runs for a short time and we can often come within 1 working day.
3. Read the report before the deadline and decide: go ahead, renegotiate or cancel.
4. The transfer is handled by the notary (notaris), who acts for both buyer and seller. There’s no buyer’s solicitor running searches on your behalf.

When Haarlem sellers have several offers, they often turn down the ones with a survey condition. Then the cooling-off period is your only window. Three days is tight, but it can be done if you’ve already got us lined up.

Your duty to investigate and the age clause

Dutch law asks the seller to disclose the defects they know about. You, as buyer, have a duty to investigate (onderzoeksplicht). Anything a reasonable inspection would have shown is usually at your own cost once you’ve bought.

With older homes you’ll often find an age clause (ouderdomsclausule) in the contract. It says the house is old and may have the defects that come with that. Some contracts go further with “as is, where is”. Both move the risk towards you, and the survey is how you find out what that risk looks like in euros.

Inspecting lead flashing during a building inspection

Using the report to negotiate

This review was written in Dutch; we translated it and left out the client’s name.

Costs brought into the negotiation

We are very satisfied with the building inspection that Daan of Premiumkeur carried out for us. Daan worked very extensively and precisely and really took the time to take us through the whole house. … In addition, the report gave us a better negotiating position during the buying process. A number of costs that we would otherwise only have discovered later could be brought into the negotiations and partly offset against the purchase price. … As far as we are concerned, it was worth every euro. Thank you so much, Daan, for the professional and thorough service and for the useful and very extensive report!

Review on Google, September 2026, 5 stars (translated from Dutch)

The day after a survey, a buyer asked us: “Could you please estimate the roof should be replaced in a few years … or it can wait longer? It will be helpful for us to negotiate with the seller.” Our answer in that case was clear: the roof needed replacing as soon as possible, because waiting meant a real risk of leaks and damage. A plain conclusion like that, in writing, is something you can take to the seller.

Haarlem houses and what tends to go wrong

Most homes we survey in this region were built between 1880 and 1940. Terraced houses, upstairs and downstairs flats, the odd big detached house in Bloemendaal or Heemstede. We counted 263 of our own reports from Haarlem and the rest of Kennemerland, from 2018 up to October 2026. 68% of the buildings with a known year of construction dated from before 1940.

In the 156 house surveys among them, this is what we found or suspected most often:

• leaks or signs of leaks: 64%
• cracks: 58%
• wood rot: 47%
• subsidence or tilt: 25%
• rising damp: 21%
• suspected asbestos material: 17%
• missing or unsafe earthing: 12%
• mould: 10%

Rising damp turns up here about twice as often as across all our reports (11%). In 101 surveys from 2024 to 2026 with a cost overview, the median of the costs needed straight away was about € 10,700, and about € 17,800 with the longer-term items and improvements added. For houses built before 1906 the median was € 21,600, for houses from 1906 to 1930 € 15,350. These are jobs that came to us, not a sample of every house in the area, so take the figures as an indication.

In Zandvoort and IJmuiden we pay extra attention to facades, window frames and roofs, because they get a lot of wind and rain off the sea.

Damp, mould and the crawl space

Many Haarlem houses from around 1900 to 1940 have a timber ground floor over a crawl space. If there’s not much ventilation or the groundwater is high, the beam ends that sit in the facade get wet, and that’s where wood rot starts. You won’t see it from the living room. You see it by going down the hatch.

So we go in. We check the joists and floorboards for wood rot, dry rot (huiszwam) and woodworm, and measure the moisture content with calibrated meters. Dry timber sits at around 12%. If the crawl space is lower than 20 cm, we send in a robot with a camera. If it’s flooded or we suspect asbestos, we don’t go in, and the report says why.

Black mould on a bedroom wall is often blamed on drying washing indoors. Sometimes the cause is in the building instead, and painting over it won’t help. For a closer look at damp alone, a damp survey starts at € 499, and a damp survey of a cellar costs € 699. More on what we do underneath the floor: crawl space inspection (in Dutch).

