Here at RES Property Surveyors, we very often get asked about how local the building surveyor is to the property on which the Building Survey is being undertaken. It is a very natural question and in this blog we try and answer that question.
Here at RES we are fortunate to have the following complete coverage:
• Building Surveyors in London;
• Building Surveyors in Kent;
• Building Surveyors in Hertfordshire;
• Building Surveyors in Essex;
• Building Surveyors in Brighton;
• Building Surveyors in the Home Counties;
• Building Surveyors in Liverpool;
• Building Surveyors in Manchester; and
• Building Surveyors in Birmingham.
This effectively gives us practical geographical coverage for the entirety of the South East of the UK and in most major cities in the North West and Midlands.
Our building surveyors will generally travel within a 1-hour radius of their location and this helps keep their geographical knowledge current and consistent, also having practical benefits on travel time.
However, if a building surveyor was to travel 2 hours for a building survey would this present an issue?
Given the experience of our building surveyors we consider it does not, however it could theoretically have its limitations and issues.
This mainly comes down to two principal areas in our opinion.
The first is understanding the build type of a property. An experienced surveyor should be able to assess a property’s build construction and these are generally either solid or cavity brickwork on, say, a house or converted flat unit and steel or concrete framing on flats. However, an example that can cause an issue is a property of non-standard construction which is fully rendered to hide its construction. This can be an example where local knowledge becomes key. It is not that a surveyor cannot ascertain the construction, but it is helpful for local knowledge to understand where such construction exists.
A further construction example is the use of early cavity brickwork systems in somewhere like Manchester. In Manchester, there are examples of properties constructed in 1880 – 1910, say, that used cavity construction whereby its introduction in London was later, from the 1920s – 1930s. An inexperienced building surveyor without local knowledge can more easily make an error in assessing base construction.
The further area where local knowledge is important but not necessarily imperative is soil conditions and subsidence risk. Knowing the underlying soil type or areas prone to mining activity can be key to assessing subsidence risk. The proliferating soil type can easily be gleaned online but it is very useful for surveyors to have a pre-existing knowledge of areas that are prone to subsidence.
For example, we know streets in London where subsidence has been encountered on previous surveys across different properties and where this has not necessarily translated to the neighbouring street. It can be this parochial.
In conclusion, it is much more important when choosing a Building Surveyor that the surveyor is detailed and experienced but it no doubt helps if this is allied to the fact that the building surveyor has local knowledge.
This is also the case for Market Valuations.
Here at RES we can accommodation both your residential and commercial Building Survey Requirements across the following geographical areas and environs.
• Building Surveys in London;
• Building Surveys in Kent;
• Building Surveys in Hertfordshire;
• Building Surveys in Essex;
• Building Surveys in Brighton;
• Building Surveys in the Home Counties;
• Building Surveys in Liverpool;
• Building Surveys in Manchester; and
• Building Surveys in Birmingham.
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