General Surveying Services

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We offer a range of general building surveying services for all types of property with some briefly described below:

Expert Witness Reports

We regularly prepare Expert Witness Reports compliant with the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) relating to building defects and building works, to aid the Courts in determining disputes.

Fire risk assessments

Since October 2006 there has been a statutory duty on the duty holder to prepare an annual Fire Risk Assessment. This statutory requirement came in under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to all non-domestic premises, including the common parts of blocks of flats and houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).

The duty holder is defined as the person or organisation responsible for the communal areas to commercial and residential premises, often freeholders who own multi-occupied premises, such as office buildings or retail premises with residential accommodation above with a communal entrance.

The legislation also applies to those responsible for individual areas within a building where others are employed and therefore encompasses all business premises.

AK Property Consultants prepare fire risk assessments for a range of clients including the preparation of the management plan and if required the specification and supervision of any compliance works.

Planned maintenance Schedules

All properties should have a planned maintenance schedule in place. This should be updated regularly and will enable works within the short, medium and long-term to be factored within the budgets for the building often used for those with service charges.

By having a planned maintenance schedule in place you will reduce the likelihood of having to claim on your insurance from events such as overflowing valleys, rainwater goods, roof leaks and damp.

We provide planned maintenance schedules within our property management costs but do also get asked to prepare them for properties that we do not actively manage, often for occupiers of premises and other managing agents.

We often get involved within instructing the subsequent works and diarise the works for the following year in advance and update the planned maintenance schedule, which is a live document, creating a log book for the property.

Project management and monitoring

We have extensive experience in managing building works from simple maintenance tasks through to major refurbishments. We will ensure all building control requirements are met, that works are specified in detail, tendered to obtain the best value and supervised from start to finish using JCT (Joint Contracts Tribunal) small works contracts, where applicable.

By employing our services your project has the best chances of coming in on budget and within the anticipated timescales ensuring best value is obtained.

CDM co-ordinator role

The CDM regulations 2007 (Construction Design Management) apply to all building works. In particular any works that are expected to take 30 days or more or involve 500 person days.

They place legal duties on virtually everyone involved in construction work. If you instruct building works they most likely apply to you. In these instances it is a legal requirement to appoint a CDM co-coordinator.

AK Property Consultants offer their services as CDM co-ordinator and will ensure full compliance. We will assess resources allocated to the works, ensure suitable management arrangements are in place for the works, sufficient welfare facilities and provide pre-construction information to designers and contractors in the form of a Health & Safety Plan. At the end of the job we will complete complete the Health & Safety File as part of the service.

Defect analysis

Buildings are built using different materials, techniques, technology and to different standards.

As a result, buildings often have very different maintenance requirements and develop defects which are not always easy to identify. It is important defects are identified correctly as this will enable the correct remedial works to be specified.

Damp is the most common defect combined with related issues of mould growth and different types of fungal and insect attack. Identifying the defect based on sound understanding of the building combined with its use is essential and is something AK Property Consultants has a sound understanding of.

We are also conscious you never stop learning and there are always new problems relating to the use of new materials and methods and ensure, that we are continually developing our knowledge. .

If you need a defect identifying, remedial works specifying and supervising please contact us as we are able to offer a very comprehensive and competitive service.