SURVEYORS ASHBOURNE

01773 421012 

steve@buildingsurvey.co.uk

Principal: Steve Butler MRICS Chartered Surveyor

Open 8.30am until 6.30pm

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Homebuyers Surveys in Belper

Building/ Structural Survey in Belper

Independent Expert Reports

RICS Property Valuations Belper

About Steve Butler RICS Chartered Surveyors

 

SURVEYORS IN BELPER AREA - THIRTY YEARS EXPERIENCE

RICS CHARTERED SURVEYORS BELPER

Steve Butler Chartered Surveyor has lived near to Belper all his life and is thus very familiar with the area. He attended Trent University to take his Chartered Surveyors examinations. Steve has been surveying, valuing and managing a portfolio of properties in Belper since qualifying as Chartered Surveyor in 1992. Steve Butler has also passed the Government's Home Inspector Examinations and is a qualified commercial energy surveyor and associate member of the Chartered Institution of Legal Executives.

Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors are entirely independent of any estate agents lenders or mortgage brokers and not not pay introductory fees ensuring our independence.

Our surveyors have lived in or owned properties of all types and ages in many parts of East Midlands so we have considerable local knowledge of most areas, and practical experience of owning and maintaining many types and ages of property.

Belper Surveyors Homebuyers Report a 1902 terrace house 

Belper RICS Hombuyers surveyors report on a 1900 terrace houseThe front and rear walls of this property had been badly damaged by water because of failure to undertake a few hundred pounds of gutter and down pipe repairs. Intruders had damaged the kitchen and bathroom and run off with the boiler as well as damaging central heating pipes. An extension containing the bathroom and kitchen was single skin construction and likely to be cold and prone to water penetration. An attic conversion had dangerous stairs and no fire protection and probably no insulation of the ceiling.

Low Surveyors Fees

Our RICS surveyors provide a rapid response in the Belper areas at low cost. Homebuers Report Costs and Building Survey Prices are fixed and as there is no hidden VAT so you know exactly where you are.

Low Cost Homebuyers Surveyors Fees

Low Cost Building/ Structural Surveyors Fees

RICS BUILDING, STRUCTURAL HOUSE AND PROPERTY SURVEYS IN BELPER

If you are you buying a property in Belper then a pre-purchase Building or Homebuyers Survey may help avoid future expenses.

We specialise in surveying and valuing residential property in Belper offering a rapid turnaround with efficient and competitive service.

All Building Survey and Homebuyers Reports are undertaken by Steve Butler RICS Chartered Surveyor personally ensuring that personalized service to all our clients. 

 

Belper Surveyors RICS Building Survey Report on a 1930 Detached House

 

Belper RICS building surveyors report on a 1930 detached house. The chimneys were in poor condition, tiles were slipping, gutters were clogged and broken. The roof face had dished. Additional timbers had been added to strengthen the roof. The property had long standing movement at the head of an opening to a rear bay window. A timber floor had humped slightly.

 

RICS BUILDING SURVEYS IN BELPER: CLICK FOR SAMPLE REPORT

RICS Building Surveys provides a more detailed picture of a property’s construction and can be carried out on practically all residential properties.

The report is bespoke and tailored to your requests.

It is most suitable when the building is less conventional. This could be because it is very old, it has been built using unusual construction methods, or it is dilapidated. Similarly, it can be very informative if a building has been extensively altered.

An RICS Building Survey will tell you about the condition of the property including the state of the chimneys, roofs, rainwater goods, roof edges, walls, floors, ceilings, partitions, windows and doors. We can tell you whether there is any structural movement or settlement, wet rot, dry rot, woodworm or damp problems. We give you an overview of the services such as the electrical installations, boiler, central heating, hot and cold water.

Belper Chartered Surveyors RICS Building Survey report on a 1900 terrace 

Our Belper RICS surveyors inspected this terrace house. The front and rear walls of this property had been bably damaged by water because of failure to undertake a few hundred pounds of gutter  and down pipe repairs. Intruders had damaged the kitchen and bathroom and run off with the boiler as well as damaging central heating pipes. An extension containing the bathroom and kitchen was single skin construction and likely to be cold and porne to water penetration. An attic conversion had dangerous stairs and no fire protection and probably no insulation of the ceiling.

 

RICS SURVEYORS FOR HOMEBUYER REPORTS IN BELPER: CLICK FOR SAMPLE REPORT

A standardized report produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to highlight significant problems and matters requiring urgent investigation.

It is designed to flag up major defects and problems that need urgent or significant attention, because such issues will affect the property’s value.

