Tony Swainston Building Surveyor

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.