Tony Swainston Building Surveyor

We wanted a Specific Defect Report on our house. Tony came round and was very clear in his explanations and shared his comprehensive knowledge of both causes and ways to fix defects. We felt the fee was a bit expensive but worth it.

Tony Swainston carried out a survey on the home we plan to sell. Tony’s work is exceptional. His knowledge of property condition, building, and areas related to building surveys, is encyclopaedic. His approach is thorough, measured, thoughtful and guided by careful research. Tony spent hours going over every bit of our house and garden. His use of technology is strong – he videos and talks through commentary which he later uses to refer to and interpret in greater depth. Tony’s attention to detail is second to none and the conclusions he comes to are informative and helpful. I know that the research he did away from our property was also thorough and effective. Tony spent a long time talking us through his findings. He has also since been a great help in answering questions subsequent to our arranging for some work to be done on our house as a result of his survey. The report is clear, well written and of great use. I showed a relevant section to our local council building control surveyor, who told me that Tony was evidently extremely expert in his area. It is without hesitation that I recommend Tony Swainston as a building surveyor. He is professional, committed, thorough and extremely generous with his knowledge.

My wife and I instructed Tony to carry out a survey on a property we were purchasing earlier this year and we did this due to the reviews on Trusted Traders. I can say that we completely agree with the previously posted comments and found Tony to be extremely professional, helpful and thorough throw out the entire process. I personally spoke to him on the phone on several occasions about certain issues found in the survey and also asking for advice which was freely given, informative and balanced. Unfortunately this purchase fell through and we are still searching for our next property but when we find it we will definitely be instructing Tony to carry out the survey. Highly recommended.

Tony has performed two home condition surveys for me in North and South London. If I ever need future surveys performed, I will be asking Tony to do them, without a moment's hesitation. I have used surveyors prior to Tony but Tony is in a different league to them. He clearly has a passion for his work and where others would spend 2 hours inspecting a property, Tony will take 5-6 hours. No stone (to the extent is is relevant to the survey) will be left unturned. At the end of the survey, Tony offers a 30 minute debrief onsite to talk through any concerns he has identified, which is very helpful before the report itself is produced. Given Tony's detail focused nature, his reports are not produced overnight and take 5-10 working days but the end result is as detailed as can be but understandable by a layperson. Tony's willingness to assist does not end at the point the survey has been produced. In my case, having identified a potential issue, he contacted the relevant parties to investigate the issue further and followed up with the relevant authorities himself, saving me a job that would be difficult for a layperson. Tony's fees are reasonable considering the effort he goes to. I have been charged more for poorer quality reports by other surveyors. It is worth noting that my conveyancing solicitor (in business since the early 1980s) told me that Tony's reports are the best he has ever seen and has started to refer his clients to Tony for their survey needs.

Tony came to my 1900's flat to investigate and give advice / recommendations (followed 2 days later by a report / email) to resolve a persistent damp problem in an internal wall. We were at the flat for about 2 hours. He was also happy to answer some subsequent questions I had after our face to face meeting. Various things had been done in the past as well as recently in attempts to resolve the long standing damp problem. The problem, as Tony explained to me appears to be a more complex situation. This is due to refurbishment works done to the rest of the flat over the years which inadvertently had not considered the impact those works would have on the property. Tony was most helpful, easy to talk to and helped me understand the very likely contributing factors to the damp problem and also gave clear recommendations what needs doing to put things right. In order to come to this conclusion, Tony went beyond the immediate brief of the task in order to clarify the wider scenario for me. He was very professional and thorough, clearly enjoys his work and is keen to ensure that he has done his job well. I would highly recommend Tony for any survey.

After getting four quotes we instructed Tony to conduct a Home Condition Report for a 1970s house that we were intending to buy. Reasons we chose Tony were that we wanted a good inspection of the roof and Tony uses WiFi cameras on poles and a drone to inspect inaccessible places, puts (good quality.) photos into the report as visual evidence, requests the property owners to complete a supplementary questionnaire. In the past we have had MRICS surveys so I read up about the schemes through which Tony qualified and was satisfied. Tony was very proactive in asking for specifics that we would like him to look into and was equally proactive in addressing these including finding additional info online. The report itself was absolutely excellent, far more thorough than our past MRICS Home Buyers Reports, excellent photographic evidence, great layout, clearly written in plain English. It does take longer to produce so if you're in a rush, it's worth checking when Tony will produce it. We waited two weeks. Tony gave great advice on follow-on inspections and also on how to build evidence to renegotiate the purchase price. The owners accepted our revised offer without debate, in part I believe because of the strength of evidence from the survey report and the follow-on inspections that we commissioned on Tony's advice. We saved 5X the survey cost on the renegotiated price. Final proof of the pudding: I've just recommended Tony to a good friend who is buying a house.

Tony conducted two surveys for us in quick succession as we had to make decisions about how to move forward. He was really easy to deal with, followed up for us with tricky agents and kept us in the loop at all times. His surveys were very thorough and made us feel completely informed about all aspects of the houses we were looking at. It was a great comfort to us as first time buyers to have such a friendly surveyor who was able to help guide us through the various issues we would need to contend with.