Repairing obligations in leases fall under two categories: Full Repairing and Insuring (FRI), meaning you as tenant are responsible for the whole building both internally and externally, or Internal Repairing and Insuring (IRI) where you are only responsible for the interior. A dilapidation schedule can be served on either lease type however, it is far more onerous if your lease states that you have FRI obligations.

Repairing obligations mean that as tenant you have a responsibility to  maintain the property in a good state of repair and redecoration whilst in occupation.

At the end of the lease this obligation will mean that the property must be given back to the landlord in a good state of repair and redecoration. That may mean that the stain on the carpet, or a dint in a door which was there when you moved in,  may become your responsibility to repair.

What can be done about this? How can it be prevented? If you are considering taking on a commercial lease, you should ensure that a Schedule of Condition is carried out by a Chartered Surveyor and attached to the Lease when you signed on the dotted line.

This Schedule of Condition, is prepared from an inspection of the Property you are about to lease, most of which take a day or more to complete. It is in a prescribed form, with attached photographs, detailing any signs of wear and tear or disrepair at the time the Lease was signed.

With this Schedule you will then have an obligation to return the property to the Landlord in the state it was in recorded by the Schedule of Condition. For example, you take on a lease of a property with an office that has a worn and stained carpet: with a Schedule of Condition, it states the carpet was worn and stained, therefore if  it is in no worse condition than in the Schedule of Condition when you vacate the premises, the Landlord cannot make you replace the carpet.

Without the Schedule of Condition you have no evidence that the carpet was worn and stained when you signed the Lease and you may be liable to replace the carpet with a new one which will cost you money.

A Schedule of Condition will cost a few hundred pounds depending on the size of the building you are going to let, but in the long term it may save you tens of thousands of pounds that you simply haven’t budgeted for.

If in the future you are served with a Schedule of Dilapidation at the end of the Lease and you didn’t have a Schedule of Condition, it is not too late to do something about it.

Again a Chartered Surveyor can help you by preparing a Response to the Schedule of Dilapidation. This will involve the Surveyor inspecting the Property on your behalf and preparing a Schedule which provides your own estimates for the cost of works, or disagreeing with the Landlord’s Surveyor that a certain element of repair work is necessary.

Your Surveyor can then enter into negotiations with the Landlord’s Surveyor to try and negotiate a settlement term on your behalf. Now reading this may leave you thinking, “are Landlords allowed to do this?” the simple answer is yes, they are.

As a tenant, if your lease is coming to an end you should try to be as proactive as possible with regards to your repairing obligations up to a year or more before the end of your lease. Think about what works you may have to do if you leave at the end of your tenancy, you may even want to instruct the advice of a Surveyor or enter into talks with your landlord before a Schedule of Dilapidation is served.

Our Surveyors are always happy to have a chat about your situation and/or the repairing obligations in your lease.

As I was taking our little boy to nursery last Wednesday, by obligatory sledge of course, I had time to look around and noticed a few properties like the one in the photo accompanying this blog post.

Snow and ice can damage property and when there is a lot of it can be a force to be reckoned with.

This photo shows that the snow has slipped off the roof and broken the gutter, this is obvious to the home owner, but make sure that when the snow thaws you have a good look around at the outside of your property to see if the guttering has been cracked or distorted by the weight of the snow.

Check drives and footpaths for cracking or uneven paving stones, if freezing ice and snow has penetrated a crack then this can damage tarmac or path surfaces.

Check your brickwork for signs of spalling bricks, or eroded pointing (cement between the bricks).  You can test any bricks or pointing by using something like a screwdriver, to see if it is soft or crumbly in texture. If it is it may need attention.

Check your roof covering for any signs of slipped or chipped slates or tiles, and the cement at the edge of your roof called the verge can also be susceptible to frost damage if water has managed to get into a crack and has frozen.

We get some really big icicles up in Consett where we live, due to the exposure of being on top of a hill! This second photo shows some fine examples over a shop on Front Street. If you do have icicles on your property, try to knock the ones you can safely reach off, perhaps with a broom, again the weight of these can cause your guttering to break.

Property maintenance is essential if you see signs of wear and tear to your home. It might cost a small amount of money to put something right when you first spot it, but if you leave it it could become worse and end up costing you even more money.

Hopefully these tips will come in useful now the snow is melting away!

Up until 2009, the firm had been in the Watson family since the first day, and there is an original photograph of the very first Edward Watson that I am going to find and upload so that you can see it!

Watson House, next to the old Odeon cinema is where the firm was started, as Edward Watson & Sons, if you are in town and are passing by, if you look up you can see the Watson name on the building.

