Speak With A Chartered Surveyor About Your New Home
WELCOME TO THE HOPPS PARTNERSHIP
We are a firm of Chartered Surveyors with Home Surveys and the Party Wall act. We can help guide you through your property purchase advising you on any defects that the property has. Using this information and a detailed report can help you renegotiate the price of the property to reflect its condition more accurately.
We also deal with all matters under the Party Wall Act. If you are looking to extend your home you will need to deal with your neighbours formally under this piece of legislation. We try to make the party wall process as simple as possible ensuring that everyone is protected appropriately.
Feel free to give us a call to discuss your next exciting project.
WE USE LATEST TECHNOLOGY
We now offer drone imagery for our surveys. Being able to fly a camera drone up and around the building provides so much more information than would have been possible in the past. You will get a complete picture of the property with no areas missed.
To enquiry how we can help and use a drone to survey your project.
WHAT WE DO
We are proud to be a firm of chartered surveyors regulated by the RICS (The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors). We undertake Home Surveys and use the standard RICS Home Survey format report. These give a detailed outline of the condition of a property including any potential legal and other hidden concerns or defects. We can prepare what are called level I, level II and Level 3 Home Surveys, previously known as Condition Reports, Homebuyer Reports and Building Surveys. These were updated by the RICS in 2021 to the new format, you can find lots of useful information here. These give you complete peace of mind that you are buying a property in good condition or if it is in bad condition will give you the opportunity to renegotiate prior to commitment to purchase.
The Party Wall Act is a legal requirement for anyone undertaking significant building work where they share a wall with a neighbour such as a semi detached or mid terraced property or where they are digging foundations within three or even 6 m of a neighbour depending on the nature of the foundation. The Act can be confusing but we are here to make this simple. Having dealt with all neighbourly matters for many years now will be able to guide you through your project or advise you if your neighbour is undertaking building work.
HOME SURVEYS
For most people, buying a house will mean buying the most expensive thing you own. Most houses are second-hand or older and we can make sure that the property has been well-maintained or highlight defects.
COMMERCIAL SURVEYS
We can prepare a schedule of condition before you take a lease or undertake a pre-acquisition report for your new commercial venture.
PARTY WALL ACT GUIDANCE
Serving a legal notice on a neighbour or being served a notice under the Act can seem worrying. We are here to make the Act simple.
SCHEDULE OF CONDITION
If you just need to record the condition of a building we offer this as a stand-alone service.
TESTIMONIALS
KEITH AUSTIN
Very impressed with Robert’s work. He wrote a very detailed report of our new property that was clear and easy to understand. He also took the time to have a follow up call to give more context to his findings. I feel much more informed about the property we are buying and would highly recommend him to anyone else.
BRINGING YOU CLARITY
Please email us with the full address of the property (including postcode) and ideally, a Rightmove link or similar for the property, or the purchase price. Once we have received this, we will prepare and email you a formal quotation, with pricing for both a Level 2 and Level 3 Home Survey, the current dates we are booking in new inspections and a link to a sample of our survey report.
The Level 2 Home Survey (formerly known as a Homebuyer Report) report provides concise information about the condition of a property and is best suited to newer build flats and houses, which are less likely to require extensive repairs.
This report does not include annotated photographs or advice on any potential extensions or alterations you may wish to undertake following your purchase.
The Level 3 Home Survey (formerly known as a Building Survey Report) report provides extensive information about the condition of an older, larger, or run-down property, or one which is unusual in design or has been altered. If you are planning on undertaking works to the property, this is the best option as it gives detailed information above the structure and fabric of the property.
This survey does include annotated photographs and can advise on potential extension or alterations you may wish to undertake following purchase.
Please respond directly to our quotation email, if you wish to proceed, with the following information:
The full address and postcode of the property to be inspected.
The full name/s of the parties purchasing the property.
Contact numbers and email addresses for the above.
Whether you require a Level 2 or a Level 3 Survey.
Whether you wish to include the additional drone images.
A contact name, number and email address for the agent/vendor.
We will then send you our Terms of Engagement letter by email, to sign electronically and send back to us. Once we have received this, we can go ahead and book in an inspection for you in our earliest available slot. We cannot book an inspection or hold a slot without the signed Terms.
Whilst our survey report will not contain itemised repair costs, we can provide a ballpark figure for some of the repair costs as a follow up, if required, after the report has been completed and sent to you.
If you are happy to proceed, simply complete, sign and date our letter of appointment form, which signifies your authorisation for us to act on your behalf.
Where possible, when returning the signed letter to us, please also let us have the names and any contact information you may have for your neighbours on form attached, so that we may begin to contact them on your behalf.
We will of course undertake Land Registry searches in any event or, failing this, simply write to ‘The Owner’ of the property.
The Party Wall etc Act, 1996 is an Act of Parliament which requires that anyone proposing works to their property should notify their neighbours in accordance with the procedures set out within the Act. In short, you need to formally liaise with your neighbours, who may or may not require further involvement from a Party Wall Surveyor.
A party structure is a structure which is shared between neighbours, for example, a shared wall, chimneystack, foundation or even a brick built garden wall.
There is no definitive timescale. Things can very much depend on how neighbour initially reacts, but it is important to know that a neighbour cannot prevent you from carrying out the works, although they can be obstructive and slow the procedure down.
It also depends how much information we have. As a general rule, allow between 8 & 10 weeks for this process from service of Notice to the publication of an Award.
Generally speaking, you as the Building Owner pay the costs of the work and all of the Surveyors’ and Engineers’ fees. However, there are provisions for certain costs to be borne by the Adjoining Owner where for instance there may be defects to a shared (party) structure. For general purposes however, the Adjoining Owner is not put to any costs.
If you are happy to proceed, simply complete, sign and date our letter of appointment form, which signifies your authorisation for us to act on your behalf.
Where possible, when returning the signed letter to us, please also let us have the names and any contact information you may have for your neighbours on form attached, so that we may begin to contact them on your behalf.
We will of course undertake Land Registry searches in any event or, failing this, simply write to ‘The Owner’ of the property.