Can I attend a house survey?

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Whether you can be present at the Survey would be largely dependent upon the Surveyor and of course subject to agreement by the owner of the property, and this is something, which you would have to discuss with the Surveyor when you place the instruction.

From a personal perspective, I don’t like having clients on site whilst I am doing my job and I know most of my professional colleagues hold similar views – this is for several reasons:

a) it takes me invariably twice as long to do my job when the client is present;

b) we work to a routine when carrying out an inspection of a property, and having a client on site who will inevitably want to chat to you during the course of the inspection, invariably increases the risk of something being missed due to distraction and

c) many surveyors book their diaries out as time windows rather than specific times... for example between 10 and 12, rather than 10.00am sharp. This allows a cushion for jobs over running and travelling time etc.

Where clients request to be on site, we normally suggest to them that they meet us at the end of the inspection, so we can point out any major issues to them and from experience, this works better than the client trailing around after the surveyor, constantly asking questions! Most clients are happy with this compromise.

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Gavin Scott-Brooker

Brooker & Co

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