Flat roofs on the back extension

A lot of Haarlem terraced houses have a flat-roofed extension at the back. We regularly find bitumen at the end of its life, outlets that are too small or blocked, and patch repairs with tape or mortar that won’t last. Bitumen roofing lasts roughly 20 to 25 years, EPDM about 40. If there’s already water coming in, our leak detection in Haarlem can trace where it gets in.

Foundations, briefly

Haarlem has both kinds. Many listed buildings in the old centre stand on shallow foundations (op staal), without piles. Elsewhere there are timber piles, and in the Rozenprieel, in a bend of the Spaarne, the peat settles unevenly. Our advice is simple: for a house built before 1970, get the foundation looked at before you buy.

On the day of the house survey we can add a foundation quick scan (phase 0). We level the floors and measure the mortar joints of the facade with a laser. Together with the survey that’s from € 898. Details are on the page about the foundation quick scan phase 0 (in Dutch).

A buyer sent us this a few days before the notary appointment: “There has already been a building survey where the crawl space was looked at and nothing came out of it. But we went back and now we can see condensation in the crawl space.” (translated from Dutch). Our first questions in a case like that: is there a hatch, can it be opened, and is the crawl space deep enough to go into? If it is, we go through the whole space instead of looking from the hatch, because that is where expensive defects are often found.

Why the crawl space matters in a survey

Why we go into the crawl space during a survey instead of looking from the hatch. (video in Dutch)

Foundation survey at a listed building

Three flats from our files

These come from our own reports. We’ve left out addresses and names. Amounts are the estimates from the report, at the price level of that year.

Flat from 1906 above a shop, Haarlem, August 2026

Situation: an occupied flat on two storeys, with a VvE. The buyer booked a building inspection.

• The new covering on the flat roof had presumably been laid over the old one. Near the skylight it was coming loose and blistering.
• Joints in the zinc cover strips were finished with aluminium tape instead of being soldered (€ 800).
• The zinc gutter at the back had been taped over with bituminous roofing; renewing it was put at € 1,500.
• The stairs were enclosed mostly with tensioned ropes, with gaps that were too large (€ 3,500).
• Suspected asbestos material was seen on the roof. The immediate costs came to € 13,125 (2026 price level).

What this shows: a roof that’s just been redone can still be the problem. Tape and bitumen on zinc are temporary fixes. We advised having a roofer look at the roof and its structure before signing.

Flat from 1998 with a roof terrace, Haarlem, February 2026

Situation: an empty flat on three storeys. A building inspection before purchase.

• There was no balustrade round the roof terrace. Fitting one was estimated at € 6,000.
• The terrace covering had been laid over the old one and part of it was in poor condition (€ 850 immediate, € 650 improvement).
• The upstand at the sliding door was very low, so heavy rain could get in.
• The balcony didn’t fall enough towards the outlet and water stayed on it (€ 1,500). All at 2026 prices.

What this shows: a newer flat isn’t automatically trouble-free. Whether a roof may be used as a terrace at all depends on a permit and a structural calculation, so we advised checking both.

Apartment from 1916, Zandvoort, February 2026

Situation: an occupied apartment. A building inspection with an extra foundation risk investigation.

• The left of the front facade sat 33 mm lower than the right over 616 cm, a rotation of about 1:186.
• Floors sloped to the left and the front, but in the bedroom and toilet to the right. Floor levelling was rated very poor.
• There were several cracks in the front facade, an active leak at the meter cupboard and rising damp at the party wall.
• Costs: € 5,400 immediate and € 1,200 longer term for new gutters (2026 price level).

What this shows: the repair bill was modest, but uneven settlement weighs more than a building that tilts evenly. The advice was monitoring bolts, measured every year for at least five years.

Three houses from Haarlem and Kennemerland

Terraced house from 1920, Haarlem, September 2026

Situation: occupied, no VvE. The buyer wanted the defects and the damp problems looked at, with moisture readings.