Now that the firm is run by McSkimmings and not Watsons, we still strive to achieve the professional work ethos which is part of the Watson family legacy.

The best way of protecting your investment is to commission a RICS HomeBuyer Report or Building Survey prior to purchase. Therefore before legal completion you will know what is wrong with the property, what works are required and what is it’s current value. You can then make an informed decision as to whether or not you go ahead with the purchase.

Only 1 in 5 buyers commission a Survey, with 4 out of 5 buyers relying upon the mortgage valuation report. What these buyers don’t realise is that despite paying for the valuation report, it is a report for the lender to make a lending decision and is not a report on the condition of the Property.

A survey commissioned by the RICS revealed that 25% of buyers who don’t instruct a Surveyor to carry out a RICS HomeBuyer Report or Building Survey spend on average £1,100 on unexpected repairs.

If you have a Survey carried out, it can be used as a basis for negotiations with the Vendor and ultimately could save you thousands on the price you have agreed to purchase the property for.

Remember it is for you to discover any problems with the property not for the Vendor to reveal them to you. It is best to know about these things before you are committed to purchase the property and not after completion when it is too late!

The programme was interesting, but I admit, it was on a different Leasehold issue than I thought would be covered.

In Dispatches they reported on the problems people living in blocks of flats encounter with the managing company or agent who manages the block.

The owners of the leasehold flats had complaints regarding the service charges and the repairs (or lack of them) that were carried out.

Whilst I sympathise with the flat owners, I was watching the programme thinking of another problem which awaits the owners of Leasehold property.

When a Leasehold property is purchased a long Leasehold is granted, usually for 99 or 199 years.

When this Lease has less than 70 years left you can encounter some problems.

Did you know that some Banks and Building Societies have policies regarding Leasehold property and that they won’t accept the property as security for a mortgage. Not great news if you want to move house or remortgage.

You as the Leaseholder have the right to be granted a new Lease, or an extension to the current Lease. The onus is on you as the Leaseholder to initiate negotiations with the Freeholder, and they will charge you a premium for granting a new Lease/extension.

This is why it is advisable to get advice from a Surveyor who can provide you with an accurate valuation i.e. how much they think you should be paying for the new Lease and they can also do the negotiating with the Freeholder’s Surveyor on your behalf.

There are lots of Leasehold properties in the North East, so my advice would be to find out how long you have left on your Lease, so that you know when to act.

We are always happy to chat with you here at EWA, Paul and Edward will answer your questions on Leasehold property matters.

The one to the left of the picture is one of the biggest he has ever seen!

If you should discover a nest in your loft space, your local council should have a pest control department and for a small fee they will remove the nest for you.

Also please note that Paul wrote this column in May when the sun was shining!

Here it is:

Summers here!

Finally, some well-needed and long awaited sunshine is streaming through my office window as I write my column!

Now that some fine weather has arrived, our attention turns outside with most of us mowing the lawn, planting out summer bedding, and arranging barbecues!

But now is a good time to look at the outside of your property to see if there are any maintenance issues and repairs needed after winter.

I have listed a few aspects that may need attention:

The roof:

Have a look at your roof to assess the condition of your tiles or slates. If any are broken, chipped or missing, then they need some attention. Check the ridge tiles all in place and bedded properly, and if there are any holes of missing cement to the verges, again these may need some minor repairs.

Spending money now on minor repairs means that your roof covering will last longer and avoid the renewal of the whole roof, which can be very costly.

Have a look in the loft to see if your underfelt is damaged, if there are any tears or holes in it then repairs should be carried out. You may not have underfelt if you have an original slate roof.

It is important to carry out these repairs to keep your roof weather tight for next winter.

Is there any moss on the roof, if so this should be brushed off as it can fall into gutters causing them to overflow and also eventually cause blockages to the gulleys. Which leads on to…

Gutters:

Now is the time to check if your gutters are clear and free from debris. Moss, fallen leaves and weeds can all find their way into your gutters and can block them and cause water to overflow when it rains.

Flat roofs:

Flat roofs have a limited life expectancy of 10 – 15 years. This means that they don’t last forever!

If you do have a single storey flat roof over a bay window, garage or outbuilding, have a look to see if there is any cracking, blistering, holes or standing water. If any of these signs are there on your roof it may be time to think about renewing it.

These types of roofs can fail suddenly and can cause damage to timber and decorations should the leak. It is always best to replace the roof covering before it leaks. If standing water is present, on renewal your builder or roofing contractor may be able to raise one end of the roof to create a ‘fall’ to allow water to run off.

Woodwork:

If you have any timber doorframes, doors, windows or timber cladding then they may need a new coat of paint or varnish. It is important to redecorate timber as the coating protects it from rain and snow and prevents it getting wet and rot developing.

