FREQUENTLY ASKED
questions

The short answer is quickly. We endeavour to turnaround all our survey reports within 24-48 hours of our inspection. We will also give you a call or video summary following the survey just to keep you in the loop. Our valuation reports are normally available within 5 working days of our inspection. Of course these timescales can be delayed if we are awaiting further information or it is a particularly large or complex report.

Yes all of our surveyors are RICS qualified surveyors and registered valuers, experienced in an array of surveying, valuation and party wall matters across London and Surrey.

All our building survey and roof survey reports include detailed photographs and where possible we will use a Pole Camera to access any hidden areas such as flat roofs. We will provide ‘rough costings’ for works where appropriate to provide context to the issues. These are very much ballpark figures based on our own experiences and you should always follow these up with formal quotations from contractors. The HomeBuyer report does not include photographs, detailed repair recommendations or costings and if this is a concern you should upgrade to a Building Survey.

Our survey inspection are extremely thorough and require a great level of focus and concentration to ensure we do not miss anything. However, we are always more than happy to meet you on site at the end of the inspection or arrange follow-up calls to discuss our findings, just let your surveyor know this in advance.

Not normally no, but these services are available for an additional fee. Just ask and we will be more than happy to discuss this.

We will undertake a visual inspection of the services and comment on any obvious defects. But as you will hopefully understand, we are not qualified electricians, gas engineers or drainage contractors and are therefore not qualified to test or comment in detail upon the services within the building. Elements such as the wiring, plumbing and underground drainage are often hidden and therefore cannot be fully visually inspected.

We do however work closely with a number of electricians, gas engineers/plumbers, and drainage contractors and are more than happy to help arrange tests. We would always recommend having these additional tests as faulty wiring, leaking plumbing or blocked drains can often go unidentified resulting in costly repairs. An electrical safety test typically costs £150-£300, a gas safety test approximately £75-£100 and a CCTV drainage survey approximately £200.

Often for taxation valuations we are asked to value the property at a specific date in the past. This is not an issue and we have access to data which allows us to obtain the market evidence at the time and accurately value your property. We may however still need to inspect the property and if anything has changed since the valuation date you should supply this information.

A statutory lease extension is a lease extension under the rights granted under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 and amended by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

Unfortunately, shared ownership leases will not qualify for a statutory lease extension unless they have staircased to 100% ownership. However, some freeholders are prepared to offer an informal lease extension.

Unfortunately yes you have the professional costs of your solicitor and your surveyor. For further information on our costs please see our leasehold valuations page here. On top of your own professional fees, under Section 60 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, you are responsible for the reasonable solicitor and surveyors costs of the freeholder. Please be aware that you are only responsible for their surveyors costs for the initial valuation, not the subsequent negotiation or any representation at the tribunal. You are also not responsible for their solicitor costs if the matter proceeds to tribunal.

Now. The shorter the lease term the higher the premium will be to extend the lease. Therefore, the longer a lease is left to run down the more it will cost to extend. When the lease has over 100 years to run the increase in cost to extend the lease is likely to be rather negligible. However once the lease drops below 100 years the premium to extend rises more steadily. Below 80 years statutory lease extensions have to take into account marriage value which drastically increases the premium. We would therefore advise that leases are extended when the lease has between 81-99 years unexpired.

Generally lease extensions take 3 to 8 months to go through, and depend largely on the freeholder’s response and the reasonableness of their professionals.

Yes. The solicitor will guide you through the legal frame work, serve the notice and agree the new lease term. The surveyor will advise you on what is a reasonable price for the lease extension.

Informal lease extensions vary, but have a bad reputation caused by certain freeholders who take advantages of leaseholders and the fact there is no formal process. Freeholder’s are likely to want to put a higher new ground rent into the new lease and may only offer a short extension. Our advice would be to have a solicitor and surveyor look over the freeholder’s offer to ensure it is a good deal.

Generally, you will be eligible for a statutory lease extension, if your lease was more than 21 years when it was originally granted, and you have owned your flat for at least 2 years. If the freeholder is the Crown, National Trust or the flat forms part of a building within a cathedral precinct your property may be excluded.

