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With massive increases in fraudulent claims, Insurance Companies being hit by multiple natural disasters and premiums levels fluctuating widely, can you control the risks that are inherent in owning or occupying residual property?

Picture the scene – you have just opened your annual renewal documentation and the premium seems reasonable. What do you do? Some will hit the “Go Compare” websites and get cheaper premium quotations. Some cannot be bothered and simply file the paperwork (doing nothing is a great option as this usually means your policy will be automatically renewed).

What is wrong with this little scenario?

The answer is “nothing”, in many cases. However the right answer must be based on your own particular circumstances. I would argue that never has a time existed whereby are you more strongly recommended to STOP, THINK and REVIEW before you decide what to do.

Question ONE – Has the policy cover changed in any way OR does it include all that you need? Often the excess payment is incremental based on what is being claimed; Often the list of exclusions has been extended but you would need to very carefully read the small print to find such changes; often cover has been limited in some way. You need to make sure that you are getting value-for-money before you decide to renew.

Question TWO – Have you completed any works, improvements, alterations that either increases what needs to be covered or which might adversely affect the Buildings Insurance Company view of what risks they are taking in extending cover to you. Remember you are under a duty to inform Insurers if anything has changed or is unusual.

These two questions are fairly simple but do you know the real import of them? Do you know what might happen if you ignored the ground rules, buried your head in the sand, renewed blindly and then had to make a claim during the next year?

Firstly you have to understand what insurance is not. It is not a cover-all-get-out that absolves you from well maintaining your home. If you have something that you know is going to wear out after a finite period, you ignore it, it fails and causes house subsidence, are you covered? Probably not but this is a grey area. EG: If you have underground drains made from pitch-fibre your drains will fail very quickly now because we know they have not stood the test of time.

What would happen if you planted trees over your drains or too close to your home and in ten years time the tree roots cause damage that results in house subsidence – are you covered?

What happens if you completed an attic conversion, installed a Conservatory, replaced your old, single glazed windows with state-of-the-art double glazing and you fail to tell Insurers and then have a claim that includes these items? Are you covered bearing in mind your cover did not reflect the added cost of these items?

If your insurance level was correctly assessed many years ago and has been index-linked ever since and you make a claim and Insurers say you are under insured and will not pay out the full amount to reimburse you? Have you a case for complaint or not?

If only the answers were simple.

First let’s put to bed a few myths: The home value has nothing to do with the correct “sum insured” for Insurance rebuild purposes: Index-linked policies can easily get out-of-sync over the longer term (leaving you either under-insured or having paid inflated premiums unnecessarily).

In recent years some Insurers have decided to de-complicate Buildings Insurance and simply tell you that having taken data from the Loan Valuation Report they automatically insure your home for the correct amount. This is great, provided the Loan Valuer has got it right (and do not forget that often you do not nowadays get a copy of the Valuers Report to be able to check these things).

In my own case my Mortgage Company simply stated that my home is now insured as a two bed house. I explained to them it was built as a three bedroom home but that I use it as a two bedroom home. After eight years residence here I still cannot get a simply letter to categorically state that I am not under-insured (anything a staff member cannot understand gets placed at the back of the queue and is never actually answered).

So – how can you cut though all this nonsense and ensure you have good, effective cover?

In fairness the Insurance Company industry has begun to get its act together but with increased competition for short term customers (introductory deals that are not renewed OR companies placing the best deals with new customers rather than with loyal existing customers) we are all changing Insurers with greater frequency.

Upon your annual Buildings Insurance renewal PROinspect suggest a STOP and THINK policy review would be wise. The following questions are core data needed to assess how you approach your Buildings Insurance renewal:-

1-  have you improved your property in any way?

2-  does anything influence your home or has that degree of influence materially increased?

3-  have you adequately maintained your home so as not to allow risks to develop?

4-  if your cover is index-linked, how many years has this indexation applied?

5-  has the offered cover changed in any way at all compared with last years cover?

6-  if you have gone to a Comparison Website are quotations all on the exact same basis?

7-  do you live in/on a floodplain?

8-  do you live in an area of shrinkable clays?

