What is RICS

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The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors or RICS was founded in 1868 but was originally the “Surveyors Club” and can be traced back to 1792. It is the first name that the general public think of when dealing with Surveyors for residential surveys. What the general public will probably not be aware of is that the RICS, is a very broad church. You could be an auctioneer, corporate, commercial, land and resources, infrastructure, Arts and Antiques, Quantity surveying or valuation.

In our context we deal with the residential surveying side, we do not undertake valuations. We specialise in pre-purchase surveys. We also do condition survey work for party wall surveys.

So you will see the letters AssocRICS after surveyors names, as the surveyor has followed a specific pathway of training and competence to allow us to use this designation. It implies our professionalism, independence and our ethical code. The cost of this designation to the individual surveyor can be between 300 and 700 pounds a year. This large difference in cost is why a lot of surveyors will not decide to push forward to the higher levels of the RICS, such as MRICS and FRICS.

RICS Regulation

A business can also be regulated by the RICS where they check our insurance and ensure that there have been no changes in our circumstances, such as criminal activity, complaints and check professional indemnity insurance. Hence most residential surveying firms are regulated by RICS and you should ideally choose a regulated practice. You should however again always be sure to check who will actually be doing the survey. Ask how much experience and what designation the individual who will be attending the property actually has for example. There has recently been some controversy surrounding a regulated firm sending out unqualified surveyors, to carry out inspections. The director of the firm has been struck off for a period of 12 months.

Whilst the RICS, is such a broad church, there have been issues with a lack of focus on specific segments such as residential.  As a result, other competing organisations have moved to fill this gap. Such as the RPSA, who have recently announced a tie up with the chartered association of building engineers to help push forward the residential agenda. As the RICS considers itself a truly global organisation with offices all over the world a bulk of its funding comes from the UK market. This is another reason while the residential sector feels that the large fees we pay do not necessarily benefit residential surveyors. England has a fairly unique process of buyer beware which is not the same in other countries. Hence the move towards other charterships and organisations.

Summary

In summary if you are looking to have a pre purchase survey done on a property especially an older property RICS is still the go-to organisation for residential surveyors. As the RICS like to call it “the gold standard” especially from the public perception perspective, with good reason.

What is the RPSA

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The Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA) is a not-for-profit representative body for independent residential surveyors. It was born out of the now defunct Home Information Pack providers or HIP and was formed in 2010.

RPSA members unlike the RICS are solely specialists in residential property. Whereas you could have qualified RICS member surveyor who is a specialist in agriculture, quantity surveying or land and resources. The RPSA members report on the condition of residential properties on behalf of homebuyers. They are specialists in the residential field and are all independent, which means they are not tied to any particular mortgage lender or estate agent. They should act in the best interests of their client.

There is a growing group of residential surveyors who do not feel that the RICS is representing them and offering good value for the membership fees. This is due to governance as reported in the press over the last couple of years. Mismanagement of members fees and the attempt to brand globally. But also, as the RICS represents so many diverse sectors of surveying they do not focus on residential practitioners. As a result of this the RPSA has grown significantly over the last few years. With many members holding dual membership of both the RICS and RPSA.

Similarly, to the RICS they are also required to keep up to date with the latest industry standards and regulations. This is done through regular continual professional development (CPD).

Here are some of the benefits of using an RPSA surveyor:

Independent surveyors are not tied to any particular mortgage lender or estate agent, so they can give you impartial advice.

The RPSA has its own dispute resolution service which is not outsourced. So, in the event of an issue an experienced and trained professional will look over the case.

Surveyors are required to keep up to date with the latest industry standards and regulations.

Surveyors will provide you with a high-quality survey of your home from a specialist residential surveyor.

The RPSA also uses its own set templates for their surveys if you elect to use one. They are fairly similar in style to the well known RICS formats, that have been in use for a long a time and well recognisable.

Domestic Surveys we are a RICS regulated practice and also members of the RPSA.