• At the bottom of the front, rear and side facades the moisture readings were high and dropped with height, the pattern of rising damp.
• Pointing was missing in places and badly worn. On the top floor damp showed on the inside of the rear wall.
• In the crawl space the timber was locally above 39% moisture, with mould and fungus-like decay.
• At the back the timber floor clearly sagged; that part of the crawl space couldn’t be reached.

What this shows: mould and damp don’t always come from how people heat or ventilate. Here the advice was to have the damp-proof course investigated and repaired, renew the pointing and make the crawl space drier.

Terraced house from 1926, Santpoort-Noord, June 2026

Situation: occupied, timber ground floor, no VvE. An independent building inspection.

• The crawl space itself was dry, but the timber floor measured over 18% moisture, where about 15% counted as dry in this report.
• Several ventilation openings were partly or fully blocked. Clearing them and adding ventilation: € 500.
• The outside paintwork was poor; repainting was put at € 4,000.
• There was old fabric-sheathed wiring in the living room, and the bathroom socket had no earth.
• Immediate costs € 14,075, plus € 2,000 later for a new boiler (2026 price level).

What this shows: a crawl space can look dry while the floor above it is too damp. Only a reading in the timber shows that.

End-of-terrace house from 1958, Heemskerk, August 2025

Situation: occupied, three storeys, no VvE. The crawl space had no hatch and couldn’t be inspected.

• The chimney flue had been taken off outside, but inside the moisture meter hit its maximum, a sign of an active leak (€ 500 for leak detection).
• Roof tiles didn’t sit properly in places and had been patched with lead strip and repair mortar (€ 2,000).
• There was no breathable membrane under the tiles, and the roof window junctions were also closed with mortar (€ 350).
• The fuse box had open wiring and one smoke alarm had no battery.
• Immediate costs € 5,705 (2025 price level).

What this shows: patch repairs keep a roof closed for now, but they usually point to earlier leaks. A removed flue can still let water in.

All 35 cases, including the foundation ones, are in the knowledge base linked at the top of this page.

Buying a flat in Haarlem means joining a VvE

If you’ve owned a leasehold flat in Britain, you’ll remember service charges and a freeholder. Here every building split into flats has an owners’ association, the VvE (Vereniging van Eigenaars), and you become a member on the day you get the keys. The roof, the facades and the foundation belong to all the owners together. If the foundation of a block needs repair, the VvE pays and each owner chips in their share.

A VvE can be small, sometimes just two or three flats in what was once a single house. Small ones are more likely to have little money in the bank and no real plan. Before you sign, ask the agent for:

• the long-term maintenance plan, the MJOP (meerjarenonderhoudsplan)
• the size of the reserve fund
• the annual accounts
• the minutes of recent meetings

You request the deed of division, with its drawing, from the Kadaster, the land registry. Asking for these papers is part of your duty to investigate, and banks often want the MJOP or the accounts for a flat anyway. No MJOP? We can draw one up; for a small VvE of up to 5 flats it costs € 899. See our long-term maintenance plans (in Dutch).

Chimney inspection in Haarlem

What clients said about the inspector

Two of these were translated from Dutch; the one in the middle was written in English.

Short term and longer term

Very thorough and expert inspection in which everything was explained well: what will need maintenance or replacement in the short or longer term.

Review on Google, June 2026, 5 stars (translated from Dutch)

A property with question marks

Daan was extremely thorough and detailed in his inspection for me of a property that had a number of questions marks around it. He approached the property with a forensic level of scrutiny including surveying the roof. Also, on top of his professionalism, he’s a great guy, very easy to chat with and happy to give his honest advice. Daan is looking out for you.

Review on Google, July 2026, 5 stars

Explained in a nice way

Daan was great! He also told us about everything in a really nice way, and he worked very neatly too!

