This website contains a number of matters Craig Brown of Shepherd Chartered Surveyors failed to identify in his Level II Survey and Valuation.
However, there were other items that never made it to the list, but were documented at the time. Originally I had no intention of pursuing Shepherd Chartered Surveyors with these and when the issues arose with the roof I felt if they just fixed that one matter I wouldn’t bother with the rest. However, as they have dug their heels in and failed to acknowledge the validity of the mountain of evidence against them I feel it is appropriate to show the World the glaringly obvious things that were missed…
Firstly, the garage had been joined to the main dwelling and converted into an en-suite bedroom. The corner of the room was painted white, something which I missed during my visit.
When re-decorating I found this was because there was water penetrating above the DPC on the outside. Martin Richardson of MPR Consultants mentioned the moss growth in his report. This was the result.
After re-decorating you can see there is a visible piece of plasterboard missing. It was so saturated it disintegrated.
Externally, the ground level was too high and above the DPC. This was before;
After clearing the area and digging it down the extensive efflorescence remains;
If the surveyor had bothered to check round this area (the play house was not present and so there was access) he would have seen a boundary fence in a poor state;
Even after digging down the high external ground levels, removing the moss growth and cleaning the brickwork you can still see green staining ABOVE the dpc;
The extensive effloresence and green staining and other deposits above the DPC is visible in other areas of the property too. Drainage has since been installed;
The old boiler was leaking, and had been for some time. Not only was this evident under the boiler but on the cupboard surrounds!
One of the windows was delaminating;