9-  is your home and site liable to surface water flow damage (not associated with sea and river flooding)?

10-  do you live in an area prone to coal-mining, landslip, radon gas, etc… (high risks)?

11-  have you made any claims in the last year? Have these been resolved/agreed/closed?

Whether you would be well advised to take your business elsewhere, at lower annual premiums, depends of the answers to these questions. If your home is unchanged within its risk-free location and environment then the chances are that accepting the lowest premium for an agreed and defined level of cover is just the ticket for you.

However, for the rest of us, millions of occupiers, the situation is much more complex. The rest of us must carefully weigh Premium quote –V- Degree of Cover –V- Risk Assessment (of your own home and what affects it).

The quote is a given (assuming you have fully declared all relevant information to Insurers); the degree of cover is a given (but look out for small print changes or exclusions); what is not a constant is the Risk Assessment aspect of the renewal.

At what stage does increasing vandalism in your housing district need to be declared to Insurers on renewal?

How do you know if tree roots are affecting your drains if when you flush the toilet the waste goes away freely?

If your home has never flooded, and is not in or near a floodplain, how do you know if your home is at risk of water damage due to exceptionally high rain storms due to climate change?

The name of the game is to know you are one step ahead of Insurers and you do not place Buildings Insurance cover at risk. To achieve this you must understand what influences both insurance premiums and your home.

Let me explain one further aspect to consider: you have a nice home and have never had any problems or made any claims. On renewal you consider the premium quote is too high and go elsewhere knowing cover is slightly restricted but you will be saving £150 during the year.

Suddenly, nine months later, your home begins to crack and distort – you have subsidence. The Insurance Company Loss Adjuster says structural underpinning of the house foundations is needed plus many reinstate works. The cost is £75,000. Your excess payment is £1,000. However, then your troubles really begin . . . . . .

Insurers say that the cause of the subsidence is a fractured drain caused by excavations associated with the paved patio you laid yourself behind the lounge after you had a large tree removed. This work was completed 18 months ago – 6 months before you changed Insurance Company. In essence the cause of the damage, and claim, pre-existed the start of the Insurance cover and you did not declare the risk.

If you were under-insured by say 25% then any claim at all would be reduced by 25%. But, in the example just quoted above the Insurance Company could decide not to honour your claim at all. Conversely, new protocols between participating Insurance Companies might mean that if any liability is accepted then the current Insurer will pay part and the previous Insurers a further part.

So, a summary might be to say that premium level is not everything. Look beyond the premium, check the degree of cover and then Risk Assess your home and what influences it. Have you done anything that might trip you up later on when you have to make a claim? However, if funds are low and you have no alternative but to look for the cheapest possible premium quote then do so but whilst perhaps setting certain minimum degrees of cover for certain risks.

Unfortunately we have recently entered a period of high subsidence risk due to low rainwater rates over the last year or so. Cyclical patterns suggest subsidence rates will soon soar and so changing Building Insurers might just be one risk too far if you live in a clay based soil area.

At PROinspect we ensure we consider any survey completed for customers includes appropriate advice about Insurance risks of flooding, storm damage and structural movement. By this route you can reduce the risks you take. In exceptional cases we might consider the risks are so real and high such that Market Value is adversely affected – our report opinion of Value may enable you to purchase at a discounted sum to allow for such risks.

Regular car inspections and vehicle maintenance is mandatory so why is a home NOT subject to periodic safety, energy, thermal insulation and environmental standards regulation as well?

In an increasingly PC world why do we allow energy to be wasted and home owners to allow property to fall into a potentially dangerous state or one that is prejudicial to healthy living? Also remember that a vast number of UK homes remain empty for many years for no good reasons.

Should not society produce radical solutions likes home-owners having to state how many people have resided at their house (how many days per year, per person in relation to bedspaces available) and what energy costs were paid out for those people for that period. This would be one possible method whereby we begin to see which homes are falling behind – it would begin to tag “at risk” homes.

