Guides, Advice and Tips from Chartered Surveyors

Browse through our blog posts for the latest industry news, discover more about surveying, Chartered Surveying guides and find out what the Harrison Clarke team have been up to.

Why Is My Roof Still Leaking?

I had planned to write another blog post today. However, in the last 24 hours the same issue has come up twice, and every time I see it, I despair at the people involved. So the normal schedule will wait, I need to get this one off my chest. In a lot of parts of […]

The Property Is Changing Ownership During Party Wall Matters

Every now and then someone will come to us with a tricky situation. They’re in the middle of dealing with party wall matters, and now there’s going to be a change of ownership. There’s often a lot of confusion about what should be done, particularly if the adjoining owner is in the process of selling […]

Referral Fees – Bribery Or Marketing Spend?

In any kind of property transaction, there will be a team of advisers and experts working to de-risk your purchase. These experts can be made up of a wide range of people, including solicitors, estate agents, mortgage brokers and surveyors, like ourselves. These experts have been around a while, and know just how profitable their […]

Things You Should Know About Renovating Your Home

Sometimes you don’t want to move house. Sometimes, you just need to tweak what’s already there a bit, to make it perfectly fit your needs. This is often called home renovation or refurbishment, and as chartered surveyors, we’ve seen plenty of them! Some of them go without a hitch, but there are also some common […]

Dilapidations Provision Report – The What And Why

If you’re a business with a leased premises, you may not know that you face some hidden risks. In fact, you might not be aware of them until the end of the lease. That risk is called dilapidations. Dilapidations liability comes about as a result of non-compliance with lease clauses. So our question is this. […]

Neighbour Ignoring My Party Wall Notice? Next Steps

Picture the scene. You’re planning to extend your home. You’ve done all of the legwork, including getting a party wall surveyor to review your drawing, prepare your notices and serve them to your neighbour. You’ve done everything by the book, but you’ve hit a snag. My neighbour’s ignoring my party wall notice. Now what do […]

The Party Wall Act And Damages – What Happens Next?

So your neighbour’s doing building work, and they’ve damaged your property. Construction works can be loud, messy and destructive at times, so accidents can and do happen. The question is, where do you go from there? And more importantly, how do you work out where the fault lies, and who should be responsible for the […]

Can I Be There When A Surveyor Inspects My New Home?

We’re asked this from time to time, when clients want to be on site to take a look around with the surveyor while they inspect the property. And we get the appeal. It gives you another chance to look around the house you’re excited about buying, and means you can be around to make sure […]

Which One is Better – Level 2 Or Level 3 Survey?

Did you know that, according to a recent poll, British homeowners move house once every 23 years, on average. We all know that moving is one of the most stressful things in life, so it’s no wonder that we don’t do it all that often! With that in mind, it isn’t all that surprising that […]

What Does A Contract Administrator Do?

Whether you’re in need of simple repairs, large scale redecoration or multi-million-poundprogrammes of work, you’ll always want to be in control of your project. Having confidence in the control, monitoring and forecasting of construction works is important – in fact it can be vital to the success of a project. So getting the right professional […]

Why Is My House Damp? Part One

If you look at any major city in the UK, a big chunk of the housing stock is going to be over 50 years old. Some might even be over 100! So, it’s not really surprising that some properties and their materials might not perform as well as originally intended. 50 years is a long […]

Reinstatement Cost Assessments – The What and Why

If you’re dealing with insurance, then you might have heard the term ‘Reinstatement Cost Assessment’ thrown around. It’s yet another bit of jargon from the insurance and the conveyancing world that means a lot to us, but not too much to our clients. But at Harrison Clarke we believe in transparency, and spend a lot […]