It is the cost effective choice for the majority of property purchasers.

A valuation of the property and estimation of reinstatement cost for insurance purposes is included as standard in both our Building Survey and Homebuyers Survey reports.

Due to the time taken to measure the property Building Surveys cost considerably more than the Homebuyers Report, however you should bear in mind that they are unlikely to find any serious defects to the property that the Homebuyers Survey and Report will not.

It is considered that the Homebuyers Survey and Report will be suitable for most clients.

 

RICS Homebuyers Survey of a Belper Bungalow built about 1980

Although modern this property suffered from a buckled flank walls, rotting timbers and a fractured floor.

 

RICS VALUATION SURVEYORS FOR HELP TO BUY VALUATIONS

Our RICS surveyors undertake residential property valuations for all types of purpose such as matrimonial disputes, probate and insolvency. We are fully familiar with the requirements for Help to Buy Valuations. Our surveyors have undertaken hundreds of Help to Buy Valuations and are used to meeting Target's (The administrators of the scheme) requirements.

 

Party Wall surveyors Belper

We can help property owners in Belper with Party Wall matters. Steve Butler surveyors can help prepare schedules of condition prior to works on an adjoining property so that there is no argument as to whether the proposed works cause damage. Our surveyors can also draw up an agreement between the parties so that works are carried out in a manner that will reduce the risk of damage to an adjoining property and inconvenience to the neighbour.

 

 

Chartered Surveyors CPR 35 compliant Report for Belper County Court

This Belper surveyors report related to an Orangery constructed in the place of an existing conservatory that was relocated. Unfortunately when relocating the conservatory very shallow foundations were just poured on to ground that had not been prepared leading to a high risk of differential settlement. The new Orangery floor was laid at too a high a level with a sudden slope down to meet a door opening. However even this level was too high to accommodate under floor heating. Channels retrospectively cut to house the heating were set too far apart to enable the floor to heat properly and much heat was likely to be lost to the ground due to inadequate insulation under the heating elements. The frame of the roof structure had not been bolted to the house or substantial timbers to each other. Steel lintels were sitting on out of plumb bearings which are likely to cause the bearing to try and rotate. A bock wall rocked when pushed with a hand. Our Chartered Surveyor thought that the Orangery would have to be demolished.

 

 Belper Surveyors Structural Report for Insurers

This otherwise immaculate Belper house was written off by insurers following cracking due to a leaking lead pipe. Insuers refused to carry out repairs as the leaking lead pipe was in an adjacent uninsured property. The insurers paid the owners of the house its market value before the cracking and also let them keep it! The adjacent property was made subject to an order prohibiting habitation.

 

 RICS Surveyors Belper report on Damp and Timber Decay.

 

 This case explains why surveyors check properties for good underfloor ventilation of suspended timber ground floors in structural surveys, building surveys or home buyers reports. Our Belper surveyors found suspected dry rot and beetle infestations due to a failure to provide simple underfloor ventilation, a damp chimney and substandard floor. The Beetles are encouraged by the poor underfloor vantilation as they like damp timber that is encoraged by high humidity. The dry rot likes areas with poor ventialtion as it prefers to grow in still conditions. Most dry rot decay is however triggered by a large increase in moisture levels such as a broken rainwater pipe or flood. The surveyors also found black mould in the living accomdoation casued by high moistue levels and lack of heating and by lack of heating and ventilaton.

   

Independent property survey by Belper RICS surveyors.

Our Belper surveyors found a dangerous boiler, dry rot beetles and wet rot. Poor venetilation was again the cause of all three problems.     

 

 RICS Surveyors investigation into structural movement of the 1900 Belper terrace building

Our surveyors found that structural movement and cracking of this Belper property had occurred in three locations. The types of movement had three different causes and were all unrelated to each other. The first type of movement was cause by poor foundation on what had been an outhouse that had been converted to a utility room. The structural movement probably occurred just after the property was constructed. The second type of structural movement appeared to approximate to a drain. The cracking also appeared to be old as our survey inspection showed that the drain had been replaced with a modern plastic one. The third type of structural cracking reported on was due to thermal expansion of a long wall. If a wall is too long and does not have expansion joints bricks move with heat on hot summer days until they snap because they have exceeded their elasticity. As the property was in an area of underground lime stone mines our surveyors suggested that a mining report be obtained as a precaution against mining subsidence.