If you are looking for an independent residential surveyor, you can find a list of RPSA members on the RPSA website.

RICS New Home Survey Standard 2021

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The new home survey standard https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance/sector-standards/building-surveying-standards/home-surveys/home-survey-standards is a framework that sets out the minimum standards that surveyors must meet when carrying out home surveys.

Covering a wide range of topics, including the condition of the property, the presence of any defects, and the potential for any future problems.

Designed to give buyers peace of mind when purchasing a property, and to help make informed decisions about whether or not to proceed with the purchase. Helping surveyors provide a more consistent and reliable service to their clients.

Taking effect on 1 March 2021, and all surveyors who carry out home surveys must now comply with it.

When buying a property, it is important to make sure that the surveyor you use is qualified to carry out the survey under the new standard.

Key changes introduced by the new home survey standard:

Carry out a more thorough background check on the property. Something Domestic surveys has done for years.

Provide a more comprehensive report, which will include details of any defects found and the potential for any future problems.

Surveyors must now carry out a more rigorous inspection of the property’s energy efficiency.

The new standard is a positive step for buyers and surveyors alike. Ensuring that buyers are getting a more comprehensive and reliable survey.

Help surveyors to provide a more consistent and professional service.

How to choose a surveyor to carry out a home survey under the new standard:

Make sure that the surveyor is qualified and experienced.

Ask the surveyor about their experience with the new standard.

Find out about what level of desktop survey is carried out.

Do they send a pre-survey questionnaire?

Are they local to the area, check where the office is registered?

The new standard is a valuable tool for buyers and surveyors alike. It will help to ensure that buyers are getting a more comprehensive and reliable survey, and it will help surveyors to provide a more consistent and professional service.

Survey Questionnaire

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What is the pre survey questionnaire?

The RICS refer to this as the “Vendor Liason Checklist”. From the 1st of September 2021 all RICS regulated practises should be undertaking surveys to the new RICS home survey standard. This standard was designed to ensure that all practises will be delivering a similar product to their customers. As “vendor liaison checklist” was a bit of a mouthful we have shortened this to the simpler and more direct “pre survey questionnaire”.

We have been told by the RICS to “get as much information from the vendor, occupier or the person in charge of the property as possible.” It then goes further to suggest the surveyor will use reasonable endeavours to capture relevant information pre-survey, this can really only be done using the questionnaire. Hence if we do not send the questionnaire, we have not used reasonable endeavour. You can read more of this guidance on this link to the RICS Website.

Why have you sent this to me?

The guidance is clear that we should attempt to have one of these questionnaires filled out before the inspection. This is considered best practise. This is our opportunity to allow you further time to find the relevant information. That might be required such as paperwork or remember dates for example. It is also a good framework for us to be able to decide in what order to carry out our survey. It also gives you the opportunity to tell us about any alterations or changes to the building you have made. This can shorten the survey process and make the transaction easier with less complex questions being sent through your legal advisers. If the surveyor can simply answer these in the first instance.

Recently we have attended a property after sending a questionnaire. The vendor was extremely put out and had sought advice from his legal advisers. He then decided not to communicate with us. This certainly did not help build a positive relationship with the vendor. We decided to write this blog in an attempt to communicate this to the vendors. But also to highlight the fact that all residential surveyors should be doing this. You may wish to ask if your surveyor is doing this on your purchase. If the property is not inhabited or tenanted, we will not send the questionnaire.

Hedges

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Hedges

Hedges can provide great natural boundaries for properties. They provide habitat for wildlife. They have no planning permission requirements. So these are good ways of screening when higher boundaries are required. But there are good neighbour and various case laws surrounding this and it is very complex. When forming a new boundary, hedges do take a long time to become well established. So they are not a quick fix. Longer term sustainability of hedges can help with increased bio diversity.

