Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post, where we are going to be taking a look at what a Schedule of Condition report is and under what circumstances one may need to be undertaken.
A Schedule of Condition report or SOC is a report that we do day in and day out here at Stokemont generally in relation to Party Wall Surveying matters.
During the inspection the Surveyor will generally cover all external elements of the property and will see the Surveyor go room to room detailing the overall condition of the different elements that make up the property, paying close attention to any elements that could be affected by the planned works.
This is done to ensure that we get a detailed record of the overall condition of the property that we are capable of using at a later date if necessary.
During the inspection the surveyor will note any defects that they find along the way by way of written record and/or dictaphone, The SOC will also be accompanied by hundreds if not thousands of photographs.
All of this is to ensure that we can have an accurate snapshot of the overall condition of the property detailing areas that could be potentially affected by the planned works.
As part of the Party Wall Procedure, we will also do a post-works SOC this way we will be able to cross-reference the before and after to see if the works that had taken place had caused any damage.
By doing this we are able to protect all parties involved, as it will ensure that the one who is commencing with the planned works is protected from any false claims of damage, and will likewise be beneficial to anyone who is neighboring the works as if there is any damage from the construction works then there will be clear evidence to demonstrate this by virtue of the Schedule of condition.
This is to ensure that any damage gets rectified by the building owners either by using their own contractor or by way of compensation so the adjoining owner is capable of hiring their own contractor to rectify any damage.
Without the SOC being in place this could lead to false claims from the neighbors adjoining the works who may feel that the works had an impact on their property and have caused damage when it was already preexisting.
Limitations to the Schedule of Condition
One of the main limitations of a Schedule of Condition is that it is primarily a visual inspection and so will be limited in regards to what the Surveyor is capable of observing.
This can be a prominent issue when it comes to conducting a Schedule of condition on residential property. As these are usually lived in homes and so will have a plethora of things that will be covering the elements that the surveyor will need to inspect as part of the SOC, such as furnishings, goods, posters, rungs, etc.
As a result, this will mean that things are capable of being missed if they are either hiding away in an area that the Surveyor is not capable of getting to or if they are behind stored and fitted goods as the surveyor would not be able to see the area fully to inspect.
Another limitation of a Schedule of Condition is that certain elements of a property may be difficult to get to such as the roof. This is something that we are usually capable of inspecting from the ground but in some cases where they may be narrow streets or limited garden space, this could result in the Surveyor of not being able to gain the correct vantage point to where they are capable of inspecting without this use of specialist equipment.
I hope this gives you further insight into what a Schedule of the condition is, its importance, and also it’s limitations. If you have any further questions or queries on this blog post or any of the other surveying services that we offer here at Stokemont then please do not hesitate to get in touch today by either giving us a call or alternatively popping us over an email and one of our team of experienced building surveyors will be happy to help.
