Winter. And no time for surveyors to plant roses. We have been planning the year ahead whilst making a little time to reflect on last year’s experiences.
Surveying is fundamentally about people. And human behaviour is one factor it’s often hardest to predict. For example, any surveyor in the residential sector can tell you scaffolding is unpopular with residents: it’s unsightly, often involves noise, and of course it doesn’t come cheap, so it can be a hard sell even when it’s absolutely essential to a project. A good surveyor will explain the need for scaffolding and get buy-in from residents, but even the best can be taken by surprise.
I once arrived for an inspection of ongoing work in a Garden Square, in the heart of Chelsea, London, I was summoned to a beautiful penthouse apartment and greeted by a seventy-something lady. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that we would have to remove not the scaffolding, but the scaffold netting, ‘immediately’. I nodded sympathetically and asked why, only to be told the net made it entirely impossible to shoot pigeons with her air rifle! She took some persuading that she might have to take a break from her hobby for the duration of the works!
And if you think that sounds exceptional, I recently met another client who refused to discuss her property until she had served me a full English tea, including sandwiches and scones. I had to visit her three times in as many weeks, which wasn’t great from the waistline!
Certainly, though, a good surveyor needs the kind of diplomatic skills that are probably best learned on the job. I’ll never forget a leaseholder who took me to one side just before the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations to explain that he’d like all the scaffolding taken down, ‘this afternoon’! And then put up again 24 hours later. All so it wouldn’t ruin the backdrop for his street party.
This scaffolding had taken two weeks to erect at a significant cost, so I spent five hours desperately explaining it wasn’t quite as simple as that, and bear in mind this was the type of person who was not used to hearing ‘No’. At times like that a career in surveying seems like a stepping stone for a future in politics!
Julian Davies is the Managing Director of Earl Kendrick Chartered Surveyors
