0116 4300 272
51 Henley Road, Leicester, LE3 9RD8.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday
Building Surveys and Structural Investigations
About Steve Butler RICS Surveyors
Steve Butler are independent Leicester Surveyors with over thirty years experience of surveying in Leicester and Leicestershire and are thus very familiar with the area. Our surveyors undertake surveys and valuations of residential property and houses for all kinds of purposes. We are interested in pre-puchase Level 2 Homebuyers, Level 3 Building Surveys, Help to Buy Valuations and valuations for matrimonial, insolvency and taxation purposes. Our surveyors aim to try and provide a rapid respone but with a high level of service based on our expert knowledge of Leicester, impartial advice, and to be seen as entirely trustworthy.
Steve Butler qualified as an RICS Chartered Surveyor in 1992 and has also passed the Government's Home Inspector Examinations and is a qualified commercial energy surveyor and associate member of the Chartered Institution of Legal Executives. Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors are regulated by the RICS and have to follow their rules of conduct. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the leading property profession and requires high standards of integrity and responsibility of its members. Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors are entirely independent of any estate agents lenders or mortgage brokers and not not pay introductory fees ensuring our independence. Our valuations and survey reports are subject to audit by the RICS.
We provide a professional, cost effective residential property survey service and try to be as accessible as possible. Our survey reports are written in plain language with minimal caveats. Our clients like our straight forward approach, and that we try to go that little bit further on behalf of the client. Clients are particularly welcome to attend the survey so that defects can be discussed on site.
Property matters can be very worrying. You can invariably telephone one of our Chartered Surveyors between 8.00 am and 6 .00 pm seven days per week. If you have a problem or don't understand something please feel free to call. Clients are also most welcome to meet our surveyors on site
Our surveyors can invariably visit clients in Leicester the same day or next day, at the office or home.
Leicester Chartered Surveyors Building Survey report photographs of a 1902 terrace
Our Leicester RICS surveyors inspected this terrace house. The front and rear walls of this property had been badly damaged by water because of failure to undertake a few hundred pounds of gutter and down pipe repairs. Intruders had damaged the kitchen and bathroom and run off with the boiler as well as damaging central heating pipes. An extension containing the bathroom and kitchen was single skin construction and likely to be cold and prone to water penetration. An attic conversion had dangerous stairs and no fire protection and probably no insulation of the ceiling.
Home Buyers Survey and Valuation
One of our more popular forms of survey, the Home Buyers Report is used to assess the condition of properties that are less than 150 years old and is always recommended for newer properties. A detailed Home Buyers Report by one of our qualified Chartered Surveyors is recommended for properties in this category as it provides crucial information about the condition of the property you are intending to purchase.
With a Homebuyer Report, buyers can be made aware of any hidden defects, enabling more time to arrange for any necessary repairs. Equipped with a HomeBuyer Report’s findings it may be possible to renegotiate the purchase price or may even lead you to reconsider the purchase altogether.
A generic Home Buyers Report assesses the overall condition of the property by looking at all visible and accessible areas. This inspection will normally take around two to three hours, although this is dependent on the type and size of the property. Following inspection, a report documenting the survey findings is put together and includes a Market Valuation of the property. Our surveyor will present the report and findings to the client and offer professional advice regarding any major or immediate defects which may need attention.
RICS surveyors Homebuyers Report on a 1960s detached house near to Leicester
Leicester RICS Homebuyers Surveyors RICS Home Buyers Survey Report 1960 detached house. Problems included damaged and hard to obtain roof tiles, a flat roof holding water, collapsing retaining walls, poor channel arrangements in a drain chamber leading to blockages, a warm air system with potential maintenance and asbestos issues, and leaking balcony surfaces decaying the supporting decks
Leicester surveyors homebuyers report on a 1935 semi detached house
Our Leicester surveyors found frost damaged bricks blocked vents and poor insulation that was likely encourage condensation, substandard electrics, a dangerous glass door, potenially dmp quarry tile floors, old ceilings that were at risk of collapse, missing firebreak walls and missing roof linings.
