The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors or RICS was founded in 1868 but was originally the “Surveyors Club” and can be traced back to 1792. It is the first name that the general public think of when dealing with Surveyors for residential surveys. What the general public will probably not be aware of is that […]
The Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA) is a not-for-profit representative body for independent residential surveyors. It was born out of the now defunct Home Information Pack providers or HIP and was formed in 2010. RPSA members unlike the RICS are solely specialists in residential property. Whereas you could have qualified RICS member surveyor who is […]
The new home survey standard https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/building-surveying-standards/home-surveys/home-survey-standards is a framework that sets out the minimum standards that surveyors must meet when carrying out home surveys. Covering a wide range of topics, including the condition of the property, the presence of any defects, and the potential for any future problems. Designed to give buyers peace of mind […]
What is the pre survey questionnaire? The RICS refer to this as the “Vendor Liason Checklist”. From the 1st of September 2021 all RICS regulated practises should be undertaking surveys to the new RICS home survey standard. This standard was designed to ensure that all practises will be delivering a similar product to their customers. […]
Hedges Hedges can provide great natural boundaries for properties. They provide habitat for wildlife. They have no planning permission requirements. So these are good ways of screening when higher boundaries are required. But there are good neighbour and various case laws surrounding this and it is very complex. When forming a new boundary, hedges do […]
Do you know who is responsible for the boundaries? Boundaries are a question that we are asked on every survey. The short answer is we do not know which boundary is yours. The only way to tell is the deeds. These should tell you which boundary is yours. A T mark will point towards the […]
As part of our boundary series, we will look at the various sorts of fencing. Fencing is something often overlooked during the purchase process. If it has been overlooked then with the current timber prices this will be an expensive oversight. We tend to do a very complicated test on fencing. This simply involves leaning […]
As we are coming into winter and the storm season, we thought we would look at this construction. This tends to be where a smaller fences are attached to the top of a wall to give height and privacy. This is often done without any thought for wind loading or design. The posts/fence supports are […]
During our surveys we comment on the condition of boundary walls. This is normally overlooked by our clients during the average brief viewing time of less than 15 minutes. Rebuilding external boundary walls is very expensive. The only time a condition of a boundary wall is normally noted is when it fails. We often see […]
What is cavity wall insulation? We have done a lot on types of walls. If you have a cavity wall, the gap between the bricks or blocks can be filled with insulation. This is a very politicised issue. There are some instances where poor and inappropriate insulation has caused serious issues in buildings. This tends […]