Hallworth House Survey Education

Hallworth House Survey Education Enhance your knowledge of building defects to avoid making expensive mistakes and get a better deal on your next house purchase.

Giving house purchasers an opportunity to negotiate the purchase price down by enhancing their knowledge about building defects.

With dampness and condensation now becoming even more of a serious issue for landlords, can you tell when it's coming up...
19/02/2025

With dampness and condensation now becoming even more of a serious issue for landlords, can you tell when it's coming up from the ground (rising damp), coming in from the walls, roof or chimney (penetrating damp) or from within the property (condensation)? 😬
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All these forms of damp have a particular pattern in terms of their formation and severity. Using a moisture detector you can trace these patterns and 'follow the trail' to determine the cause. 👍
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Do you have a moisture detector, also known as a 'damp meter' in your tool kit? 🤔 It's an important device for landlords to own, unless you don't have any involvement with your tenants, nor the day to day management of your properties. 😉
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If you self-manage and don't have a moisture detector, get one! 😄

Earlier this week, a small group of property investors started to add surveying skills to their property knowledge. My o...
30/01/2025

Earlier this week, a small group of property investors started to add surveying skills to their property knowledge. My online course ‘Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes’ 2025 has started. 😄 Here’s one of the things we covered. ✅
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When you’re viewing property, you have just 20 to 30 minutes to make yourself aware of all the building defects, risks and other property issues. How is that possible? 😳 Can you do that? 🤔Would you feel confident that you’ve found everything? 😕 If you need to act quickly, can you make an offer reflecting the condition and issues with the building in your figure? 😵‍💫
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When a surveyor is instructed by a mortgage lender to inspect a house for mortgage valuation purposes, they will take just 20 or 30 minutes on the inspection to find all the serious defects that must be reported to the lender (size of property permitting). They fill out the valuation form, then move on to the next property. 😲
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That skill is possible with knowledge and a clear defined order to your inspection. If you stick to the same order for every house you inspect, it becomes second nature and your knowledge guides you right to where the defects are lurking. 😁
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Do you have a pre-defined and strict order to your inspection during property viewings or do you look anywhere depending on what takes your preference at the time? 🙄 The latter will never work. It is important that you develop a logical inspection routine. The one I use is practiced by most surveyors and is the one illustrated to participants on the course. 🙂
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If you know that the surveying element is absent from your property investor knowledge, you don’t know what you’re missing. I can consider a latecomer to Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes 2025. There will be a long wait until the next one. Message me privately with a note of your phone number and I’ll give you a call. 😀

Let’s imagine your tenant has complained about dampness. 😡 You visit the property and get confronted by the scene shown ...
22/01/2025

Let’s imagine your tenant has complained about dampness. 😡 You visit the property and get confronted by the scene shown in the photo. 😢 Can you diagnose what has caused this? Can you explain the pattern of dampness on the left hand wall? 🤔
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Good on you if you know the cause, but can you work out why it has happened? 😳 Can you identify the source? Is this your fault as the landlord? Maybe! Is this the tenant’s fault? Maybe! 🥵
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Your tenant claims the damp is causing their children to be unwell and will be complaining to the Council if you don’t sort it out. What do you do? 😭 Who do you call? If anyone comments and says ‘Ghostbusters’, ha ha! ☺️
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Fantastic if you know you are confident about tackling this situation and avoiding the Council complaint. However, if you have a niggling doubt in your mind or if this situation fills you with dread, you need to be on this evening’s webinar on Damp and Mould. It starts at 8pm tonight (22nd Jan). Here is your link to register:
https://hallworthresidential.uk/damp-and-condensation---essential-for-landlords
After registering you’ll receive a Zoom link to get access at 8pm.
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I am also going to be telling listeners about my forthcoming course “Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes”. This starts on Monday 27th January, also at 8pm. It comprises some 35 two hour live training sessions on Monday evenings, spread out during the year. All live sessions are recorded to allow rewatching or catching up. Subscribers become part of my network and can receive 1:2:1 help from me on building defects and issues, when needed. 🙂

Perils of buying at auction #9 – Dry Rot Attack 🍄 ~Another reason why properties often end up in auctions is the proble...
21/01/2025

