Choosing a surveyor?

Box Brownie

Box Brownie

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This is for residential property.

I was given a pointer to one who is RICS member and reports to their standard but oddly are not listed on RICS when I search for surveyors on that county!

Not sure what to make of it?
 
Seems odd. There are different types/skillsets of Chartered Surveyors. I only found this out when a plot next to a house I let out was bought and the 'develorer' wanted to build as big a house as he could on it. As it was on the legal boundary of my house and the other house, I did a bit of research and found that there would need to be 'Party Wall Agreement' in place which the developer would have to pay for. RICS were very helpful and seemingly there are not that many Chartered Surveyors qualified to do the work.

The developer was an obnovious idiot and wanted to use a particular guy for this. Bit of research showed each could have a different surveyor paid for by the main developer.

Expensive job with just 1 surveyor but the idiot had to pay for 3 (he still had to have one).

Upshot is do as much research as you can and shop around. In my experience a good properly chartered RICS surveyor can save angst and money long term. Ask for copies of their chartered status and check it fully. In my opinion, this is more important than the arcitect in the initial work. Ask for proof of work they undertake. Party Wall Agreements is but one skillset. Down here in Somerset there is a lot of old coal mines that were still bding worked (maintained till c1970, so flooding and Radod gas issues are part of the deal.

Karma arrived for me and for the other neighbour. The developer went bust and my neighbour and I bought the land and divided it 50/50.
 
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Hugh Jarse said:
Seems odd. There are different types/skillsets of Chartered Surveyors. I only found this out when a plot next to a house I let out was bought and the 'develorer' wanted to build as big a house as he could on it. As it was on the legal boundary of my house and the other house, I did a bit of research and found that there would need to be 'Party Wall Agreement' in place which the developer would have to pay for. RICS were very helpful and seemingly there are not that many Chartered Surveyors qualified to do the work.

The developer was an obnovious idiot and wanted to use a particular guy for this. Bit of research showed each could have a different surveyor paid for by the main developer.

Expensive job with just 1 surveyor but the idiot had to pay for 3 (he still had to have one).

Upshot is do as much research as you can and shop around. In my experience a good properly chartered RICS surveyor can save angst and money long term. Ask for copies of their chartered status and check it fully. In my opinion, this is more important than the arcitect in the initial work. Ask for proof of work they undertake. Party Wall Agreements is but one skillset. Down here in Somerset there is a lot of old coal mines that were still bding worked (maintained till c1970, so flooding and Radod gas issues are part of the deal.

Karma arrived for me and for the other neighbour. The developer went bust and my neighbour and I bought the land and divided it 50/50.
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You only need a surveyor for a Party Wall Agreement if a neighbour disputes it, there's a standard letter you can print off along with a standard "agree" or "disagree" letter that you can just download and print off yourself from the Gov website.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

This is a flat in a fairly modern building, so no hurdles.

I did have more of a dig around the RICS site and did find that surveyor as a member not a company... I was initially searching for companies. This one is MRICS and the other one I was told of is listed as a company and FRICS plus another difference this latter one is "regulated by RICS" and the other one is not.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
You only need a surveyor for a Party Wall Agreement if a neighbour disputes it, there's a standard letter you can print off along with a standard "agree" or "disagree" letter that you can just download and print off yourself from the Gov website.
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To be honest only a fool would not go for a party wall agreement where new footings or underpinnings will be less than one metre from your house walls, which is why a surveyor gets involved and the state and condition of existing properties are properly documented.

In mine and my neighbours case it was a 'no brainer' as it was a zero cost option for us as the developer was required to pay for our agreements and he also had to lodge a 'bond' against the value of another of his properties to cover the cost of damage to our property if there was any.

As it turnd out he was 'dodgy' in his whole attitude and subsequent investigations showed he had a poor approach to other peoples' property, access conditions and reasonable access.

So best of luck with anyone who accepts a 'pro forma' letter method when what is probably the biggest investment you will make - a house, is at risk by cowboy builders. A proper PWA will include a surveyor's report on the condition of your propert,ly, with supporting photographs and backed by the surveyor's indemnity insurance. The necessary report backing up the PWA is a lengthy tome and not an A4 sheet of paper.

I have seen a house damaged by the poor work done by a developer's workers digging new sewage pipes alongside a 150 year old house.... the bathroom fell into the new trenched after departing it's first floor berth.
 
Hugh Jarse said:
To be honest only a fool would not go for a party wall agreement where new footings or underpinnings will be less than one metre from your house walls, which is why a surveyor gets involved and the state and condition of existing properties are properly documented.

In mine and my neighbours case it was a 'no brainer' as it was a zero cost option for us as the developer was required to pay for our agreements and he also had to lodge a 'bond' against the value of another of his properties to cover the cost of damage to our property if there was any.

As it turnd out he was 'dodgy' in his whole attitude and subsequent investigations showed he had a poor approach to other peoples' property, access conditions and reasonable access.

So best of luck with anyone who accepts a 'pro forma' letter method when what is probably the biggest investment you will make - a house, is at risk by cowboy builders. A proper PWA will include a surveyor's report on the condition of your propert,ly, with supporting photographs and backed by the surveyor's indemnity insurance. The necessary report backing up the PWA is a lengthy tome and not an A4 sheet of paper.

