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LEASE EXTENSION VALUATION TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT AND SCOPE OF REPORT
THE SURVEYOR
The surveyor who carries out your inspection and report will be a Chartered Surveyor or AssocRICS, who is competent to value and report upon the property which is the subject of these Terms.
A check will be made to confirm the independence of the Valuer and any conflict will be advised to you.
THE REPORT
Please note that a Valuation is NOT a Survey of the property. We will provide an estimate (usually by reference to a range of value) of the likely premium payable for a lease extension in accordance with the Leasehold Reform, Housing Urban Development Act 1993, Housing Act 1996 and Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.
To save you time and for convenience, our reports are issued by email as digital pdf documents Should a hard printed copy of the report be required, this is charged at an additional £15 + VAT per report.
SCOPE OF THE REPORT AND THE AGREED FEE
Our agreed fee will include a brief inspection of the flat and our written report with valuation and calculation details as described above.
We do not wish to charge you unnecessarily high fixed fees.
As the majority of cases are agreed between Lessee and Lessor (or Freeholder) without attendance at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) or Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) our agreed fee has been reduced so as not to include this.
Should such representation become necessary, or you wish us to oversee pre-notice offers and counter offers on your behalf, instead of you handling this directly or through your solicitor, we will be pleased to submit additional separate terms of engagement for this. Our fees for such work are calculated at a rate of £190 per hour plus VAT, £228 per hour including VAT.
This way we endeavour to keep your costs to a minimum.
THE INSPECTION
A structural survey, building survey or Homebuyer Report will not be undertaken, but a brief visual inspection will be carried out of so much of the exterior and interior of the property as is accessible to our Valuer, without undue difficulty.
The inspection is required to allow the Valuer to assess the location, size, layout and condition of the subject premises with a view to determining current and hypothetical values for the lease extension.
Care and safety of the property, occupier and surveyor are paramount and the inspection will only include areas and elements without risk of damage or injury.
The inspection is not an asbestos or health and safety risk inspection or fire assessment.
ASSUMPTIONS
Unless specifically advised otherwise in writing prior to our inspection, and confirmed in our report, the valuation will assume:
That good freehold or leasehold title can be shown and that, unless otherwise stated, the property is not subject to any unusual or onerous restrictions, covenants, encumbrances or outgoings which might affect the opinion of value. We will need to see a copy of the lease/leases.
That no matter detrimental to the value would be revealed as a result of the usual searches and enquiries that would be made by lawyers.
That all Planning and Building Regulations are in place for the use observed by the valuer and that no other planning consent exists. The valuation will not reflect any “hope” value for future development or change of use.
That both you and the building qualify for a lease extension within the statutes described above.
THE LAW AND THE LEGAL PROCESS
The law in relation to residential lease extension and enfranchisement is complex. We strongly advise that you take legal advice at an early stage.
If you have already received any correspondence or official Notices in connection with this process, please forward copies to your Solicitor and ourselves. Many legal Notices have specific timescales which must be complied with to protect your position.
You should be aware that the valuation date will not be fixed until you have either reached formal agreement with the other side or your solicitor has served formal legal Notice on the freeholder/lessee. To this end you should move swiftly following receipt of our Report. If an updated valuation is required following elapse of time changes in the market value or changes in statute or case law, we will be happy to provide this under separate terms of engagement with fees at our rate of £228 including VAT per hour.
For the sake of good order, we must confirm that we neither serve nor accept legal Notices of any kind
MARKET VALUE
This definition is included in the “Red Book” (Royal Institution Of Chartered Surveyors Appraisal And Valuation Manual), which is the code of practice for all Chartered Surveyors and is largely mandatory.
Market Value (MV) is:
“The estimated amount for which a property should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s-length transaction after proper marketing wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently and without compulsion”.
It is included in the report only in the context of being part of the Lease Extension Valuation, not for any other purpose.
The valuation does not account for any future changes in the market or economy.
LIABILITY
The Report provided is solely for your use and that of your professional advisers. No liability to anyone else is accepted. Should you not act upon specific, reasonable advice contained in the Report, no responsibility is accepted for the consequences.
Our liability is strictly limited to the amount of premium payable for the lease extension.
INTRODUCTION AND REFERRAL
We reserve the right to make or receive payment or reward at our discretion to or from any corporation, internet portal or individual who may introduce or refer business to us or to whom we may introduce or refer business to.
RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLICATION
The Valuation Report is solely for your use. The report is confidential to you, for the specific purpose to which it refers. Neither the whole or part of the report and valuation or any reference thereto may be included in any published document, circular or statement nor published in any way without written consent of Woodward Chartered Surveyors.
TERMS OF PAYMENT
The person accepting these terms is responsible for payment of the fee quoted prior to the report being issued.
We accept payment by debit/credit card following the link on the quotation form or by electronic and telephone banking direct to our account name Woodward Chartered Surveyors: Sort Code 30-93-92 Account number 29091268. QUOTING THE PROPERTY TO BE SURVEYED.
If transferring funds from a foreign account you must include both your and our bank charges.
Fees received in advance of completion of the report will not be held as client money and will not be subject to the protection of the RICS Client Money Protection Scheme.
CANCELLATION & REFUND POLICY:
Right to cancel
You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day of the commencement of the contract.
To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement by letter to Woodward Chartered Surveyors, Batchworth Lock House, 99 Church Street, Rickmansworth, WD3 1JJ or email to surveys@woodwardsurveyors.co.uk. A model cancellation form for you to print and use can be found at https://www.woodwardsurveyors.co.uk/modelcancellationform.html but it is not obligatory.
To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.
By ticking the box below "I accept the terms ....." and submitting your details, you are specifically requesting us to carry out your survey as soon as possible and that we begin the performance of services at the earliest opportunity during the cancellation period.
Effects of cancellation
If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you. We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel this contract. We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement.
As you requested the performance of services to begin during the cancellation period, in the event of cancellation you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been performed until you have communicated to us your cancellation from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract. This will be calculated at £228 per hour (£190 plus VAT) for surveyor’s time including travel and £84 per hour (£70 plus VAT) for administrators or secretarial time, but will never be more than the full cost of the contract agreed.
INAPPRORIATE REPORT TYPE OR CONSTRUCTION
We will be entitled not to proceed if, after arriving at the Property, our surveyor concludes that it is a) inappropriate for this type of survey or b) of a type of construction in which the surveyor has insufficient specialist knowledge to report on satisfactorily. In either case we will refund any money paid by you. Should the Surveyor conclude that it is not in your interest to proceed with the report as to do so may exaggerate your liability to fees (an RICS Protocol followed by all Chartered Surveyors), the Surveyor will inform you accordingly and our abortive fee invoice will be calculated at £228 including VAT per hour worked but no more than two thirds of the original fee quoted.
COMPLAINTS
We are Regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. We aim to provide a high quality service in all respects. However, if you have a formal complaint, please write to Douglas Snell and ask for our written Complaint Handling Procedure.
DATA PROTECTION:
We are registered with the Information Commissioner Office (number ZA289760) for retention of Data. We will not sell your data to a third party. We will only retain and share your data in the pursuit of the service you have requested, any other service we offer, with our professional advisors and in compliance with UK law. Our Privacy Statement is published on our website www.woodwardsurveyors.co.uk/site-terms. Your right to access your data and details can be found at ico.org.uk.