Maintenance

With any boundary such as a timber fence, there is a maintenance requirement. With hedges they do need much more regular maintenance depending on the hedge type. For example, a simple privet hedge needs trimming say twice a year. Whereas with a leylandii if you take it too far back it will not re-grow. So, it is best to check the guidance depending on the hedge type before wielding the hedge trimmers, loppers or chain saw.

Roots

Whilst it is acknowledged that roots of trees can cause desiccation damage (removing the water from the soil). the combined force of multiple hedges can also lead to desiccation and subsidence damage. They can lift nearby features such as paths causing trip hazards. Leaves fall from them can also cause slips and will need to be cleared on a regular basis. Roots can inevitably end up in the drains which can cause leaks from drains and foundation damage. As well as the inevitable blockages that occur when roots invade a drain. This is fairly common with the roots breaking through the mortar joints in inspection chamber which is a regular sight during inspections. Hence if hedges are growing over drain runs be wary.

Root in drains from hedges
Root in drains

Boundaries

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Boundary
Boundary Fence

Do you know who is responsible for the boundaries?

Boundaries are a question that we are asked on every survey. The short answer is we do not know which boundary is yours. The only way to tell is the deeds. These should tell you which boundary is yours. A T mark will point towards the boundary you are responsible for. The flat top of the T points at the boundary you will need to maintain.  Older property often does state, the tittle is “silent” on the matter, in this case it tends to be shared which is fine if you both have the money to replace or repair a boundary. This is normally a question for your solicitor rather than your surveyor.

Myths

Isn’t mine always the left-hand side boundary?

When you say this aloud it does seem to make sense. At some point at the end of a terrace someone will have to be responsible for the right-hand side boundary. The extent to which this myth has permeated the thought process relating boundary ownership is a good example of an urban legend. But again, it depends what your deeds say.

Mine will be the fair faced boundary.

The fair faced boundary is one where the better finish is on the owner’s side. This tends to only be with specific featheredge style fencing. However in many cases all this really points to is to who did the work. As if you do the work you are likely to do it from your garden as it is closer to your house. Often one owner is handy and one is not hence the handy owner who does the work gets the fair face. So again, something that can only be answered through your deeds.

Some exceptions.

Front boundary walls will normally be owned by the property and the responsibility of the owner. This is fairly sensible unless the deeds express that there is a differing owner, which would be very unusual.

With council housing when it has been purchased from the Local authority it is common for the new council house owner to be responsible for multiple boundaries when still joining other council houses. But these are normally stated in the deeds, but we have had situations where an ex-council house is responsible for all the boundaries. So, with any ex-council house purchase you need to be very clear on this point. As it could prove very expensive to maintain or repair.

There is interesting common law relating to retaining boundary walls. This tends to suggest the retaining wall is the responsibility of the person whose land is being retained. The exception being when the tittle expresses otherwise, this is fairly unusual but some of the houses around troopers hill have retaining walls owned by neighbours on the lower side of the walls.

Fencing

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As part of our boundary series, we will look at the various sorts of fencing. Fencing is something often overlooked during the purchase process. If it has been overlooked then with the current timber prices this will be an expensive oversight. We tend to do a very complicated test on fencing. This simply involves leaning on it and should it move under pressure then there is likely a problem. We are looking at this from a residential perspective.

What are the rules foe fencing?

There are planning guidelines with regards to fencing height. When it is next to a road or pavement it should be no taller than 1m in height. If it is not next to a pavement or road it can be up to 2 m. This 2m height would include any trellis attached to the top. There is a little-known British Standard the BS1722 which you have likely never heard of this gives various standards that need to be met for a fence to conform. We seldom see a fence conform to this onerous standard.

Types of post for your fencing

There are really three options concrete, wood or metal. In a residential context we tend to see mainly timber. These are in two distinct sizes 4” or 3” square posts. How thick the post is will indicate how long it will last. So these should be pressure treated to reduce rot. Posts will always rot out eventually and an expected lifespan of 10-15 years for posts imbedded in the ground.

