Posted 24/04/2020
Tags Section 20 | Roof Replacement | Major Works | drones | drone surveys | Insurance
We’re pleased to see proactive property managers joining and enjoying our webinars. And many are heeding our advice on major works and starting preparations as far as a year in advance – because as we all know, checking the lease, securing client instructions, raising funds, finding a surveyor, agreeing a scope of works and serving section 20 notices all before a scaffold pole has been planted, can take a very long time.
The focus of this blog is inspecting roofs and other high level/difficult to access areas on residential and commercial buildings. Frankly, not enough of this happens proactively, and therefore property managers and their leaseholders endure unnecessary water ingress and expensive insurance claims – if indeed the insurer doesn’t repudiate the claim.
That insurance issue is very important when it comes to flat roofs of older properties in particular. Insurers know that roofs – which keep everything beneath it dry – are prone to neglect. Too many property owners and managers hope for the best but fear the worst as they stare at the weather forecast. Buried deep in many buildings insurance policy wordings is a requirement to inspect roofs on a set frequency and that any remedial works required are dealt with. How many property managers check their clients’ policy wordings that close? If you don’t and you have a flat roof claim, the insurers are unlikely to pay out.
You get what you pay for, not just when you’re procuring insurance. Investing in proactive maintenance will, undoubtedly, benefit your clients and reduce the risk of you arranging emergency works and processing stressful claims. Whether your policy states you need to inspect the roofs of your client’s mansion block annually, or not at all, it pays to inspect those roofs anyway, annually. We do that as a matter of course for many of our clients and it’s hardly surprising that they suffer from fewer soggy ceilings.
When planning for major works, the most significant unknowns cost-wise are those areas that are only accessible from a scaffold. That’s why many building surveyors allow for large contingency sums as they take a guestimate as to how bad a state the roof is in. At Earl Kendrick, we appreciate the implications of spending more than the ‘section 20’ statement of estimates allows, so we aim to ascertain the state of high level roofs, mansards and rainwater channels through whatever means are reasonably available. We probably don’t do it enough to be candid, however it can be enormously useful for leaseholders and property managers to let us know of any areas of the building that are experiencing or have experienced the effects of water ingress. From this feedback, we can see patterns and make assumption from them as to what is needed works wise.
Our building surveyors do their best to access high-rise neighbouring buildings and from there we can use binoculars or a zoom camera to inspect the detail. We ask for all records relating to the last time the roof was patch repaired or replaced, and glean what we can from them.
Latterly, we have started using drones fitted with HD cameras to get just about anywhere around a residential building. And it’s not just for planning a year ahead where the drones come into their own; no-one expects urgent repairs to be put on ice until the lockdown restrictions are lifted, so if you have such an issue that needs to be diagnosed and a repair organised, do get in touch. Similarly, if you would like to get on front foot with forthcoming major works or you would like to put in place a programme of pre-emptive roof inspections, let us know.
Matt De Bono, Building Surveyor, Earl Kendrick Building Surveyors
London Office
T: 020 3667 1510
enquiries@earlkendrick.com
North Office
T: 0161 706 0676
EKAnorth@earlkendrick.com
South Coast Office
T: 01273 974 416
EKAsouth@earlkendrick.com
Midlands Office
T: 07764 788405
enquiries@earlkendrick.com
West Office (Bristol)
T: 07590 881 621
enquiries@earlkendrick.com
West Office (Exeter)
T: 07590 881 621
enquiries@earlkendrick.com