by Jonathan Milner, MRICS – Technical & Development Surveyor at Home Surveying, and member of the RICS Governing Council for Residential Property. Jonathan is a candidate in the 2023 RICS Governing Council Elections for the Residential Property Group seat.
As a member of the RICS Governing Council for Residential Property and a Technical and Development Surveyor at Home Surveying, I am committed to providing the highest standards of service to our clients. As a result, it will come as no surprise that I am a major advocate of the RICS Home Survey Standards as a benchmark on which to build our inspecting and reporting standards from, and that Home Surveying are strident in their adherence to delivering the best practices for conducting residential property surveys.
At Home Surveying, we focus on three key areas to ensure that we are meeting the RICS Home Survey Standards and delivering the best possible service to our clients.
The first area we focus on is pre-inspection communication. We believe that good communication is essential for a successful and appropriate survey, so we place a lot of emphasis on making sure that our clients speak with our surveyors before their inspection. This allows the client to highlight any concerns they might have about the property, and also helps them to understand what they can expect from the survey. We believe that this initial conversation is an important opportunity for our clients to get to know our surveyors and to build trust, which can help to ensure that they are happy with the service they receive.
The second area we focus on is post-inspection communication, following up on the appointment. We understand that our clients may have questions and concerns following the survey, which is why we make sure that our surveyors have a follow-up conversation with our clients to discuss their findings – often on the day of inspection. This allows our clients to ask any questions they may have and to receive further clarification on any issues that were raised in the survey, and ideally put their mind at rest as early as possible in the process. We believe that this follow-up conversation is an important part of our service, as it helps to ensure that our clients fully understand the results of the survey and are able to make informed decisions about the property and any transaction that may be ongoing.
The third area we focus on is energy efficiency. With the continuing rise in energy costs, we know that it is more important than ever to consider the property’s energy efficiency when conducting a survey – not to mention the potential impact on the client’s carbon footprint. This is why we have provided additional training to our team of surveyors to enable them to make a judgement on a property’s energy efficiency during their visit, and to make recommendations about how the property can be made more energy efficient. In particular, we think it is important that they consider the property’s
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when compiling their report, allowing them to highlight any discrepancies or potential opportunities or concerns arising from the property’s condition.
We believe that by focusing on these three areas – pre-inspection communication, post-inspection communication, and energy efficiency - we can provide our clients with the highest level of service in line with the RICS Home Survey Standards.
At Home Surveying we are committed to continuing to lead the field in improving our processes and to staying up-to-date with the latest developments in technology and data, in order to provide the best possible service to our clients. If you are in need of a residential property survey, we invite you to get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help.
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