Category: News Section

Proceeds of Crime Act – Brent to Receive Over £500,000 for Illegal Landlord House Conversion

Property Surveying

Norwich Crown Court has this month reached a decision on a case concerning a landlord in Brent, London who converted a house into 12 flats without the appropriate planning consent. He faces well over £1.4m in fines.

£500,000 of this will be due to Brent Council and the total of £1.4m constitutes the largest damages order ever seen for an incident of this type – reflecting the earnings Mr Ali illegally made from renting out the properties.

Follow this link or the one above to find a surveyor in London if you are planning on purchasing property or converting property to flats. A Chartered Surveyor will be able to advise on planning implications and meeting Building Regulations.

In Case You Missed It…… String of deaths leaves Britain’s most expensive house up for sale

PropertySurveying.co.uk

In our monthly newsletter, we highlighted a story concerning Britain’s most expensive home. A vast mansion in London with 45 bedrooms, a £300m price tag and a macabre past…

Read the rest of the article by clicking here

Five ways to help sell your home in a difficult market

A number of well peddled clichés surround the selling of a home, but some points slip under the radar. We expose five things you should address before selling your home, maximising its attractiveness to choosy buyers in a difficult market…

To see the rest of the article, and read inside tips from UK Chartered Surveyors, click here.

GE instructs Agent to sell The Ark

Hammersmith Surveyors – One of Britain’s most famous ‘white elephants’, (a building constructed at great expense but left unoccupied)  which stood empty between its construction in 1991 and an internal £20m refurbishment in 2006, is now being offered to potential buyers at an asking price of £78.7m. The property, known as ‘The Ark’ due to its shape, is the iconic headquarters of General Electric in Hammersmith.

This will give a 6.5% yield for the 166,000 sq ft building and interest is expected to be high as the Hammersmith and Chiswick markets have been thriving both in terms of occupier and investment deals in recent times. Find a local surveyor in Hammersmith and Fulham here or elsewhere here.

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England’s most expensive streets

Certain areas of Britain have also been shown to be extremely property rich recently. Around 185 streets in England has an average property price over £1m, with some of the most expensive being Scargate (Yorkshire), Sedley Taylor Road (Cambridge), Sandbanks (Poole), Quarry Park Road (Stourbridge) and Druidstone Road (Cardiff).

We have local, Chartered Surveyors in all of these areas. If you are thinking of purchasing property, or need a professional opinion on a property you already own, find your local surveyor here.

Vast development on Salford Quays Up for Sale

Manchester Surveyor – Property giant Savills have justbegun marketing a huge 433,600 sq ft development on the fringes of Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, with an official guide price of £32.5m.

The property contains seven office buildings with floorplates stretching from sub-1,000 sq ft to 12,300 sq ft. There are also 2,149 car parking spaces.

Our surveyors specialise in Asset Management work and large scale surveying instructions. For developments like this, our surveyors in Manchester are an experienced, professional and reliable choice.

Birmingham Council most Successful in Floundering RTB Scheme

Birmingham Surveyors – Of the currently ailing Right to Buy scheme, Birmingham Council has received the most expressions of interest with 696, but sold just 65 properties in April.

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association blamed the mortgage market for the disparity. ‘The LGA will continue to press the government for a review of the right to buy policy after one year,’ he said.

The floundering Right to Buy scheme is the subject of a new article in our monthly newsletter. Subscribe via this link.

Sussex pub grabs pub of the year accolade

Brighton Surveyors – One of Sussex’s finest local pubs has recently been blessed the with accolade of CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year 2012 and will soon compete with 15 other regional winners for National Pub of the Year 2012.

The award goes to the Wilkes Head, named after 18th century radical John Wilkes, which is a pleasant red brick structure in the classic country pub mould.

If you own a pub, maintaining aesthetics can be important to attracting business. Obtaining advice from a local Chartered Surveyor regarding how you can solve unsightly defects could be a sensible investment. Find your local surveyor here.

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Manor designed by creator of Buckingham Palace up for sale

Oswestry Surveyors – Aston Webb’s most famous work may be Buckingham Palace in London, England, but he also created other masterpieces, of which the Manor at Yeaton Peverey is one. A Grade II* listed masterpiece of the 19th century, with 6 acres, 12 bedrooms, a swimming pool, tennis court and wine cellar, this property is almost unique in its grandeur and is located just East of Oswestry, Shropshire. (Follow the link to a local Chartered Building Surveyor)

On the market for £2.9m, this truly is a surveyor’s dream.

Council Spends unbelievable £26,000……on coffee……in one year

Stoke on Trent Surveyors – In the latest in revelations over ridiculous council spending, Stoke on Trent council has recently been shown to have spent a startling £26,000 last year….on coffee and other hot beverages. Its 44 councillors consumed 10,800 drinks in the year and drinks were also bought for guests and visitors.

Broken down, that is £500 a week for a council tasked with achieving £35.6m of savings.