I hope that this short guide is useful to you, and I hope that you all enjoy the sunshine – long may it last!

Is this just because I am inquisitive? Or just plain nosy? No, I don’t think it is (although I am nosy!) I think it is because I like to know who I am talking to if I choose to ring them up and even knowing a bit of background about the person or people running the business allows me to feel more connected to them and more likely to use their service or buy their product!

It was a conscious decision when creating our new website to have a bio and a photograph of Paul, Edward and myself so that we were visible to our customers and should they choose to see what we look like they can!

Moving on from this I thought that it might be a good idea to find out a bit more about Paul and I, so I compiled some questions, which Paul gave me a strange look when I asked him to answer them!

Anyway here they are…

What is the best part of your job?

P: Being out and about most days, seeing different properties and meeting a variety of different people.

H: Meeting people, networking and hatching marketing ideas!

Do you have a hobby?

P: Cycling, snowboarding and playing the guitar. The first two I don’t get to do as much as I would like to!

H: I like crafty things, although I wish I was better! I am currently finishing a tapestry I have had for months now! I also have a growing passion for gardening which I blame on Martin from Cowells Garden Centre!

If you won the Lottery what would you do/buy?

P: Go on holiday and buy a place in Whistler, BC in Canada for ski holidays!

H: Buy a new car! Cars are a bit of an obsession in our house! I would like to buy some land and build a house (as would Paul) and I would donate money to charity, the Parkinson’s Disease Society, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research.

What is your favourite band/singer?

P: The Beatles

H: I can’t decide on just one!

What is your favourite memory?

P: My son being born.

H: When I saw my son for the first time.

I didn’t realise until I saw the answers to Paul’s questions that we had the same favourite memory!

I hope these questions helped you learn a little more about us and maybe got you thinking about some answers of your own!

In my regular column I will be writing about a topic that is close to everyone’s heart – your home. ‘Home is where the heart is’ rings true, for a lot of us our home is our safe haven.

In my column I will be giving pointers and information about how to care for the structure of your home and talk about property maintenance issues. Anything from cavity wall tie corrosion, damp problems and even insects nests!

This column will focus on condensation. There is more than one type of condensation, however surface condensation, is most common in homes today.

During September to May (condensation season) we have the heating on more, the windows don’t get opened as often and we sometimes dry clothes on the radiators (be honest how many of us have done this?). These conditions are perfect for surface condensation to occur.

Warm air is able to hold moisture, however when the temperature of the air drops below a certain level, called the ‘dew point’, it can no longer retain moisture. When the moisture comes into contact with a cold surface, for example walls and windows, it turns into a liquid.

Condensation can occur in cold spots, such as an unheated spare bedroom and not necessarily in the room where the moisture is produced. This is due to the flow of air around the house.

The black mould we are all familiar with is a result of condensation occurring, and to avoid the mould we need to avoid the condensation process.

So a few pointers to avoid condensation in the first place would be:

1. Keep your heating on constant, at around 18ºc – this is more efficient than say putting the heating on for an hour in the morning and when you get home at night. It keeps the fabric of the building at a constant even temperature.

2. Try not to dry clothes on the radiators, hard I know but this releases extra moisture into the air.

3. When cooking on the hob, try to remember to open a window, or use your extractor fan, so that the warm moist air has a chance to leave the house.

4. Keep windows open, most windows will allow you to lock them leaving a small gap in the frame or you may have air vents fitted at the top of the frame. This allows air to circulate through your home and keep the moisture in the air moving so that it doesn’t get a chance to settle on walls or windows.

5. When taking a bath or a shower, or when bathing the children, always remember to close the bathroom door and open the window.

If you do have black mould, due to condensation, you can always treat it with an anti fungal wash, or using a mixture containing 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. But be warned if you don’t follow the tips above it will come back!

It was great to see the enthusiasm people had for their businesses!

We hope that you grabbed one of our flyers which offered 10% off our featured services, if you didn’t get one and would like one please email me and I will send one out to you!

If you run a business you may work from home or already have business premises.

Surveyors can help when you are moving premises, whether buying or renting.

When buying a property it is wise to get a building survey, this will ensure that the structure of the building you are buying is sound.

If you are renting a Schedule of Condition should be attached to the Lease so that a written and photographic record of the condition of the building at the beginning of the tenancy is documented.

If you rent, Surveyors can help if your Landlord instigates a rent review, negotiating with your Landlord’s Surveyor on your behalf.

Thank you to everyone who came by to meet us at our stand and we hope that if you have any property surveying needs you will think of Edward Watson Associates!

We are always happy to help and to have a chat with people!