Solicitors – Getting the most from your surveyor

A good question you may want to ask us first is: what is a Surveyor and what do they do?

That may sound like a really obvious question to ask, and indeed the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) pure definition is simple: “one who surveys”. However, did you know that there are sixteen different disciplines of Chartered Surveyors? Our business (CS2) specialises in Chartered Building Surveyors and Chartered Quantity Surveyors. We are an independent firm and as such we are perfectly balanced to provide unbiased and objective advice to our clients.

Being a “Chartered” surveyor means that our team has passed their professional exams with the RICS and therefore carry the MRICS (member), FRICS (fellow), or TechRICS (experience route) designation. It’s worth noting that only RICS qualified surveyors may trade as “Chartered Surveyors”. We are proud of the experience we have in our teams across all of our offices, as well as their keenness to continually gather more learning and experience every day through their sharing of their client experiences between them as professionals.

Now, in order to understand how to get more out of your surveyor, you will need to understand the difference between a Building Surveyor and a Quantity Surveyor. That way – you will know more about what kind of information and expertise your Surveyor can give you.

A building Surveyor is a technical expert providing a broad range of services, with those most commonly being:
· Pre Acquisition Surveys.
· Schedules of Dilapidation.
· Schedules of Condition.
· Party Wall Awards and services.
· Expert Witness.
· Land Registry compliant lease/title plans.
· Project and Refurbishment Management.
· Feasibility Studies.
· Defect Analysis.

On the other hand, a Quantity Surveyor is a cost expert providing a range of complimentary services like:
· Project Cost Control.
· Bills of Quantities
· Feasibility costings

As a legal professional you will more than likely deal with a Chartered Building Surveyor in connection with one of the above “standard” services – which is of course one of our specialisms at CS2.

How Can We Help?
We work closely with our client’s legal advisors and build the kind of working relationships that make good use of our team and the solicitor’s different, but interdependent skill-set – to ultimately streamline the processes for clients.

If there is one thing we have recognised, it’s that generic drafting in legal documentation can cause difficulties like within the:
a) drafting of leases, licences and lease renewals – leading to problems during the dilapidations process
b) inclusion of an incorrect lease plan which limits the client’s dilapidations claim

What tends to happen is that solicitors do not physically visit the properties on which they are advising, and they provide generic wording as standard. This is where our value comes in – we work as the legal advisors’ eyes and ears on the ground – ensuring the best possible service to clients and reducing their exposure to dilapidations claims.

If you are in a position where you need or will need some advice in a commercial property matter, please feel free to contact us.