Recently Google completed the systematic recording of most streetscenes in England for its Google Streets initiative. Think of the cost of this! On the basis that homes at risk of falling into ruin are usually easily identifiable from the outside then it does not take a lot of imagination to realise that most sub-standard or at-risk homes could be identified by either simple human viewing of the front exterior (some flats being the only exception) and/or by means of mobile thermal imaging techniques.

If the above is correct then we can now easily identify most homes at risk and therefore target advice, help and perhaps grant finance. So why is help not always at hand to those who need it most? Why do so many buildings remain in poor order or even vacant for so many years?

Four reasons – finance, red tape, lack of education and lack of motivation:-

1. Society cannot motivate itself sufficiently to care enough.
2. The do-gooders produce solutions then fail to re-educate occupiers in ways to ensure good health and a good environment: often this is as simple as telling occupiers how to reside at any particular home in order to avoid condensation.
3. When we want to help often society often throws up NIMBY objections, Planning Rejections, Building Regulation disapprovals, etc… Red Tape bogs down initiative and solutions and therefore saps at our good intentions.
4. Money makes the world go round but when the needy require property help often the red-tape within the public systems employed to help those in need causes massive profit taking or sub-standard untimely solutions.

I do not wish or seek to belittle the massive help that many organisations can and do deliver to the least well off but what does bother me is that the resources and finance available to help those in need is so fragmented and disjointed that it comes a poor second to, say, the resources put into creating New Build projects for those who can afford a nice environment.

Are our resources and systems out of balance? Yes, I believe they are and that we need to re-consider how support mechanisms operate in future. A fundamental rethink is needed and this starts with early identification of poor housing so our housing stock is systematically improved (worst home owners having their properties taken away from them at discounted rates where no just cause of that property decline can be provided).

Some of you might say: nothing new in the above. I say yes, this is a radical solution because it seeks to identify problem cases before they reach that state whereby they are beyond economic repair and help whereby occupants are immediately displaced. The whole thrust of care becomes focused at the preventative stage before the state has to re-house the victims within our society.

Annual energy and occupancy housing returns linked to visual or thermal imaging generic surveys in identified worst cases. What do you think?

If you need advice, perhaps a review of your own portfolio of homes, or a consultation to take stock of where you are going with housing, why not call me for a chat? Stuart Parrett 01489 896 174 or use the CONTACT FORM at www.proinspect.co.uk.

As only a small minority of buyers have any private survey we at PROinspect are concerned for thePublic. HIPs were to have Sellers Surveys, the best thing possible for buyers, but disinformation and politics managed to knock it out of sight.

So What do you need to do – When and How?

Don’t ring a Surveyor and say “I need a survey, how much do you charge?”. This does not give the Surveyor a chance to understand what you are buying and making a recommendation on the best survey product. The Surveyor could, in many scenarios, save you many pounds if you will only take the time to listen.

It all starts with how you approach your private Surveyor………..

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What are you buying – House Bungalow Flat.

How old is it? – Victorian Modern 1930′s etc….

How big is it? – No of Bedrooms? No of reception rooms? etc….

What is its general state? – Modernised? Well presented? Derelict?

What price have you offered OR what is the Asking Price?

Where is it? – Which Town or Post Code etc….

Do you have specific plans for the home?

Do you have specific concerns about anything?

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These matters allow the Surveyor to understand YOU and what you are BUYING. Once you have agreed the survey product and a fee cost and issued an clear instruction for us to proceed we will need the following type of data from you:-

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Required Customer Information

PROinspect and our customers must communicate and agree at least the following data and terms:

1. Client name and full address (if more than one person then multiple data is needed).
2. Home, work and mobile call details of each client.
3. Preferred E-mail address of each client.
4. Full address of home to be inspected (including post code).
5. Home access method and details (typically an Estate Agents full details).
6. If a home HIP exists – the full reference number of that document in sufficient detail to allow us to download it.
7. If the client knows what survey product they need then please provide the NAME of that product OR tell us what is worrying you about the home.
8. What extras to the standard service level are needed?
9. Fee agreement – the sum, how and when it will be paid etc… We usually require full payment before we submit our Report or findings to the customer.
10. The urgency of the transaction (do you have any pre-agreed deadlines?).
11. Full details of your solicitor (including call number, name and personal e-mail address).