Perils of buying at auction #9 – Dry Rot Attack 🍄
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Another reason why properties often end up in auctions is the problem of dry rot. It is regarded as the second worst defect, after structural movement. Outbreaks of dry rot can start from a single dampness event, for example a leaking gutter or downpipe. Properties that are already in need of works and are unoccupied are especially vulnerable. 🙄
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It’s so bad because unlike wet rot, which can be controlled simply by stopping the damp source, dry rot devours timber components, including structural elements, which can then lead to structural movement. 😠 Getting rid of it is in itself a destructive process as affected timbers cannot be treated and filled. They must be cut out, removed and replaced. Even apparently sound timbers within a metre of so of the visible damage have to go. In severe cases, this can mean replacing large parts of the building e.g. whole floors! 😲
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Both wet and dry rot are fibrous forms of decay but dry rot fibres have the ability to creep behind wall plaster, through brickwork and along metal pipes. If a few strands are left behind, a new outbreak can develop, potentially leading more destructive and very costly replacement works. 😬
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I’ve seen some really devastating dry rot cases. One which springs to mind was a large historic house bought for owner occupation. Dry rot seemed to have spread through the whole building affecting skirting boards, door frames, window sills, the stairs and floors. How much would it cost to remove and replace all that?😫
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In another example, an investor bought a house to refurbish. They were slow and the building was closed up and unchecked for some time. Dry rot developed in a front cupboard adjoining a damp wall. It then spread up the lath and plaster wall finish into the upper floors. Dry rot spores exploded from the fungal core and spread around the house, leading to fresh dry rot on the rear side, spreading into the airing cupboard and even an attached timber outbuilding. Disaster! 😭
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Imagine you were buying a house refurbishment project at auction or direct from a distressed vendor. ✅ Could you assess if there is any dry rot present? 🤔 Are you aware of the high risk areas to check first? 🙄 Could you identify the difference between dry rot and less serious wet rot? 😕 What are the symptoms? 😳
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If these questions make you feel uneasy, chances are, no one will have taught you how to survey the building to find serious defects quickly and effectively during a 20-30 minute viewing. If you’re in the business of flipping, sourcing, property portfolio building or management, sooner or later something nasty like dry rot is going to affect you financially and emotionally. 🥺
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Protect yourself. Get informed. Make 2025 the year to learn how to survey buildings for serious defects. Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes is an online course aimed at the property investor to fill in this knowledge gap. It’s photographed based so you actually see what you need to be looking for. The subject is not taught in most property investment training courses. 😡
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The course runs for 2+ hours on Monday evenings from 27th January, right through 2025. Participants become part of my network and can receive 1:2:1 help direct from me if and when needed. Spaces are limited so that I can serve everybody. Who am I? A Chartered Surveyor with 25 years active practice and 23 years as a property investor and landlord. 😄
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Message me privately if you’re inspired to learn. In the first instance, I’ll be speaking to you on the phone to give details and learn a bit about your property career and ambitions. 👍

What’s the biggest building defect problem facing landlords at the moment? If I was to offer a poll, expect damp and mo...
20/01/2025

What’s the biggest building defect problem facing landlords at the moment? If I was to offer a poll, expect damp and mould would come top.
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I’m being called in by landlords and letting agents to examine mould and damp problems in rented houses and provide diagnoses and remedies. In some cases, tenant complaints have been escalated to the local council, who then inspect and give the landlord a list of tasks to ad-dress and complete by a given date.
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The risk of getting a complaint and involvement of the council has grown since publicity in the media in recent years, which included death of a child, attributable to mould in the living environment. Councils are all the more obligated to take action and they will, to avoid any public criticism and associated trouble.
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For us as landlords, this is a subject we must take seriously, so I’ve decided to give a free webinar to give you some help in understanding the causes and what to do about them. I’ll deal with questions such as:
1. Why some tenants of the same house get mould and damp whereas others don’t.
2. Why some houses persistently have mould and damp when others never get any.
3. When mould and damp is the fault of the landlord.
4. When mould and damp is the fault of the tenant.
5. Tenant behaviours which contribute to mould and damp.
6. How to behave with the local council should they get involved.
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The webinar will take place on Wednesday evening, 22nd January, that's in two days time. Here is a link to register: https://hallworthresidential.uk/damp-and-condensation...
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Damp and mould is one of the subjects taught on my forthcoming online surveying buildings course “Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes” (MASH). We will dedicate a whole session to the topic. In addition, we will cover all other forms of damp e.g. rising damp, salt contamination, damp in chimneys, penetrating damp through walls and ceilings and damp in floors. These are all problems you're likely to encounter.
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For those of us who buy properties, renovate properties or manage properties, having a good working knowledge of all forms of damp, the causes and remedies is an incredible valuable resource to own. It will save you thousands in expenditure and save you lots of time and reduce stress and anxiety.
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The 2025 MASH sessions begin on the evening of Monday 27th January. I’ll give a bit info during the webinar, but if you’d like to jump ahead, just message me directly and I’ll send you a link to book a time slot to chat with me personally, on the phone.

