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If you’re thinking of purchasing, leasing, or making any major alterations to a commercial property in Notting Hill, you may want to engage the services of a commercial building surveyor.
Identifying defects in a building can give you vital leverage in negotiations and help you avoid an unwise investment. RICS-compliant commercial surveys are available to you in Notting Hill and could prove invaluable in court if you ever need to make an insurance claim—either as a tenant or a property owner.
If you are thinking of purchasing, leasing, letting, divesting, or refurbishing a commercial property in Notting Hill, you may benefit – or be required – to hire a commercial building surveyor.
Identifying the flaws in a building can give you leverage to strike a significant reduction in a property’s asking price or protect you from making a regrettable investment. One of the RICS-compliant commercial surveys, available throughout Notting Hill, could also bolster your chances of prevailing in a legal dispute over a claim for property insurance or in a disagreement between landlord and tenant.
A knowledgeable and proficient team of commercial surveyors in Notting Hill uses first-rate equipment to thoroughly examine all parts of a potential property. After performing a detailed inspection, they provide clients with a crystal-clear report—illustrated with photographs—that documents pertinent findings. If any defects were found, the report specifies what they are and provides general estimates of what it will cost to fix them.
Various kinds of commercial building surveys are conducted by chartered surveyors. They inspect the basic structure both inside and outside the building. This includes a close look at the roof, walls, and floors, a thorough inspection of the overall physical condition of the building. The surveyor may suggest tests for electrical and gas utilities and these tests will ensure that the utilities are functioning properly; the surveyor will not examine or assess them in detail as they are not within his/her remit.
Before purchase or lease, our panel of surveyors from Notting Hill can conduct a pre-acquisition survey on a building. This survey assesses the building’s condition, as well as any immediate and long-term repair needs. With this information, you can better plan, budget, and allocate resources for what will be your space. Both tenants and landlords can request pre-acquisition surveys.
In order to better understand the renting or leasing of a property, it is necessary to review the state of a building before it is occupied. The condition of the rented or leased property must also be noted. This information must be included in any record or schedule. In this way, the tenant is safeguarded against unjust increases in rent. Additionally, in the case of property being rented or leased, it urges landlords to make the condition of the property satisfactory before the tenant occupies the property.
If you inform your tenant that they are liable for repairs to your building, you will need to give notice in the form of a Schedule of Dilapidations. This is a document that lays out in some detail what is wrong with the building and what needs to be done to remedy the situation. It estimates the cost of the repairs, the time it will take to do them, and how disruptive the repairs will be to the building’s tenants. If you are a tenant facing a situation like this, you may want to consult a Notting Hill surveyor who can help make sense of the situation and provide some guidelines for what to do.
Almost every property harbours expensive flaws. Structural damage, for instance, can compromise the integrity of a building and create substantial safety hazards. Non-destructive testing can reveal such defects without tearing the property apart. If guided by a knowledgeable chartered surveyor, you can understand the extent of the damage, how it can be repaired, and the cost involved. Indeed, you can preserve your well-being and maintain a situation in which no unpleasant crises are likely to occur in the future.
The price you pay for a commercial survey will depend chiefly on the type of survey you need and how long the survey will take. In other words, if you wish to have a large parcel of land surveyed, you can expect to pay a large sum, and the same goes if your property has an unusual shape or boundary. Yet, even for properties of the same size and in the same area of Notting Hill, the price of a commercial survey can vary greatly.
In the commercial sector, building surveyors frequently use existing information to generate a property survey. When that property information isn’t available, the surveyor must undertake more work to produce the report. That additional work typically leads to a higher price for the survey. The survey’s location, the building’s present condition, and the property survey’s level of complexity can all affect the survey’s total price.
We are here to help clear up any questions you might have about the required survey and the likely costs.
An illustration of a Help to Buy Valuation Report is given in the first page of the document, which contains a brief overview of the property that is up for valuation. This overview is brief but filled with pertinent details that are likely to be shared with the lender. As part of the report, the valuers have to provide a summary description of the property. It is fair to say that the property description is one of the key parts of the report, and therefore, the valuers attempt to cover that section with as much detail as possible.
Next, you will see a list of the comparison properties the surveyor used to figure your property’s actual value. These are properties that are somewhat like yours and are located in proximity to it. The surveyor looked at their size, condition, location, and several other factors. Finally, the surveyor assessed whether these properties would have a higher, lower, or similar value compared to yours.
The surveyor’s opinion of the local housing market’s current state will be in the report’s last section. It will say whether the area is experiencing a rising, steady, or declining market. The last section will also contain the valuation estimate, along with any explanatory comments and evidence needed to support the conclusion.
