The 84-point property inspection checklist

1. Why 84 and not 50 or 200

The number 84 is not arbitrary, but it is also not a regulated standard. It is the result of working backward from the categories of defect that a buyer in Central Portugal actually has to negotiate around at the time the CPCV is signed and the deed completes some weeks later. The list is short enough that an inspector can complete it in a single property visit of three to five hours on an average detached house, but long enough that the major systems of the building each get more than a glance. Shorter checklists — the 30-point or 50-point inspections sometimes marketed at the lower price tiers — skip categories that matter; longer ones — the 200-point lists used for commercial or insurance inspections — over-document items that rarely move a residential negotiation.

The 84 points break down across nine categories. The exact allocation we use is structure (12 points), electrics (14), plumbing (12), roof (8), drainage (6), moisture (10), safety (8), exterior (8), and interior (6). The numbers are not equal because the categories are not equal: electrics has the most points because the safety-relevant items there are numerous and each one is binary (an earth bond is either present or absent), while interior has the fewest because most interior items reduce to cosmetic findings that belong in the report but rarely move the price.

2. Structure — 12 points

The structure category is the highest-consequence section of the report because a structural finding is the only category that can plausibly stop a sale rather than re-price it. The 12 points cover: foundation visible at any external face or in any cellar; ground-bearing slab condition where visible; ring-beam (cintamento) presence and any visible distress; corner ties at openings; lintel condition above each external opening; load-bearing wall condition (visual sweep + tap-test where appropriate); roof timber framing condition (sag, deflection, decay); chimney structural condition; staircase fixings; balcony and terrace structural fixings to the building; any visible retaining wall associated with the property; and any later additions or extensions where the junction to the original structure can be inspected.

The why for each: the foundation and slab matter because older rural stone houses frequently rest on shallow footings that an extension or a heavier modern roof can overload. The ring-beam matters because a Portuguese masonry house relies on a continuous ring-beam at floor and roof level to behave as a box rather than as four independent walls. Lintels matter because diagonal cracking under windows is the earliest visible sign of either a failed lintel or a settling foundation. Chimney structural condition matters because an old Beira chimney is often the heaviest single point load on a roof, and the worst-case failure is collapse onto the roof timbers below.

3. Electrics — 14 points

Electrics carries the most points because every safety-relevant item there is binary, and a missing protection that costs a few hundred euros to remediate can be the difference between a fire-safe and a non-compliant installation. The 14 points cover: incoming meter and consumer unit type and age; main earth bond presence and condition; RCD (interruptor diferencial) presence on each circuit group; circuit breaker rating and labelling; visible cable type and condition (the obsolete twin-cable PVC of the 1970s is still common in the Beira interior); socket count and type per room; any external socket present and weatherproof status; bathroom electrical-zoning compliance; kitchen ring-main capacity for modern white goods; lighting circuit condition; smoke alarm presence and battery age; any solar PV or solar-thermal installation; and the electrical-vehicle charging point if installed.

The single highest-priority finding in this category is the absence of an RCD on the bathroom and kitchen circuits. A house without RCD protection on wet-area circuits is one of the few remaining situations where a property finding moves directly into "fix before move-in." The second priority is any visible aluminium or twin-cable PVC wiring still in service: aluminium because of its known long-term failure modes at terminations, and PVC twin-cable because the insulation degrades brittle over decades and the ground-fault risk grows non-linearly with age.

4. Plumbing — 12 points

Plumbing is where the report's value is in flagging hidden cost rather than safety. The 12 points cover: incoming mains supply pressure and flow at the kitchen tap; water meter age and presence; visible pipe material throughout (copper, plastic, galvanised steel — galvanised is a flag); hot water generation system (electric, gas, solar, heat pump); pressure relief valve presence on the cylinder; isolation valve presence at each appliance; bathroom shower waste flow rate; kitchen drain flow rate; toilet flush mechanism age and condition; any visible leak or stain at a pipe joint; the state of any external taps and irrigation feeds; and the boiler combustion chamber condition where accessible. Hot water is its own complexity: an electric heater on a typical Portuguese tariff costs an order of magnitude more to run than a gas combi or a heat pump, and a buyer should know the operating cost before the deed.

Galvanised steel is the single highest-priority plumbing flag. Galvanised pipework rusts internally, narrows the bore over decades, restricts flow at the appliance, and at the failure point splits along the seam. Most Beira properties built before the late 1970s still have galvanised hot-water runs in service; we trace any visible galvanised pipework, photograph the cut sections at any service point, and recommend full replacement if the network is original.

