Terms & Conditions
Terms & Conditions: The Snagging Survey
THE COMPANY:
Dorset New Build Snagging Surveys is a Trading Division of English Oak Projects Ltd. Registered Office 7-8 Church Street, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 1JH. Company Reg. No. 9409367.
THE CLIENT(S):
The person or persons that instructs The Company to carry out the Snagging Survey.
THE SURVEY/REPORT:
The Surveyor will use all of the care and skill to be reasonably expected of an appropriately experienced building surveyor to provide an accurate, comprehensive and detailed report with photographs of every item recorded at the time of the survey.
The surveyor will carry out a visual inspection to check that the workmanship and materials are to an accepted benchmark quality standard (usually referring to NHBC Standards both internally and externally), to individual warranty technical standards where necessary, building regulations and on occasion making recommendations for improvement.
Other warranty standards may differ from the NHBC and clients should seek advice from the surveyor as to the differences and how this may affect them.
The surveyor inspects the inside and outside of the main building and all permanent outbuildings, but does not force or open up the building fabric. This means that the surveyor does not take up carpets, floor coverings or floorboards, move furniture, remove the contents of cupboards, roof spaces, etc., remove secured panels and/or hatches or undo electrical fittings that are plugged into sockets.
If the property is occupied and furnished at the time of the inspection, furniture, stored articles and personal possessions will not be moved and this ultimately may restrict access for inspection.
The surveyor may use equipment such as a laser level, damp-meter, binoculars and a torch and may use a ladder for flat roofs and for hatches no more than 3 metres above level ground (outside) or floor surfaces (inside) if it is safe to do so. The surveyor will inspect the roof space from the access hatch and will only go into the roof space if the surveyor considers it is safe to do so.
The surveyor will not use ladders to inspect surfaces more than 3 metres above ground level, although binoculars will be used from ground level in order to inspect higher areas. Attention will be drawn to any areas that warrant further inspection from close quarters with the use of scaffolding etc.
Roof surfaces above 3 metres will be inspected with the aid of binoculars from publicly accessible land and the subject premises or from other parts of the building where accessible such as windows and skylights. There will inevitably be some areas that are not visible and we will, therefore, be unable to comment with regard to these areas.
SERVICES TO THE PROPERTY:
Property Services are often hidden within the construction of the property and, as a result, only the visible parts of the available services can be inspected. We will not carry out specialist tests, or test or assess the efficiency of electrical, gas, plumbing, heating or drainage installations (or whether they meet current regulations) or the inside condition of any chimney, boiler or other flue.
The Company is not licensed or certified as an electrical, gas or plumbing company. However, we do carry out basic checks on the electrical sockets, lighting, smoke/fire detectors, heating systems and check boilers for gas leaks; we will not to be held accountable past this point of responsibility. We also add that this is not a structural survey and we are not responsible for any inaccuracies.
The Developer should be able to provide Certification under the Building Regulations which should be based on self certification of services by the relevant specialists/sub-contractors. We will endeavour to highlight the requirement for such specialist certificates. Where provided prior to our inspection, we will view them in good faith but can accept no liability for their authenticity or compliance with relevant standards which remains the responsibility of the Developer.
OUTSIDE OF THE PROPERTY:
The surveyor inspects the condition of boundary walls, fences, gates, garages and areas in common (shared) use. To inspect these areas, the surveyor walks around the grounds and any neighbouring public property where access can be obtained.
Manhole covers are lifted (where practicable) within the curtilage of the property and the condition of the chambers are recorded within the report.
PAYMENT TERMS:
Payment of a deposit of £50.00 will be due at the time of booking the Snagging Survey, with the full balance due within 3 working days of the Client’s receipt of the Survey.
Should clients wish to cancel the inspection they should do so no later than 48 hours prior to the agreed site visit time. Cancellations after this notice period will be subject to a cancellation fee equal to the deposit paid.
If the client fails to make payment by the Payment Date, the client shall pay interest on the overdue sum from the due date (3 working days from receipt of Snagging Survey) until payment of the overdue sum, interest will accrue each day at 4% a year above the Bank of England base rate.
The pricing of the snagging survey is based on the number of bedrooms in the property. Any additional habitable rooms designated as office, study, nursery, library etc. regardless of size or name according to the plans, shall be classed as additional bedrooms. The Customer agrees for us to amend the fee should the information provided by the customer be inaccurate at the time of our acceptance of the booking.
CLIENT'S RESPONSIBILITY:
It is the Client's responsibility to ensure that the developer has completed all works to the property and that the property has been properly cleaned and, in the developer's opinion, ready to move into prior to agreeing a date for our survey.
There should not be any work persons in the property during our visit. If we do not have clear access or the property has not been cleaned it could restrict our ability to complete our survey of certain elements.
Should it be necessary for us to extend our visit or revisit to complete our survey due to any of the foregoing, we reserve our right to charge any further time/visits at our standard hourly rate.
STANDARD HOURLY RATE: £65.00 per hour.
LIABILITY:
The report is provided for our Client’s use, and the surveyor cannot accept responsibility if it is used, or relied upon, by anyone else.
When carrying out our Snagging Survey we always use our best abilities to help ensure we pick up every defect in your house. This, however, may not always be possible due to restrictive access or visibility. The Company takes no responsibility for any defect/issues missed or misrepresented.
We will assume that the property has been built in full accordance with the Planning Approval and that all Planning Conditions have been discharged. For the purposes of this document the term ‘planning’ shall include planning, listed building and conservation area consents.
The Company holds Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurances. Copies of our policy cover details are available upon request.
LEGAL:
These terms and conditions will be governed by the laws of England and any Client hereby agrees to be bound exclusively by the jurisdiction of English courts without reference to rules governing choice of laws.