Annual Inspections (London Only)
Our building surveyors can carry out an inspection of your building's common parts and structure. The cost of this will depend on the size of the building, and we prefer to quote a lump-sum rather than suggest this is done on an hourly basis. Email us on surveyors@bm-online.co.uk for a quotation. We would expect this to be of the order of £450 + VAT for a building of three flats.
Before coming to the building, the surveyor will email all the lessees asking them to list any issues they think he should look at. If it is something that can only be seen from inside a flat, then access will need to be arranged. Normally the surveyor will only inspect externally and internally in the stairwell and hallways, and so he will need a key to the front door if nobody is at home during the day.
Following this inspection, the surveyor will prepare a list of work that will need to be carried out over the next fifteen years, such as external decorations, internal painting or papering, re-carpeting, fencing, tiling, flashings, pointing and so forth. With this will be an estimate of the likely cost in the year it has to be done, from which a calculation can be made as to how much should be put in a reserve fund each year.
This calculation for the reserve fund is an art, not a science. At one end of the spectrum, lessees want to pay as little as possible, and at the other end you could itemise every small item, make generous estimates of building cost inflation in the next few years, and arrive at an enormous sum. Our surveyors aim to come somewhere in the middle of this spectrum and take a pragmatic view as to what is reasonable.
