Party Wall Surveyors - Expensive Mistakes
Can you afford a cheap Party Wall Surveyor? If not, I recommend you
appoint a more expensive one.
Actually, there is no guarantee that spending more will get you a better service. Nor is it a given that spending less will result in a bad service. But you should be suspicious of a surveyor charging significantly below the going rate as they may well have a high output low quality approach to their work.
So what can go wrong. Isn't a Party Wall Award just a formality, just one more hoop to jump through on the way to getting permission to commence building works? In a word 'no'.
Let's assume that Dick is your surveyor of choice as he undercut your next lowest bid by £100. You send him an appointment letter and he proceeds to send out notices. Next thing you know the neighbours are complaining about him and are refusing to accept him as the one agreed surveyor and each is demanding to have their own. Add £3K to your costs.
Then Dick gets into unnecessary arguments with the other surveyors and the third surveyor needs to get involved to arbitrate between them. Budget for another £3K+ all in. This delays your start date and you builders are sitting on site without commencing works. Add that to the tab.
These are just a sample of what can go wrong.
So what are the most important qualities to look for in a Surveyor? I list these below:
1) The first piece of communication your neighbour is likely to receive from you is the Notices. This spells out the works you intend to undertake. Usually these are prepared by the Surveyor. It is therefore important that your Surveyor include in his letter a statement that he is willing to speak to your neighbour on the phone to provide further clarification. There is a good chance that your neighbour will not properly comprehend the Notices as they are quite legalistic. If he has no recourse to your surveyor to gain further clarification, there is a good chance he will request his own Surveyor, which is expensive to you the Building Owner.
2) Availability on the phone. If your Surveyor is not readily accessible then again, your neighbour is more likely to give up trying to get clarifications and just choose to appoint their own Surveyor.
3) Good communication skills. If your Surveyor cannot honestly and accurately summarise to the neighbour what the potential risks are and how he will be mitigating them, then once again there is a risk that the neighbour will lose trust and appoint their own Surveyor.
4) The ability to work smoothly with other Surveyors and avoid unnecessary squabbles.
5) Experience in assessing the risk factors and taking the necessary steps to mitigate them. This reduces the chance that compensation will need to be paid for damage occurring to the neighbours.
6) The time to give the party wall matter sufficient attention in terms of examining the drawings as well as taking sufficient and well thought out photos. Again, this reduces the risk that damage will occur.
7) Good time keeping is important too as if you are promised the final Award and hire builders on that basis you can end up paying for them to do nothing whilst your Surveyor finally gets round to serving the Award.
Actually, there is no guarantee that spending more will get you a better service. Nor is it a given that spending less will result in a bad service. But you should be suspicious of a surveyor charging significantly below the going rate as they may well have a high output low quality approach to their work.
So what can go wrong. Isn't a Party Wall Award just a formality, just one more hoop to jump through on the way to getting permission to commence building works? In a word 'no'.
Let's assume that Dick is your surveyor of choice as he undercut your next lowest bid by £100. You send him an appointment letter and he proceeds to send out notices. Next thing you know the neighbours are complaining about him and are refusing to accept him as the one agreed surveyor and each is demanding to have their own. Add £3K to your costs.
Then Dick gets into unnecessary arguments with the other surveyors and the third surveyor needs to get involved to arbitrate between them. Budget for another £3K+ all in. This delays your start date and you builders are sitting on site without commencing works. Add that to the tab.
These are just a sample of what can go wrong.
So what are the most important qualities to look for in a Surveyor? I list these below:
1) The first piece of communication your neighbour is likely to receive from you is the Notices. This spells out the works you intend to undertake. Usually these are prepared by the Surveyor. It is therefore important that your Surveyor include in his letter a statement that he is willing to speak to your neighbour on the phone to provide further clarification. There is a good chance that your neighbour will not properly comprehend the Notices as they are quite legalistic. If he has no recourse to your surveyor to gain further clarification, there is a good chance he will request his own Surveyor, which is expensive to you the Building Owner.
2) Availability on the phone. If your Surveyor is not readily accessible then again, your neighbour is more likely to give up trying to get clarifications and just choose to appoint their own Surveyor.
3) Good communication skills. If your Surveyor cannot honestly and accurately summarise to the neighbour what the potential risks are and how he will be mitigating them, then once again there is a risk that the neighbour will lose trust and appoint their own Surveyor.
4) The ability to work smoothly with other Surveyors and avoid unnecessary squabbles.
5) Experience in assessing the risk factors and taking the necessary steps to mitigate them. This reduces the chance that compensation will need to be paid for damage occurring to the neighbours.
6) The time to give the party wall matter sufficient attention in terms of examining the drawings as well as taking sufficient and well thought out photos. Again, this reduces the risk that damage will occur.
7) Good time keeping is important too as if you are promised the final Award and hire builders on that basis you can end up paying for them to do nothing whilst your Surveyor finally gets round to serving the Award.