    

Belper RICS Surveyors Expert witness CPR 35 report on a boundary dispute and nuisance neighbour at for county court 

 

RICS Chartered Surveyors prepared a CPR 35 report for court on a breach of the boundary causing damp at a property in Belper. Here the neighbour had constructed a raised paved area and rather than construct their own retaining wall has used the neighbour’s garage. Fortunately our boundary surveyors were able to demonstrate that the paved area projected beyond the boundary line.

 Expert witness CPR 35 report on a collapsed wall at Belper for county court

In this case both parties were trying to deny ownership of a collapsed retaining wall. Our boundary dispute surveyors were easily able to resolve the question of ownership by reference to the title deeds. The owners of both properties abutting the boundary wall then blamed the other for its substantial and expensive collapse. As the boundary wall remains unrepaired and unstable it is likely that the property on the lower side of the wall is not mortgagable knocking many thousands of pounds off its value. Our surveyors were able to demonstrate with a few trial pits constructed against the wall that the movement of the wall had occurred entirely above ground level on the lower side of the wall. This confirmed that the wall had collapsed because it had been unable to cope with the weight bearing against it rather than because the foundations had rotated due to supposedly leaking drains on the adjacent property as the owner of the walls structural engineer had tried to claim.

Report on a defective Belper roof by cowboy builders.

Leicester surveyors report on a roofLeicester roof reportsurveyors report for courtCPR 35 surveyors report

In this case a rouge trader could not find the cause of a small roof leak and after several visits to the property advised the owner that the battens were rotten and that it would need to be recovered at a cost of £4000.00. The trader then only recovered one face of the roof but charged for two. One the face of the roof he did recover he did not carry out any work to the actually area of the roof that was causing the leak. The recovering was so badly done that the roof will have to be recovered again. The actual cause of the leak was where the small front gable over the bedroom window joins the main roof and could have been repaired at a cost of a couple of hundred pounds. The two valley liners that run either side of the gable did not meet at the apex and when a mortar joint between the covering tile and main roof had fractured water was able to enter.

 

Surveyors CPR 35 compliant Expert Witness Defects Report for Belper County Court Proceedings

Here's what £700.00 of bathroom tiling looks like. This was the worst tiling job that our Belper RICS  Expert Witness Surveyors had ever seen! There was nothing good that could be said about it. All will have to be scrapped.  Failure on such jobs are invariable caued by failure to think for a few minutes before starting work and failure to use simple tools such as a tape measure, square, level  plumb line or spacers. If engaging any contractor start to worry at early stage if they rush into the job and do not make frequent use of the simple tools mentioned above. A good building or construction job always starts with good planning which almost always involves ten minutes with the tape measure!

  

RICS Chartered Surveyors Building Survey on a 1934 Semi detached house in Belper.

The surveyors report noted damp marks, a sloping floor, inefficient old boiler, an unsatisactory roof structure and condensation mould.

  

RICS Surveyors Homebuyers Report on a 1950's Flat

Matters our Building Surveyors noted incuded a leaking car park roof, penetrating damp, an eroded wall damaged by a tree. Our Belper RICS surveyors had particular concerns about the high cost of having to repair the wall and leaking car park roof.

 

Property survey report on a Belpershire 1981 semi detached house

As the house was of timber framed construction our surveyors thus took particular care to look for evidence of dampness that might decay the timber frame. Ponding of a flat roof suggested further investigation was required as the deck might not be properly constructed. Such ponding can encourage condensation in the roof void which encourages decay or beetles.

 

Independent survey report on a Belper 1933 terrace house 

There was evidence of  beetle infestations, dampness, rusting steel and lack of parking arrangements. Further investigation before exchange of contracts was suggested for all of these matters due to the high cost of remedial works. Our surveyors were particuarly concerned by humping of a concrete floor as mortgage surveyors might make the property unsuitable for lending purposes.

 

Building survey and report on a 1950 Belper terrace 

This property was of concrete panel construction. At a later date the substandard panels had been removed and replacd with brick. The property had a leaning chimney, cold concrete floor and missing stair rails

 

 

Belper RICS Chartered Surveyos structural survey on a 1950 bungalow

The roof of the property was covered with moss which had blocked the gutters casuing water damage. The roof conversion had limited insulation and ground floor skirting boards were rotten.

 

 

 Independent property survey of a 1930's Belper semi detached house

This property suffered from damp floors, an uninvited guest, fractued concrete flat roof and potentially hazardous stair rails

 

 Homebuyers Survey of a 1910 Semi detached house in Belper our independent property surveyors

We found structural movement, a long standing leak, frost eroded bricks and an insecure ceiling