The golden question, what will it cost. This is very dependent upon a number of factors which include how long is left on the lease, how much is the flat worth if sold with a long lease and how much ground rent you pay. For more information on how the premium is calculated view our leasehold page here. For an estimate of the premium for the lease extension please click here for our Lease Extension Calculator.

As your lease gets shorter, the value of the leasehold flat decreases and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. If you intend to sell the flat, you are likely to find that some purchasers will want a discount if the lease is less than 100 years. It can also be difficult to acquire a mortgage on properties with less than 70 years, greatly reducing their saleability.

The process commences with your solicitor serving the Section 42 notice under the 1993 Act upon the freeholder. The notice outlines the intention to extend the lease, the premium offered and specifying a date for response at least two months after the date of the serving of the notice. The freeholder then responds with their counter notice under section 45 of the act. The notice will state whether the freeholder accepts the premium offered or more likely offers a counter figure. The Act then allows a period of negotiation. If a compromise cannot be agreed either side can make an application to the FTT (First Tier Tribunal). Such an application must be made between 2 and 6 months after the section 45 counter notice was served.

It should say on your lease or title register how long the original term was granted for and from when it commences.

You get an additional 90 years added to the existing term. So if you currently have 75 years you would then have 165 years.

Informal lease extensions vary, but have a bad reputation caused by certain freeholders who take advantages of leaseholders and the fact there is no formal process. Freeholder’s are likely to want to put a higher new ground rent into the new lease and may only offer a short extension. Our advice would be to have a solicitor and surveyor look over the freeholder’s offer to ensure it is a good deal.

Generally speaking, works requiring Party Wall Notices fall within 3 categories:

1. Works directly to the shared party wall, such as cutting into the wall (such as to insert beam and padstones), removing chimney breasts from the party wall, cutting back the footings to any foundations of a party wall, raising a party wall etc.
2. Excavations within 3 meters of a neighbouring building to a depth beneath their foundations. The other area where excavation works will require party wall notices is when the building owner is excavating within 6 metres of the adjoining owners building and the excavation works bisects an imaginary 45 line drawn from the centre of the adjoining owner’s foundations. As shown on the drawing below.
3. Constructing a wall either on the boundary line or adjacent the boundary line.

Common works which generally require a Party Wall Notice include rear extensions, loft conversion works, removing chimney breasts and basement extensions.

A Party Structure means a Party Wall and also a floor partition separating two owners. For example, this could be a floor between two flats.

Surprisingly a Party Fence Wall is not a fence, but a wall which stands on the land of two owners but is not part of a building. Party Fence Wall does not include a wall on the boundary where only the foundations project onto the neighbours side.

For acting as the Building Owners’ Party Wall Surveyor, unlike our competitors who tend to operate on an hourly rate, we offer a set fee scale which can be found here.

For acting as the Neighbours/Adjoining Owner’s Party Wall Surveyor we charge an hourly rate of £150 per hour +VAT. The reasonable fees of the Adjoining Owner’s Surveyor are paid by the Building Owner and therefore in all usual circumstances our services, we be at no charge to you.

The parties within a Party Wall Agreement are known as the Building Owner and the Adjoining Owner(s). The Building Owner is the party who is carrying out the building works. The Adjoining Owner(s) are those whose property is adjoining the proposed building works.

This largely depends upon how many neighbours you have within close proximity to the works. Generally, your works will only affect your direct neighbours those to either side of you. However, there may be further adjoining owners if say you are building close to your rear boundary or you are excavating down to such a depth that you are within 6 metres of other neighbours’ foundations. You should also bear in mind that the act refers to owners which have an interest in the property of greater than a year being an adjoining owner. Therefore, in the case of neighbouring properties being flats they will likely have at least two adjoining owners: a freeholder and one or more leaseholders.

A Party Wall Award is the final documentation in the party wall process and ensures that the Adjoining Owner(s) are adequately legally protected in the event that damage is caused resulting from the works. The Award is commonly known as a Party Wall Agreement.