Review on Google, October 2026, 5 stars (translated from Dutch)

Choose your own inspector, not one from the agent’s network

Expats often tell us they relied on the agent for almost everything. Because the Dutch system is new to you, it is natural to follow your agent’s suggestions, for the inspector, the mortgage adviser and the notary. Keep in mind that the agent is paid when the sale goes through. That goes for the seller’s agent and usually for your own buying agent too. An inspector who gets a lot of work through estate agents has an interest in keeping that relationship good. It’s a structural conflict of interest and says nothing about any one person. You just can’t see it from the outside.

So pick your own independent inspector, even if the agent or the mortgage adviser mentions a name or a “partner”. You’re allowed to bring your own. In the Netherlands anyone can call themselves a building inspector, and what a survey covers differs from firm to firm. Before you book, ask:

• Do you receive work or fees from estate agents or mortgage advisers?
• Will you go into the crawl space and onto the roof where it is safe?
• Do you assess the foundation?
• Can you confirm your independence in writing?

Then read the terms and conditions. Some surveys are described as a general check and leave out the roof, the crawl space or the foundation.

For the record: we don’t work with estate agents, mortgage advisers, valuers or notaries. We don’t pay or receive referral fees, we don’t recommend contractors or repair firms, and we don’t survey for sellers.

The roof during a house survey

A roof inspection carried out as part of a house survey. (video in Dutch)

What happens on the day

The inspector starts outside with the facades, frames, gutters and roof, then works through the house: floors, walls, stairs, the bathroom and kitchen, the loft. Then the installations, meaning the fuse box, boiler, gas pipe, water, drainage, ventilation and smoke alarms. Last comes the crawl space or cellar. Suspected asbestos is noted by eye. We don’t take samples, so if we see something, have a specialist test it before you sign.

Our kit includes moisture meters, a laser for levelling floors and facades, an infrared camera for leaks and missing insulation, an endoscope for flues and cavity walls, and the crawl space robot. For a high or awkward roof we can bring a cherry picker or scaffolding at extra cost; see our page on roof inspection in Haarlem.

Come along and walk round with the inspector. You can ask anything in English as you go. Anything we can’t see or reach goes in the report, with the reason.

Inspecting the sewer pipes

What a house survey costs in Haarlem

Our prices include VAT and are the same as in Amsterdam (October 2026):

• house survey (building inspection): € 499 for a home up to 800 m³, plus € 0.50 per extra m³
• with the foundation quick scan (phase 0): from € 898
• foundation investigation phase 1: € 699 to € 1,499; phase 2 from € 3,000, excluding digging
• crawl space, roof or damp inspection: from € 499
• second opinion on another firm’s report (contra-expertise): from € 599

We’re on site for 1 to 1.5 hours and the report follows within 2 working days. You get photos, a condition score per element under NTA 8060, an explanation and a cost estimate including VAT. The standard report is in Dutch; we can translate it into English for € 100 extra. On the day the inspector explains everything in English.

The full list of services is on our services and prices page (in Dutch).

Checklist for British buyers in Haarlem

1. See a mortgage adviser before you start making offers, so you know your budget and whether NHG applies.
2. Put a building inspection condition in every offer, with a deadline and a threshold amount.
3. Book the house survey as soon as the seller says yes. Send us the address, the year it was built and whether it’s a house or a flat.
4. Buying a flat? Ask for the VvE papers the same day.
5. Older than 1970? Add the foundation quick scan, and ask the agent whether there’s a foundation label or measuring bolt data.
6. Make sure the roof hatch and the crawl space hatch can be reached on the day. Boxes on top of the hatch cost you half the survey.
7. Ask the notary to explain the purchase agreement before you sign it, in English if you need to.
8. Read the report before the condition runs out and decide in time.

Who comes to your house

Your survey is done by one of our own inspectors, not a subcontractor. Several of the reviews on this page mention Daan, who does a lot of our work in Haarlem and Kennemerland.

