Tweet Quite often what appears to be an easy way to make a room bigger in an older house is to think about removing the chimney breast – at first thought it seems easy, knock it out with a sledgehammer, bag up and remove the rubble, plaster up, decorate and [...]

Tweet Increasing numbers of homeowners are deciding to improve rather than move home, according to new research from RICS – the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of whom Collier Stevens are members.

Tweet Here’s a wall we found on a recent survey, apparently a well built retaining structure bit on further examination we found it wasn’t quite as good as it looked,  a close up photo reveals a large fracture and what cant be seen as the tree to the land on [...]

Tweet Take this seemingly innocuous rainwater pipe for instance.  It’s in the rear corner of a fairly new house, the garden stuff has been pil;ed up against it a bit but otherwise it is probably walked past 10 times a week by the owners who probably look at it and [...]

Tweet With news that  a property owner in Hampstead is planning to more than double the size of his house by constructing a vast basement we are reminded of a survey we did several years ago of a very nice newly refurbished house in Hampstead where our client intended doing [...]

Tweet The Guardian Newspaper highlighting service charge problems in blocks of flats and overcharging by freeholders and management companies.  Article One – “Sack Your Property Manager”, Article Two – “Leasehold – A Battle to Fight and Win”.  Both of these articles start from the premise that all property management companies [...]

Tweet A range of consumer guides from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors [RICS] is now available for download at Collier Stevens website.  The guides include guidance on Buying a Home, Party Walls, Rights to Light, Subsidence, Extending Your Home, Boundary Disputes, Property Surveys, Selling Your Home and Flooding.

Tweet There is of course no reason why a jobbing builder working on houses and other small projects should be immune from Health & Safety legislation and as far as the HSE is concerned they’re not.  The HSE is particularly concerned about accidents that involve working at height noting that [...]