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PROinspect will then e-mail or mail our verification, business Terms, product scheme, Conditions plus fee Invoice.

We will contact the Agent or Home Owner and do all that is necessary to inspect the premises and to report to you. Once you have our verified Fee Quotation and Terms/Conditions, and have indicated your full agreement o our service(s), then we do everything leaving you free of the stress and worry of having to organize anything.

It really is simple – if you are looking, or live in, Southern England call me for further advice and opinion.  +44 (0)1489 896 174 or use the CONTACT FORM above. Stuart Parrett.

DG of a well known national company of Developers kindly provided this comment. PROinspect have provided valuation and surveying services without blemish to this industry for over 12 years.

A PDF version of this testimonial can be supplied if you request via the Query FORM on our Home Page.

RICS Website report extracts taken in January 2010

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Well done Scotland!

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Chartered surveyors are the only professionals by law able to carry out the single survey, valuation and energy report in the Home Report. A recent survey of home owners/buyers concluded that Scottish buyers and sellers are, without a doubt, benefitting from the Home Report – says RICS Scotland as the scheme passes its 1st anniversary (in December, 09).

Most properties being put on the market for sale require a Home Report by law, commissioned by and paid for by the seller. New builds are one of the few types of property that do not require a Home Report.

The average cost of a Home Report for an average property in average condition is around £430 plus vat. This is much lower than the £1000 suggested in 2008 by groups that were against the Home Report before and at its inception.

There is no doubt the Home Report has benefitted buyers and sellers over the past 12 months. The Home Report offers clarity to buyers and sellers about what the property is worth and what condition it is in right from the start and that’s what the Home Report set out to do. The Home Report was not intended to miraculously fix the housing market but as our survey of chartered surveyors shows, it has certainly not hindered the market.”

Graeme Hartley, director of RICS Scotland

These figures make clear why it is so important to have a Home Report. This simple tool, which doesn’t cost a fortune, has given would-be buyers – about to take the biggest financial leap of their lives – the best possible information upfront. And it has brought in its gift a host of other benefits. Buyers can now keep hold of their savings for deposits, without having to shell out for surveys on properties they don’t get to buy. There is also a much more clarity about the value of a house, with the virtual end to the unrealistic ‘offers-over’. For sellers it’s proving a great way to attract inquiries from potential buyers and guide them on how to prepare the property for sale. In the round, its good news for everyone.”

Alex Neil, Housing and Communities Minister

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Arts & Antiques outshines all!

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The rebound in the arts and antiques market continues to gain momentum. RICS publishes the results for the UK Arts & Antiques Survey Q4 2009.

Prices in the arts and antiques market continue to rise with silver and jewellery leading the way, whilst contemporary art came back into favour following a year of price falls, says the latest survey from RICS.

The all lot price balance continued to edge up in the final quarter of 2009, with 17% more surveyors reporting rising rather than falling prices, up from 14% in the previous quarter; this was the highest since the first three months of the year.

Silver and jewellery remain the strongest sectors with 50% and 37% of surveyors reporting rising rather than falling prices in these categories respectively. These are traditionally seen as safe havens for investors, but their continuing strength can be attributed to the increased scrappage value of precious metals towards the end of the year.

Reversing four quarters of falling prices, the contemporary art market experienced a resurgence during the final three months of 2009. The balance of surveyors reporting rising rather than falling prices was 6%, the first positive reading since Q3 2008, and up from -34 the previous quarter.

In the oil and watercolour subsector, 5% more surveyors reported rising rather than falling prices with the top end of the market fairing particular well. For lots over £50,000, the top bracket, 17% more surveyors recorded rising rather than falling prices. In contrast the balance was only 9% for contemporary arts, indicating that traditional pieces remain more popular for large investors.

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House prices continue to rise albeit at a slower pace

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House prices are on the rise albeit from a level level and geography is important – not all areas are showing increases.

In December, 30% more Chartered Surveyors reported a rise than a fall in house prices down from 35% in November. A significant majority of surveyors are still recording price increases in London, the South East, the South West and East Anglia. However, more surveyors in the North and the West Midlands are seeing falls in house prices indicating that the recovery in the market is less entrenched in some parts of the country than others.