Premiumkeur was set up by Fred Tokkie. He was a contractor from 1983 to 2009 and has inspected houses since 2009. You can watch him explain defects on our YouTube channel, in Dutch. Our main English page for the region is Building inspection Haarlem, and the Dutch one is Bouwkundige keuring Haarlem (in Dutch).

Inspection of a flat roof

Learn more before you buy

We’ve written a fair amount in English for buyers in this region. Pick what fits your situation:

• Building inspection Haarlem: knowledge base (linked at the top of this page). Prices, foundations, damp, roofs, the VvE and the purchase agreement, with 35 cases from our reports.
• Buying a house in Haarlem. The whole buying process for expats, from the first viewing to the notary.
• Building survey Haarlem. The more detailed survey for old, altered or listed buildings, closer to a RICS Level 3.
• Foundation inspection Haarlem. Timber piles, shallow foundations, measuring bolts and what repair costs.
• Home inspection Haarlem. The same service explained for American buyers.
• New build inspection Haarlem. For a brand-new house or flat, before you accept the keys.
• English reviews. What our clients wrote, most of it translated from Dutch.

Questions expats in Haarlem ask us

Is a house survey in Haarlem the same as a HomeBuyer Report?

Not quite. It’s visual like a RICS Level 2 survey, but every defect gets a condition score and a cost estimate including VAT, and we go into the crawl space and onto the roof where it’s safe. There’s no valuation in it; that’s a separate valuation report.

When should expats book a house survey in Haarlem?

Straight after the seller accepts your offer. With a building inspection condition you usually have a short period to cancel; without one, only the 3-day cooling-off period after signing. We can often come within 1 working day.

What does a house survey in Haarlem cost?

€ 499 including VAT for a home up to 800 m³, plus € 0.50 per extra m³. With a foundation quick scan it’s from € 898.

Can I get the report in English?

The standard report is in Dutch; we can translate it into English for € 100 extra. The inspector explains everything in English on the day.

Are you chartered surveyors?

No. RICS is a British body. We’re Dutch building inspectors, NHG-recognised and NEN 2767 certified, and we work to NTA 8060.

Does the bank arrange a survey?

No. The bank relies on a valuation report from a registered valuer. Nobody checks the condition of the house for you unless you book a survey yourself.

Do you check for damp and mould?

Yes. We measure moisture in walls and floor timbers and go into the crawl space when it’s accessible. Rising damp turned up in 21% of our house surveys in Haarlem and Kennemerland.

Is asbestos included?

No. We report suspected asbestos material we can see, but we don’t take samples. Have it tested by a specialist before you sign.

Why not use the inspector the estate agent suggests?

The agent is paid when the sale goes through, and an inspector who gets work through agents has an interest in that relationship. Choose your own independent inspector and ask whether they receive work or fees from estate agents or mortgage advisers.

Do you survey outside Haarlem?

Yes, throughout Kennemerland, including Heemstede, Bloemendaal, Zandvoort, Velsen, IJmuiden, Beverwijk, Heemskerk, Castricum, Santpoort and Bennebroek.

Questions from our inbox

These are real questions that reach Premiumkeur by email, from homeowners, buyers and owners’ associations. We’ve left out names and details, and shortened some of them. Questions sent in Dutch have been translated.

Three days to get the survey done

“The deadline to submit an offer is Wednesday afternoon. If our offer is accepted, we intend to conduct the inspection within a three-day period”

Buyer bidding on a house in Haarlem

What we do. We plan the survey within those days. You choose between the building survey on its own or together with a foundation risk assessment, with floor levelling and masonry-joint measurements to check for settlement.

Contact details Premiumkeur Haarlem

Premiumkeur Haarlem
Tempeliersstraat 63
2012 EC Haarlem
Phone: 023-2340040 (from abroad +31 23 234 0040)
Email: premiumkeur@gmail.com

Premiumkeur B.V., Heiligeweg 30, 1012 XR Amsterdam
Chamber of Commerce (KvK): 81106130

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