Slotted concrete posts are a much better alternative where infill panels can be easily replaced. The main issue of failure with these concrete slotted posts is corrosion of imbedded metal. Where the reinforcement bars rust causing the concrete to fall off. This often happens around the slots. When this happens the heavy concrete post are very hard to replace.

Types of infill

The most common and cheapest is the infill panel. This is normally 6ft long and of varying heights. So these can be featheredge where the boards are vertically nailed or lap panels where they are fixed horizontally

Better-quality fences are normally built in situ such as the featheredge where timbers (arris rails) are fixed to the posts and vertical planks are nailed to the front, ideally 10 slats to the meter. This gives a very strong infill. To reduce wind loadings sometimes a hit and miss fence infill is used. This is where one plank is nailed to one side of the arris and one to the opposing side so wind can go through the fence but privacy is maintained.

For the shorter fences say next to a road or pavement, a simple picket style or ranch fence can be a quicker cheaper alternative for infill and be more aesthetically pleasing.

Detailing

As with most things the detailing around the fence will be the deciding factor for its longevity. Installing a gravel board or rot board at the bottom keeps the infill from contact with the ground and is good practice. The BS standard suggests all timber cuts should be re-treated with wood preserver; this is seldom done. A post cap installed don the top of the post should keep water from rotting out the top of the post. A capping piece on top of the fence also can help to shed water away from the wooden slats beneath.

also can help to shed water away from the wooden slats beneath.

Fences on Walls

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As we are coming into winter and the storm season, we thought we would look at this construction. This tends to be where a smaller fences are attached to the top of a wall to give height and privacy. This is often done without any thought for wind loading or design. The posts/fence supports are often fixed to the top of the wall in metal brackets such as met posts. The fixing is then screwed or bolted into the top of the wall.

This type of fix under load stresses the top course of the brickwork. Over time the fixing may well work loose. During violent or strong winds this will take down the fence and the upper courses of brickwork. The upper course of brick or blockwork tend to be the most vulnerable. These are the most exposed to the elements so on older walls the mortar is often weakened on these parts.

The other way of doing this tends to be bolting a timber fence post to the front of a wall. Again, with bolts or screws. During strong winds the bolts tend to act as levers.

This in turn will cause the wall to fail on the joints of the bolts, causing lager section of the wall to detach or at the very least loosen.

The rules for fences

Planning legislation applies as to the height you can erect walls or fences to depending on where it is on your property. We discussed this in the previous blog on fences. In addition to this the guidance on walls issues by the Government is discussed in a previous blog on boundary walls. This research was based on the Building Research Establishments work over many years and is based on wind loadings.

When installing a fence on top of a boundary wall, the entire height of both wall and fence must not be above the prescribed heights for a wall of the thickness of the lowest course of bricks. Base on this a fence should never be attached to a half brick thick wall, as combined it could only be an overall height of 45cm in Bristol. Similarly on a one brick thick wall combined it could only be 1.3m in height in Bristol.

Am my fence covered?

If your wall and fence hybrid were to fall down and the worst should happen. You would likely call your insurance company; we will look at this in more detail in a later series #amicovered. In reality as long as the fence and wall together are lower than the prescribed heights in the BRE category, and were in good condition prior to the loss. You would in theory be covered. However some insurance policies exclude damage to fences. So you may only be covered for the brick wall element not the fence.

Boundary Walls

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Boundary wall cracking

During our surveys we comment on the condition of boundary walls. This is normally overlooked by our clients during the average brief viewing time of less than 15 minutes. Rebuilding external boundary walls is very expensive. The only time a condition of a boundary wall is normally noted is when it fails. We often see this during the high winds of a storm. It is fairly touch and go as to whether the wall would be covered under insurance for “storm”. The pre-existing condition of the walls is normally the driver to a claim being repudiated.