For the seventh consecutive month, more Chartered Surveyors are reporting that the number of new instructions is increasing rather than falling. 17% more Chartered Surveyors reported a rise than a fall in new instructions. Fresh demand for property is still outstripping new supply but the gap has narrowed. 20% more surveyors stated that enquiries from potential purchasers are rising rather than falling but enquiries rose at the slowest pace since January 2009.

Other demand indicators are also losing some momentum, although they remain in positive territory. The newly agreed sales balance slipped to 22 from 24 while the sales expectations net balance dropped to 6 from 20.

Transaction levels were little changed in December. The number of sales per surveying firm is still hovering around 19 for the fourth consecutive month while the closely watched sales to stock ratio – a measure of market slack and a lead indicator of future prices- fell back slightly.

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London office availability no longer rising

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The amount of office space available to tenants in London declined for the first time in two years as the London economy started to lead the country out of recession.

Demand for business property increased in the fourth quarter of 2009 with office space and industrial property proving particularly popular but demand for retail space continued to decline.

Fourteen percent more chartered surveyors reported a rise in tenant demand, up from 8% in the previous quarter. This is the second successive rise in tenant demand and the first time that there has been an upward trend since early 2007.

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Where would we be without trees?

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I have no objection to tree hugging although, in some cases, if the tree is too close to your home then I would advise you to get rid of the tree.

This is not being anti-tree (if there a term for this?). Instead I am simply recognizing that trees take a lot of water out of the ground and if the sub-soils heave or contract due to that influence then house stability may be compromised.

The graphic below (lifted from a national newspaper article – sorry about the jaded quality) shows “safe” distances whereby trees can safely co-exist with housing.

If any one tree is within the “safe influencing distance” suggested then it could cause subsidence issues to your home and/or its drainage system.

Conversely, if a group of trees is clumped together they collectively could all be outside the safe distance but act as if within that safe distance.

House foundations are designed to accommodate some ground movements: in extremely bad soils (clays are the worst) foundations may have had to be especially designed and constructed to cope with such hostile conditions.

In other cases the danger that trees pose is indirect: consider tree roots being too close to a drain run (but well away from a home) – those roots can grow into the drains that then fracture and that water leakage either (1) removes fine deposits within your soil and that causes house subsidence or (2) that water swells the soil and that expansion causes soil “heave” (the opposite to subsidence) that causes the same massive damage to your home.

Removal of trees can also cause the ground to swell up (heave) and so tree removal is not something to be done without first taking professional advice.

So – foundations, trees, drains, sub-soil types and their various interactions are all connected. If you disturb that delicate balance inappropriately then you will have potential consequences that may not be insurable. On the face of such damage your insurance claims should be covered but if the insurers believe the damage was self-inflicted because you planted trees too close to your home, or removed them inappropriately, then you run the risk of your claim being reduced or completely thrown out.

This places the burden of maintaining trees firmly on landowners shoulders. Crowning, lopping, root pruning, root barriers, etc…. are all matters that may need to be considered when advising on trees.

Be warned.

If you are southern England and need advice and opinion, simply call me or use the CONTACT FORM above. Stuart Parrett.

When is a “new” home not worth what you paid for it?

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Buy today at, say, £250,000; sell tomorrow for less (regardless of market conditions).

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According to “new thinking” (post-Credit-Crunch) the answer is NOW – an immediate fall in reported value can be expected.

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Developers and Lenders have noted valuation inconsistencies over many years now despite their attempts to QA out certain historic bugs-in-the-system. EG: once upon a time all parties came together and established the concept of “New-Build-Premium” on brand new homes; this has since been rescinded and no longer exists.

Valuation uncertainty can be traced to many factors, such as – market volatility, poor professional direction (to Valuers), differing policies adopted by the many lenders/valuer-chains, lack of transparency on Builders’ buyer-incentives, etc…..