The Full Building Survey report includes the following:
When it comes to the detail that the surveyor will go into concerning defects, repairs, and maintenance, the Homebuyer Survey is fairly standard. Full Building Surveys, however, are more refined and go into more detail about possible and likely defects. Repairs and maintenance are covered in more detail. The Survey cost depends on the age, size, and value of the property.
The analysis they undertake is a visual inspection. This means that, for the most part, the building components that can be seen will be looked at and assessed in accordance with the surveyor’s remit. The Home Survey Report will show you the visible defects and then go on to discuss the kinds of partially hidden or totally hidden defects that the surveyor thinks you should be aware of. It will also try to clarify what kinds of repair work need to be done and the nature of the repairs. The survey is effectively a way to consider “defects” and their potential impact on the building.
A Building Survey Report contains the most important information for understanding the condition of a property. The surveyors that undertake the work follow a set procedure. The first part of the report contains a general overview of the property and its surroundings. The second part details the major and minor problems with the property’s components, inside and out. These problems range from serious structural defects to issues with doors or windows that don’t close properly, and everything in between. The report is written in clear English, complemented by diagrams and photographs. If any of the problems found are what a surveyor might consider important, that’s what the report indicates—using clear and unambiguous language.
Surveyors usually use a tick box to indicate methods of repair when drafting a building survey report. They are also required to comment on the timescale of any repairs. A condition rating is typically included: what needs to be addressed immediately, what is in the process of deteriorating but is in reasonable condition, and what has not deteriorated at all.
A building surveyor is responsible for a variety of checks and tests during a building inspection. These could be checks or tests for damp and woodworm, or they could be visual inspections of the building’s structure. In building surveying, there are visual inspections of roofs – checking for tiles and slates (if applicable) and also checking for leadwork (if applicable) and looking at the junctions between roof and wall. If the wall structure has brick in it, the surveyor will visually check for any “spalling” (brick breaking apart visibly) and any bulging (brick failing to hold its place visibly), for example.
If defects need fixing immediately, then the options recommended for this survey specify what to repair and give some idea of how long the problem has existed. For the most part, this survey describes recommended repair approaches that are standard in the industry and that do not require excessive expenditure. Future maintenance is also discussed, including what to expect when the problem being surveyed is not repaired and what to expect with repairs that are made but with questionable methodology.
Your surveyor will explain some of the legal aspects of purchasing the building, covering—in as much or as little detail as you desire, and their implications, but this is subject to your solicitor verifying.
You might consider having a separate market valuation done to determine whether the property’s asking price is warranted. You’ll also need a reinstatement cost valuation for insurance reasons.
RICS’s industry guidelines suggest building surveys for properties that are large, very old, in some disrepair, or have unusual features. Building surveys are also recommended if you plan to do any significant renovations or extensions.
If you’re purchasing a relatively modern home that’s in decent shape and built to ordinary standards, then a Home Buyer Survey is an acceptable choice. If you want the assurance of an inspection and report that are pretty much guaranteed to turn up any issues that might be hidden or just hard to see, then you should go for a Full Building Survey instead.
The Full Building Survey is more detailed; it is more specifically tailored to the property your surveyor would be inspecting. It also comes with more advice on the visible defects found and on the potential hidden defects that they suspect may be present. Your surveyor will illustrate reports with photographs so that you can clearly see what has been discovered. Both the Home Buyer and Full Building Surveys describe the repairs needed, the order in which the repairs should be done, and the kind of “maintenance measures” that will be required to keep the property in good condition.
A HomeBuyer Report does include a market valuation as well as reinstatement costs. However, a Full Building Survey does not. The main reason for the differences in what is and isn’t included in the two types of reports is how focused the reports are on the condition of the property. The Full Building Survey is the most in-depth and comprehensive survey of a property that you can have done.
All the professionals on our panel, whether Building Surveyors or Structural Engineers, are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or hold equivalent accreditation from an industry-standard body (e.g. RPSA or CIOB). This ensures that you can be completely confident in the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of your Building Survey Report or Valuation. Your surveyor will be independent and will provide you with expert advice based on their judgment and without any bias.
Looking for a Chartered Surveyor? If you are buying a property, contact us for a building survey. Our panel of CIOB, RPSA and RICS surveyors will help you with the Level 2 or Level 3 property survey you need in Notting Hill. We can also assist you in Red Book Valuations, Party Wall Awards and other services. Reach out to us today for building surveyors, valuers and party wall surveyors in London!