I have seen a house damaged by the poor work done by a developer's workers digging new sewage pipes alongside a 150 year old house.... the bathroom fell into the new trenched after departing it's first floor berth.
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Don't tell my neighbours that... Lol
 
KitsuneAndy said:
Don't tell my neighbours that... Lol
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Well given the growth of 'infill' and garden sales for house building there has been a few 'interesting' fall outs by neighbours and what might be seen as inappropriate development.

I would imagine the rise in basement extentions in London will be an 'earner' for the lawyers as there are more than a few cases concerning damage to neighbouring properties in very high value London streets. I did a quick search online and it seems to be a regular feature in the Daily Mail!
 
Hugh Jarse said:
Well given the growth of 'infill' and garden sales for house building there has been a few 'interesting' fall outs by neighbours and what might be seen as inappropriate development.

I would imagine the rise in basement extentions in London will be an 'earner' for the lawyers as there are more than a few cases concerning damage to neighbouring properties in very high value London streets. I did a quick search online and it seems to be a regular feature in the Daily Mail!
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Quite possibly, ours is an old Edwardian property, 1903 we think. On the back of the kitchen was a pantry, coal shed and outdoor toilet, with an alleyway running between them and next door, we knocked down the existing outbuildings and filled in the alley way, removed our existing back wall to make a nice big open plan kitchen. The wall in question was underpinned as part of our foundation work just to be on the safe side. After all, any damage to it would undermine our own property in our case anyway.

But yeah, I was slightly surprised (and relieved) they signed it. But I imagine those like us, building something for ourselves, potentially take more care than people looking to make a profit.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
Quite possibly, ours is an old Edwardian property, 1903 we think. On the back of the kitchen was a pantry, coal shed and outdoor toilet, with an alleyway running between them and next door, we knocked down the existing outbuildings and filled in the alley way, removed our existing back wall to make a nice big open plan kitchen. The wall in question was underpinned as part of our foundation work just to be on the safe side. After all, any damage to it would undermine our own property in our case anyway.

But yeah, I was slightly surprised (and relieved) they signed it. But I imagine those like us, building something for ourselves, potentially take more care than people looking to make a profit.
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If you did the underpinning within the foundation work ti a highr spec that BR and local ground water tables are not an issue I would probably agreed your PWA too. Developers, as you allude to, want a quick in, sell quick move on approach.

What will help is the Edwardian style of house and builld quality improvements from the early 1900s whic was a lot better than the mass Victorian sprall approach which left many outer London 'new builds' with poor foundations, poor ventilation and, in the case of some Carlisle teraaces in the late 19th Century, no indoor sanitation! Air flow, indoor sanitation and houses wider than 18' was an improvement!

So an 18' wide terraced house built in 1885 tend to be marketed as 'Artisan's Cottages' these days.....

We lived in a house in 1959 in Camberwell South London which was built in 1958 between 2 semi detatched houses. It was less than 7' wide! Winston Churchill's grand daughter gave my parents the keys to their 'new' house. The toilet was 40' from the back door of the 'kitchen' at the bottom of a builders rubble patio!. That part of London was close to the Surrey Docks which was still in a bombed to buggery state 14 years after VE day.

The general experience 'may' have made me wary of so called property developers!
 
Hugh Jarse said:
If you did the underpinning within the foundation work ti a highr spec that BR and local ground water tables are not an issue I would probably agreed your PWA too. Developers, as you allude to, want a quick in, sell quick move on approach.

What will help is the Edwardian style of house and builld quality improvements from the early 1900s whic was a lot better than the mass Victorian sprall approach which left many outer London 'new builds' with poor foundations, poor ventilation and, in the case of some Carlisle teraaces in the late 19th Century, no indoor sanitation! Air flow, indoor sanitation and houses wider than 18' was an improvement!

So an 18' wide terraced house built in 1885 tend to be marketed as 'Artisan's Cottages' these days.....

We lived in a house in 1959 in Camberwell South London which was built in 1958 between 2 semi detatched houses. It was less than 7' wide! Winston Churchill's grand daughter gave my parents the keys to their 'new' house. The toilet was 40' from the back door of the 'kitchen' at the bottom of a builders rubble patio!. That part of London was close to the Surrey Docks which was still in a bombed to buggery state 14 years after VE day.

The general experience 'may' have made me wary of so called property developers!
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The original foundations weren't very deep at all, the new ones had to be 1.7m at the back of the house so the footing could be under the communal drain lol The house is now probably more stable than it ever has been.

Finding the matching tiles for the roof was a PITA though
 
KitsuneAndy said:
The original foundations weren't very deep at all, the new ones had to be 1.7m at the back of the house so the footing could be under the communal drain lol The house is now probably more stable than it ever has been.

Finding the matching tiles for the roof was a PITA though
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The effort pays off!

The matching tiles effort will keep the value and potential saleability high!

My cousin made a mint out of house fitting salvage in the 70s and 80s. He did the first stint in London then Dublin. Sold out just before the Irish economy went bang and crashed.

I am a great believer that effort in your home is about knowing that everything is in balance. Water tight, Warm, good services and quiet neighbours!
 
My togging buddy is one apparently there's a huge shortage of qualified surveyors at the moment due to things being on the up surge ,but his firm won't take on new staff in case of another downturn in the building trade .so he is rushed off his feet every day .
 
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