Indeed, Valuation nowadays seems to have drifted from a professional opinion of what the local market will bear to simply what can be inferred by comparison with historic transactions. The result? Over-cautious Valuations by “directed” Valuers (as opposed to the Valuer exercising free-will and giving a true professional opinion).

Nationwide has been operating a New Homes Valuation guidance scheme that includes an opinion of “resale value*” as well as “current value” (*market value but upon the special assumption that the property has already been occupied – for six months, at least: making the home “second hand”).

This resale value means that any element of premium being paid because the home is “new” is to be discounted from the figurework.

This is a real grey area and official guidance by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and others, is not entirely clear and not nearly comprehensive enough to currently protect its members from claims of negligence.

The problem for Valuers is that the second-hand market that produces comparables may not have the same design features, low-maintenance materials, low-energy-consumption figures (etc…) as the new home.

This now causes the Valuer to have to identify exactly (1) what creates the value of the new home, (2) of those factors, which are unique to the particular new home and (3) which of those factors should be excluded, (4) how is each excluded factor to be assigned an element of value, plus (5) which new home features disappear after six months (when the condition of the home is not perfect any more).

A new science is in the making – how much additional value does a door-bell create? What deduction should be included for having a non-porous driveway in a floodplain area? You could easily disappear in dispair at the complexity of these matters.

The answer is always simple – look at Valuation holistically and ensure any significant new features are then identified and considered: make notes to explain your logic, any evidence you have to support that logic and then value accordingly.

One feature that has seemingly had its own solution is the 2008 introduction of the Council of Mortgage Lenders INCENTIVES DISCLOSURE FORM. The Valuer must ask to see this document on all New Home valuations. The Form lists the sale incentives used – discounted mortgages, cash-back schemes, no-fees mortgages, free gifts, nothing to pay for a period, carpets and curtains included, etc…. However, for clients who have revealed their financial affairs to us PROinspect has seen many of these Forms and it is our opinion that the actual sale price remains less than transparent.

Another, and topical, factor to mention is that in poor market conditions Auction Sale results can be viewed as distressed-sales and not wholly indicative of the overall local marketplace (and repossessed homes can often be in poor condition).

Another problem is that the world is imperfect and knowledge is not freely shared. Each Valuer will have comparables, but not all comparables. FACT – imperfect knowledge creates valuation variations.

The latter feature is the basis of why most Loan Companies have in-house or controlled PANELS of Valuers. Each valuation instruction to a Panel Member goes with a list of known comparables.

This practice creates a closed cartel of Valuation instructions. This is not necessarily a bad thing: any system is as good as its weakness link – if the instruction data is good then the valuation opinion output is capable of being accurate.

In an ideal world all Valuations would be placed on a national database and be freely available within days of completion. Each Valuation instruction would come with all known data.

In essence valuation will have moved away from expressing a professional opinion to be replaced with data analyst skills. Is this the first shot of the creation of a two tier valuation and mortgage market – (1) 100% mortgages based upon data analyst Reports and (2) restricted mortgages based upon all other opinions?

As always, part of the answer is focused in market education: most of the public will be unaware of the politics of the art of valuation (and they may not even care about such matters) and therefore may be happy to continue to blindly accept whatever the Loan Company tell them and not elect to pay for an independent assessment of worth, perhaps also not even commissioning a private condition survey, to assess the real risks of purchase.

Credit Crunch showed how financial Institutions can be systemically rotten and not put the client first: New Home loan Valuations and Valuers are in danger of being sucked into a similar vicious cycle unless true leadership can be shown by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (the leading body that regulates Valuers) who need to rise above the dictates of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Home insulation

an eye witness report….with a little help from a special camera

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Two years ago I obtained part grant finance to put cavity wall insulation into my own house. Earlier this year I purchased a thermal camera for business purposes and needless to say I carefully inspected my own home. I was not a happy man when the thermal images revealed that the cavity insulation was poorly installed and/or had partially compacted excessively.

I will deal with my own home situation in due course. In the meantime I had eventually convinced my father that he should also have insulation installed in this late 1950’s built detached home. I was determined to make sure my father did not have the same problems as me and this started with the choice of contractor.