5. Roof — 8 points

Roof condition is the single most expensive failure category on a typical Beira property and the second most likely to move the price after structure. The 8 points cover: tile or slate type, age, and condition (visible from the ground and from the loft side); ridge and hip mortar / flashing condition; chimney flashing condition (this is the most common roof-source leak path on a traditional Portuguese roof); valley flashing where present; gutter and downpipe condition and discharge path; underlay condition where visible from inside the loft; any visible repair patch on the roof field; and the lightning-conductor system if present and age-appropriate to require one.

Chimney flashing is where the roof-budget conversation usually starts. The traditional Iberian chimney flashing is a cement fillet rather than a soldered metal flashing, and a cement fillet has a typical service life of eight to fifteen years before craze cracks open and water tracks down inside the chimney. The repair, if caught early, is a few hundred euros; the consequence, if missed, is timber decay around the chimney breast that can run into thousands.

6. Drainage — 6 points and Moisture — 10 points

Drainage covers: foul-water connection (municipal sewer or fossa séptica); fossa séptica position relative to any well; rainwater discharge path from gutters to the storm drain or soakaway; ground-level surface-water management around the building; any visible French drain or other below-ground drainage; and the kitchen / bathroom waste-pipe routing in the most accessible locations. Portuguese regulation requires minimum distances between a fossa séptica and any well, and we always check that the on-site geometry satisfies the rule.

Moisture is the category most directly tied to the heat-map output and is therefore the most quantitatively reported. The 10 points cover: ground-floor wall base moisture sweep on every external wall; ground-floor wall base moisture sweep on every internal wall adjoining a wet room; first-floor wall base moisture sweep where there is a wet room above; ceiling moisture sweep below any flat roof or balcony; thermal-bridge moisture sweep at concrete columns and lintels; condensation hot-spot inspection on north-facing reveals; visible mould inspection in every room; salt efflorescence inspection on lime-rendered surfaces; any visible historical tide-mark; and the thermal imaging cross-check where a finding warrants it. The interpretation framework for the readings produced is in the moisture meter readings guide, and the diagnostic framework for distinguishing rising, penetrating, and condensation patterns is in the damp diagnosis guide.

7. Safety, Exterior, and Interior — 8 + 8 + 6 points

Safety covers the items a buyer should not sleep in the house without: smoke alarm presence and battery age; carbon-monoxide alarm presence near any combustion appliance; fire extinguisher presence in any quinta with multiple outbuildings; gas-supply leak test where mains gas is connected; window-restrictor presence on any first-floor window above a child-accessible drop; staircase handrail and balustrade height per current code; balcony rail height and child-resistance; and any visible electrical / gas / heating safety label or service stamp that can be photographed and cross-referenced against the appliance age.

Exterior covers the building shell and the immediately surrounding land: render and pointing condition on every elevation; window frame and glazing-seal condition; door frame and lock condition (security as well as weather-tightness); external paintwork condition; any visible pest-entry point (rodent, bat, swallow, hornet); external lighting and intercom; any boundary wall or garden retaining wall on the lot; and any private-access track or shared right-of-way that affects the property's legal usability. Interior covers six items that close out the report: floor coverings condition; internal door and lock condition; sanitary fittings condition; kitchen unit condition; built-in appliance age and condition; and any obvious visible cosmetic defect that should be priced for the buyer's mental sanity rather than for safety.

8. How the points add up to a negotiation

A finished 84-point inspection produces three documents the buyer takes to the negotiation: a categorised list of every point with green / amber / red flags; a written narrative summarising the highest-priority findings ranked by cost and urgency; and a heat-mapped LiDAR scan showing the moisture, structural, and roof findings spatially anchored to the building. The combination is what gives the buyer leverage. Three or four amber flags across structure and roof on a quinta typically support a renegotiation of three to eight per cent off the asking price, with the report attached to the buyer's offer letter as the evidentiary anchor.

What the 84 points are not designed to do: replace a structural engineer's detailed calculation, replace a registered electrician's certification, or replace a specialist damp-proofing surveyor's remediation specification. The list flags issues that warrant follow-up, not every detail of how to fix them. For a structural engineer recommendation we tag the report; for a damp specialist we cross-reference our heat map; for an electrician we hand over the consumer-unit photo and the missing-RCD list. The 84-point inspection is the buyer's starting point, not their final word — and that is the right framing to read it with. For where it fits in the broader pre-deed timeline, see the pre-purchase inspection guide; for the LiDAR component, see the LiDAR scanning workflow.