RICS Valuations
Our expert surveyors offer professional RICS Valuations for Help to Buy, Matrimonial, Insolvency, Probate and Tax purposes across the Leicester area. We currently offer Help to Buy Valutions at a fixed fee of £300.00 including VAT.
Expert witness CPR 35 report on a collapsed wall at Leicester for county court
In this case both parties were trying to deny ownership of a collapsed retaining wall. Our boundary dispute surveyors were easily able to resolve the question of ownership by reference to the title deeds. The owners of both properties abutting the boundary wall then blamed the other for its substantial and expensive collapse. As the boundary wall remains unrepaired and unstable it is likely that the property on the lower side of the wall is not mortgagable knocking many thousands of pounds off its value. Our surveyors were able to demonstrate with a few trial pits constructed against the wall that the movement of the wall had occurred entirely above ground level on the lower side of the wall. This confirmed that the wall had collapsed because it had been unable to cope with the weight bearing against it rather than because the foundations had rotated due to supposedly leaking drains on the adjacent property as the owner of the walls structural engineer had tried to claim.
Surveyors Report on a leaning house wall at Leicester
Measurement with a spirt level suggest to our surveyors that the top fifteen course of bricks lean out 150mm from above the point at which two large longitudinal structural roof timbers bear into the wall. The top ten course of the wall are of single skin construction and particularly vulnerable to further movement. The the likely cause of the leaning wall is failure to restrain it at the time of construction.
Our surveyors recommened demolishing the top fifteen course of brickwork and rebuild them with a 225mm wall tied together with either bricks laid across the wall or metal ties. Straps set into the centre of the wall can be secured to the roof structure. The straps can be secured to the existing longitudinal timbers and to planks screwed across and perpendicular to the rafters just below each side of the apex. 18mm x 120mm x 2.4m floor boards or similar would suffice.
Surveyors CPR 35 compliant defects report on bathroom tiling for Leicester County Court Proceedings
Here's what £700.00 of bathroom tiling looks like. This was the worst tiling job that our Leicster RICS Expert Witness Surveyors had ever seen! There was nothing good that could be said about it. All will have to be scrapped. Failure on such jobs are invariable caued by failure to think for a few minutes before starting work and failure to use simple tools such as a tape measure, square, level plumb line or spacers. If engaging any contractor start to worry at early stage if they rush into the job and do not make frequent use of the simple tools mentioned above. A good building or construction job always starts with good planning which almost always involves ten minutes with the tape measure!
Damp and timber survey by Leicester RICS surveyors.
Our surveyors found a dangerous boiler, dry rot beetles and wet rot. Poor venetilation was again the cause of all three problems.
Leicester Surveyors RICS Building Survey on a 1903 Terrace House
RICS Building Survey Report on a typical turn of the 20th Century Leicester terrace house that has been retrospectively rendered and had a replacement concrete tile roof. The property had poor weather proofing of a chimney and a displaced gutter both of which are likely to allow water penetration. There were indications of on going problems with the drians and rats were present in both the drians and a roof void that had a low level of insualtion. There was high risk of carbon monoxide poisioning due to a poorly installed stove.
Survey of a 1930 detached property by Leicester RICS Surveyors
RICS Building Survey of a 1930 detached house in the Leicester area. Interesting points noted by our Chartered Surveyors where solid walls which where only 125mm in areas, a roof void insulated with expanding foam, various types of dampness and a right of way for a small animal.
We can provide a rapid response in the Leicester areas at low cost. Homebuyers Report and Building Survey prices are fixed so that you know exactly where you are.
RICS Valuations including Help to Buy Valuations
Our RICS surveyors undertake residential property valuations for all tyes of purpose such as matrimonial dipsutes, probate and insolvency. We are fully familair with the requirments for Help to Buy Valuations