Issue 3


12/06/2007

WELCOME TO THE THIRD ISSUE OF THE MAP NEWSLETTER...

Graham and Garrett are pleased to welcome to the MAP Surveyors fold another leading professional, Kathleen Johnson MSc MRICS.

Kathleen has been a fully qualified valuation surveyor since 1993 and boasts an MSc in corporate property management from City University, a BSc in Land Administration as well as full membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She remains in contact with colleagues and lecturers from the Universities previously attended and has been a guest lecturer helping to give back some of what she has learned to surveyors of the future.

Her experience is extensive and wide ranging with past employers who have included several Local Authorities as well as major players in the residential surveying profession. She was, for many years a partner in a local building surveying practice, which carried out the full range of general practice and building surveying services including valuations, homebuyer’s surveys, PartyWall awards and schedules of dilapidations. Kathleen has even worked with TV and film companies advising on locations for planned TV and movie productions.

Born in South East London, Kathleen has a wide-ranging knowledge of the area with experience in residential and commercial valuations, urban regeneration, property management, disposal programmes and property review. She has worked closely in the past with Mike Heselden (who also joined MAP last year) as a residential valuer for another surveying company in Sidcup and carried out over a thousand residential surveys a year and earned a reputation for her hard work, diligence and professionalism.

Never one to sit on her laurels, Kathleen is currently progressing through the various stages of qualification as a registered Home Inspector so that MAP can be ready to respond to the needs of the Governments’ Home Information Packs due for implementation in June 2007.

Kathleen is looking forward to new challenges and the expanding business opportunities with MAP


SELLERS PACK APPROACHING FAST

As we move inexorably forward to the date at which the government home information packs are being introduced - 1st June 2007, the directors of MAP Chartered Surveyors Ltd are losing no time in recruiting qualified home inspectors to meet the significant demand for home condition reports which will follow.

The company have a number of innovative and exciting working options for people either already qualified as home inspectors or in training and working towards that qualification.

Schemes are available both for experienced chartered surveyors and individuals who will be newly qualified as home inspectors, and offer the opportunities for a myriad of working options, with very attractive packages designed specifically to suit individual needs.

The company has already received significant interest from a number of parties and in order to cement some of these relationships, will be holding a home inspector’s recruitment event later in the year.

Demand for this is expected to be high and interested parties are advised to express their interest by sending a brief email to homeinspector@mapsurveyors.co.uk.

Map Surveyors are a dynamic progressive and fast growing company, which will provide a perfect career spring-board for talented and progressive individuals looking to achieve maximum potential.

The existing team of chartered surveyors have over a hundred years’ experience and are very keen to be involved with new home inspector recruits throughout every phase of their training and post training periods to ensure the maximum quality of service provided is always available to clients. The recruitment event will offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore the exciting options available and applicants are encouraged to register without delay to avoid disappointment.


ARE YOU CRACKING UP?

With the present water shortage of which the hose pipe ban is a factor, comes a more alarming product ‘subsidence’, caused by long dry periods and fur ther influenced by hot weather. Subsidence generally occurs within clay sub-soils and it just so happens that the majority of housing and flats built within the South London area are on ‘London Clay’ which like all clays is susceptible to shrinkage and expansion based on the volumetric moisture content. The volume of moisture in clay is influenced by rainfall, moisture extraction generally due to trees and bushes and variation in water table heights. It should also be noted that defects within drains and pipework below ground can result in a swelling of clay due to high moisture content in which case "heave" occurs.This can also occur where a tree or other vegetational growth is improperly removed without specialist advise.

Recently built properties are not at much risk, due to better foundation design imposed by the building regulations. Subsidence generally affects properties built with shallower foundations, which tends to be the older housing stock more particularly pre-world War II, but also as recent as the 1960s.

Properties built on clay have always been at risk from seasonable movement (that is the opening and closing of cracks) which is generally acceptable and not a problem but in current conditions, it is generally felt that cracking of a more significant nature will occur (cracks in excess of 3mm) are unlikely to be seasonable and require some form of repair.

So what causes cracking? A number of factors, far to many to mention but the likely causes are:

a. Differential movement between different par ts of the proper ty in relation to the movement of the sub-soils;

b. The influence of trees and more substantial vegetational growth.

c. Damage due to broken drains, pipes.

d. Recent interest in garden landscaping and the requirement for hardstandings has resulted in a reduction in moisture (rainfall) reaching the subsoils about the foundations, as rain runs off of hardstandings and patios and is generally collected in gulleys and underground pipes.

So the answer is to "monitor" your property to determine whether any cracking has occurred, however, be careful not to develop "crack paranoia".

So, what are the signs? :-

a. New or increasing cracks in width or length within plasterwork or brickwork within the property.

b. Doors and windows begin to stick for no particular reason and cracks appear about door openings.

c. Rucking occurs at the junction of walls with walls and ceilings within decorative lining/finishes.

Should you note any such problems there is a possibility that this is due to subsidence and it is important that the cause is diagnosed by a professional Chartered Surveyor or Structural Engineer as soon as possible, as well as ensuring that your buildings insurance adequately covers subsidence and make the appropriate notification to your insurers accordingly.

Should your proper ty be suffering from subsidence then repair and rectification does not occur overnight and there may well be quite a lengthy period of time between first indications of movement and eventual repair and rectification. An inspecting surveyor/engineer may be required by the loss adjuster acting on behalf of the insurers to undertake a period of monitoring which could last for as long as 12 months.

Rectification works can comprise of underpinning the property which can take the form of total or partial underpinning. There are various arguments for and against this although generally total underpinning is preferred, repairs of drains or pipe work or some form of tree removal or reduction may also be necessary. Specialist advice should always be obtained with regard to tree removal as if incorrectly carried out can result in further problems of heave and the structural problems that this brings.

It has been advised byWhich that about 70% of all subsidence cases are due to tree roots removing moisture from the soil.

So, how can we help? MAP Surveyors are a well established firm of Chartered Building Surveyors, and should you detect what you perceive to be new movement and cracking, then please contact us for impartial, expert advise on 020 8300 1144.



HOUSE PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE

It has been suggested by the RICS in a recent housing market survey that house prices have risen for the 6th month in a row and that the larger family houses are out performing flats. Even the recent depressed stock market and renewed speculation over interest rate increases hasn’t affected demand.

It was suggested that London is still one of the strongest housing markets with price increase supported by a limited number of properties coming to the market and perceived greater economic wealth and continued low interest rates support the rises. However it is anticipated that house prices will level off with an increase in the number of sellers, particularly with the approach of the fourth coming sellers packs (HIPs).