I had previously been contacted by a local sales Rep of a leading national company and had already been introduced to the company that was eventually choosen; the same company that was recommended by my Local Authority.

This company sent a Surveyor out and my father asked me to meet him to discuss the job. This survey took about 35 minutes including a 15 minute interview. During the latter it was determined that my elderly parents would not pay a penny. Great news.

Both loft insulation and cavity wall insulation were to be inserted. An appointment for two weeks hence was agreed.

Come the day, at 8-00 am prompt, the cavity wall insulation team arrived. The crew immediately recognized that the former baxi back-boiler vent (now used as a tamper – air flow regulator – for an infrequent solid fuel fire in the lounge fireplace) would be compromised by the wall insulation and so a room-vent would need to be introduced or else the wall insulation could not be inserted. Health & Safety Regulations could not be broken.

The initial site survey had not picked this up and my father was being asked to pay for this extra – or so it seemed: the contractors then said that it was the surveyors fault and so they would go ahead but at there own cost. Great news again.

The whole process took nearly 6 hours on-site: the debris and brick dust (from the drilling operations) was collected and the grounds (and my fathers car) hosed down accordingly. During this process the Loft Insulation team arrived and simultaneously introduced quilted insulation to the loft. The latter also included insulating the water tanks and pipes.

As a house Surveyor I made sure the loft insulation did not cover an electrical (typically 20-30 amp circuits) cables and did not impede essential loft space ventilation.

Despite the noisy drilling operations, that created large amounts of dust externally, the whole process was well executed and the two teams of installers both well trained and well mannered. My parents were delighted.

End of story? No….the benefits arrive by my parents turning the temperature thermostat down a couple of degrees and the timer being set to cut in 30 minutes later and 30 minutes earlier than previously programmed, morning and night. Why? Well, the house now heats up quicker and losses heat more slowly as well as uses less energy to create the required, same, environmental standard.

If the question was – why wouldn’t I have cavity insulation installed? My answer would be (1) cost grounds if you did not attract grant finance, (2) premises too exposed to high winds and rain, (3) house construction does not include cavity walling, (4) the general condition of the premises is too bad to justify cavity insulation that would suffer from adverse consequences of rain penetration or (5) there is no point to having the cavities insulated if you will soon be having other improvements done that may have create problems of insulation leakage (creating cavity voids) that may adversely affect the weather performance of the building.

In essence the pre-installation survey is perhaps the most important part of the process. A mixture of recognising small details and macro details that combine to ensure a safe and fully functional energy saving thermal improvement. A good example of the power and import of good surveying.

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Strange things do happen: it started with FLIES!

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Let the buyer beware

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A lady called me to ask why her new home was filled with flies. I don’t know, I replied, where are the flies? In my windows, she replied. Perhaps the frames or trickle-vents are not sealed properly? After a few minutes she insisted I call out to “look and advise” (for a small fee, of course).

Minor window frame seal problems accounted for the flies: two minutes inspection time was all that I needed. BUT…… like in Question of Sport on TV – what happened next?

Over a cup of coffee, whilst chatting through how she should tackle the builders, I simply said ‘why have you got such a large gap between floor and skirting boards (in her dining room)”?

Oh, that’s nothing – the Builders had to inject concrete under the floor for some reason just after we moved in. They drilled through the floor surface and a big machine pulled up outside and pumped concrete for ages, she reported. “But you have a suspended concrete floor and you cannot just pour concrete into the void under it” I replied.

After a while, after feeling very uneasy about what the Builders had done, I decided to stop and not alarm the lady owner. She did not pick up on my own alarm and so I left site and one happy client.

The following week I was in the offices of the Local Planning Authority on another matter and decided to have a quick look at the Building Control file of last week’s “fly visit”. To my utter astonishment I uncovered a nest of letters from one contractor to another; inputs from Engineers and the Developer HQ office and Site Manager (it was a large development). Engineers were concerned that surface water discharge systems on-site were causing the chalk sub-soils to liquefy and withdraw support for garages, roads, drains and housing above. The worst, thus far, was reported as my own clients’ home.