Wall heights and thickness

When looking at boundaries the wall heights are often higher than the official government guidance as available on this link. Bristol being located in Zone 2. The specific site itself should also play a part in the thinking. If a property is very exposed say on a Hilltop. Then the height should be reduced again. One way of reducing the wind loading on boundary walls is using screen blocks, these do not have the same levels of wind resistance.

Some visible issues to look out for

Thermal movement

To prevent thermal movement cracks in boundary walls it is important to allow for expansion and contraction. This is done through movement joints normally set at say 8-10m in blockwork. Otherwise vertical cracks (the same width all the way down the walls) will occur. These are not normally concerning. They can then be cut out to form a movement joint.

Foundation related issues.

These can be harder to spot. Diagonal cracking or cracks which are wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. When foundation failure occurs, little can be done and longer term the foundations will need to be grubbed up and the wall replaced. This type of damage is often made worse by nearby trees. Both damage from the roots lifting walls by mechanical action. Desiccation or drying of the soil can occur meaning the foundation loses the support of the soil.

Sulphate attack

Sulphate attack tends to occur when walls have remained wet for extend periods of time. The mortar undertakes a chemical change, causing it to expand. When this occurs, there is horizontal cracking and normally on each course of brick or blockwork. Often attempts to cover the wall with render have been made, so the cracking is easy to spot.

Leaning Walls

When a wall leans, we use the zone guidance above. Then look to how much it leans out this can be done with a spirit level and ruler. Then if it leans by more than 30cm on a half brick thick wall and 70mm on a one brick thick wall. These are flags that it will need rebuilding. (BRE Good Building Guide 13)

What is cavity wall insulation

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What is cavity wall insulation?

We have done a lot on types of walls. If you have a cavity wall, the gap between the bricks or blocks can be filled with insulation. This is a very politicised issue. There are some instances where poor and inappropriate insulation has caused serious issues in buildings. This tends to manifest as circular spots or significant mould or other damp related issues. You can tell if your wall is cavity by following this video guide.

How can I tell if my wall has been insulated?

As part of the Legal Process the question should have been raised. You may have paperwork to this effect. If not then you need to carefully look at the external walls. You are looking for the tell-tale drill holes fairly regularly spaced in the walls. These are most notable under windows. These are around 25mm in diameter. This forms the first part of this video.

What has it been insulated with?

Urea Formaldehyde

In the drive for thermal performance in the 1970’s Urea Formaldehyde was used. Large companies such as ICI developed these foams. To be sprayed into the walls. They did not however homogenously fill the cavity and tended to spread all over the place. They left large areas untreated. At the time there were some serious health implication issues that were discovered when it starts to break down. These forced questions in the houses of parliament. The US and Canada banned these very quickly as a result. This is because the design of the US and Canadian houses was different. Often timber frames with plasterboard dry lining or Sheet rock as it is called over the pond. We had brick and block walls so the potential for gas diffusion was reduced. UNLESS you had say a Cornish type 1 house which was timber framed with plasterboard drylining.

Open cell insulation

This was blown mineral fibre; this is the white short strings that can be seen in the loft void. These once wet for whatever reason can cause penetrating dampness or flooding as they hold on to the residual moisture. When the insulation is wet it is similar to having a sponge installed between the walls. This will reduce the thermal performance massively. It can also slump over time leaving cold spots. On installation it will also not necessarily completely fill the walls homogenously. There is the added issue of rodents. If they can enter a property this gives them access through the cavity all-round the house. This is a very common issue and one often sited for their removal.

EPS (Expanded polystyrene)

This is the most recent type of incarnation of cavity wall insulation. You can often see the odd small white or grey polystyrene ball floating around the vicinity of the property or in drain gullies. It is often visible in floor voids.  This is designed to be closed cell so does not hold water if it gets wet. It should also prevent water from crossing the cavity. It also performs well thermally but does tend to escape so cold spots are a problem.

Guarantees

There are 25 year guarantees offered by the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency or CIGS. However if the insulation has been dislodged say by an extension for example these guarantees are often void.