I studied the file and saw correspondence over about six months expressing concerns and debate about what should be done. In essence I had discovered a hornet’s nest. Land and buildings were subsiding and a land stabilization scheme had to be considered/implemented.

To cut a long story short we subsequently negotiated with the Developers to buy-back my clients home and to reimburse all her expenses and fees involved in moving into another home out of that area.

There are several stories here but the lesson to be learnt is that ANY HOME CAN HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS and it pays to take advice from a practical SURVEYOR; one that offers an exceptional after-sales service and has the skills to not only find faults. “Service” starts with the obvious but can diversify into multiple related other areas. In this case no Solicitors were required – this was quite unusual but did reduce costs considerably as we did not need to know exactly what was happening, just how the problem affected marketability and value. The problem remained with the Developer.

If you are in southern England and need advice simply call me or use the CONTACT FORM above. Stuart Parrett +44 (0)1489 896 174.

Special character of city “under threat”

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English Heritage says two-thirds of Conservation Areas at risk of neglect.

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This was reported – the main, front page headline – in the Winchester based Hampshire Chronicle in mid-2009.

Will the use of Article 4 Directives be extended so affected homeowners cannot even make small changes to their homes? Will Listed Building Officers use this new background influence to retrospectively demand past “improvements/works” are rescinded, new windows removed and replaced with single-glazed casements, paint colours changed, gutter types be replaced, Satellite Dishes removed or relocated, etc…… The list is potentially endless.

This opens up the old argument of just what is being protected? Also… all potential owners of Listed Buildings, or non-listed homes but within a Conservation Area, should always have a survey completed as added protection against retrospective claims (it doesn’t hold water that you didn’t do it – you are still liable).

Conservation should not mean “no change whatsoever”: districts and individual homes evolve with time and circumstances and often conservation policy and actions can cause district stagnation and either enhancement or depreciation in worth/value. A balance must be struck between parties to retain our bricks-and-mortar heritage.

In my own Town of Bishops Waltham, one of the Conservation Areas said to be “at risk”, we have several examples of such conundrums:-

High street shops have erected metal brackets to hold seasonal Christmas trees along the high street. Building Control officers sought for their removal as unauthorized development, mainly upon Listed Buildings, in a conservation area. Fortunately, common sense, for once, has intervened.

The larger, and more thorny, issue in Town at the moment revolves around a brownfield site as a possible Sainsbury superstore. Say No To Sainburys is plastered around town and feelings are running high.

Sainsburys say that nectar card analysis reveals that a large Store in town is more than required by the spending power of town residents alone and that a local store would encourage us to stop travelling to Fareham or Hedge End where giant stores abound, and are often grid-locked.

Local shops say NO, the town and high street would become a ghost town and destroy the quite charm of our market town. This NO faction, as always, are very vocal and believe the majority are against Sainburys.

Looking at this issue holistically and dispassionately, can our high street support an ever growing population with diverse needs, is parking adequate, are cars congesting what should be a pleasant shopping experience, how can our commercial centre grow and meet are needs?

The same basic underlying factors are at play –

Is the status-quo set in concrete or can a market town grow sensibly to serve residents needs? Can large changes OR many small changes be made yet not spoil the essential character of our environment?

I recently toured Asturias through to Galicia in north-west Spain, an area of small farmsteads, rural in character and with breathtaking countryside and coastlines. Change is happening big-time : a coastal motorway is opening up the region and nearly all major Towns are having ring-roads built, cobbled-stoned high-streets created, etc…. Change is a part of life and they are embracing it (probably with EC grant funding, but that is another story).

People, buildings and environments must adapt to current needs and trends if a sustainable community is to be created, one in which our children may just decide to stay in, rather than make an early bee-line to the nearest City (civilization, as only our youth see it).

Whether it is to Sainburys objectors, local Conservation Officers or a Listed Building owner, I say the same thing; be tolerant and do not shut off change for the sake of it.

Metal brackets or a fully fledge, massive Sainburys stores are matters that require proper judgement plus an empathy with not only our own needs but also those of the whole community. What does common-sense say to you – no change or evolution in a controlled fashion?

Time will tell. To change or not to change?