Perils of buying at auction #8 – Japanese Knotweed 🎋~Are you in the business of buying run-down properties, renovating ...
16/01/2025

Perils of buying at auction #8 – Japanese Knotweed 🎋
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Are you in the business of buying run-down properties, renovating them and bringing them back to the market for resale at a profit? I am! Here’s one I examined for a client who was also in the same game. 😁
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The photo is a view over the rear garden, as seen from a window in the side of the rear part of the building. You can see that it is strewn with abandoned bricks and other debris. There were bits of broken asbestos cement sheets amongst it! They are potentially dangerous, but that wasn’t what was bothering me. Can you see a bigger problem? 🤔
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It’s January!........... 😆
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At this time of the year, bad old Japanese Knotweed is in its dormant phase. There isn’t much to see, no leaves and no flowers, but in this case, the dead canes from last year’s growth remain in situ. Look how much there is. 😬
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We know that Knotweed can be dealt with, but it is time consuming and very expensive. At this property, it is covering a large chunk of the grounds, so the cost of eradication is likely to be big enough to seriously dent the finances of this renovation project and could even turn it negative. 😲 There are also implications for the owners of the neighbouring properties because the roots stretch for several metres below ground. 🥴
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There may be a long wait, probably a number of years before this property will be suitable for full mortgage lending on normal terms. So, its value at present is a lot less than you would expect it to be, if you didn’t notice the Knotweed problem. 😥
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Often properties with serious Knotweed problems end up in auctions. Someone will overbid, because they didn’t identify the risk and wouldn’t have appointed a surveyor. 🥺
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Are you vulnerable to financial loss and stress caused by a gap in your knowledge? Do you use auctions to buy properties? Are you a cash buyer? 😳 How good would it feel to be able to inspect any property and feel confident about identifying all the defects and issues yourself? 🙂
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Surveying buildings is a topic than can only be properly taught by those who are trained and experienced from time served in practice. To my knowledge, there is only one person out there who does this effectively by using real life examples through photographic evidence gathered from 25 years surveying practice. Who could that be? 😉
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According to Dr John Demartini and others, ongoing learning is one of the seven core areas of our lives. ‘Investing’ in your education really is an investment when you use what you learned to save you money or earn you money. Knowledge allows you to do it over and over again. 🤩🤩🤩
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Make 2025 the year when you added surveying buildings to your knowledge base. If you do, chances are, you’ll be able to negotiate a big discount on your next property purchase using what you learned. That’ll cover the cost of the course in one go. And you can do it over and over again! It’s a no-brainer! 👍👍👍
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Message me privately for an informal chat about “Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes”. It starts in just over a week from now on Monday 27th January and will continue through the year. You’ll also receive 1:2:1 help from me if and when needed. 🙂

Perils of buying at auction #7 - Asbestos ☠️~Some properties end up in auction as they do not lend themselves to sellin...
15/01/2025

Perils of buying at auction #7 - Asbestos ☠️
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Some properties end up in auction as they do not lend themselves to selling by private treaty due to their type. For example, a large house in an urban setting that has been converted into flats or big HMO. The market for these properties is primarily the investor market and not owner occupiers. ✅
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For many of us, properties like this are goldmine investments, but they can also be money pits. For example, when they contain hidden problems that the buyer has to tackle at their own expense. 😟
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Does the auction pack tell you when the conversion was carried out? Are you able to estimate the time of conversion based on the age of the internal fixtures and fittings or external weathering etc? Can you identify elements of non-compliance? 😩
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If the conversion was carried out 40 years ago or more, there is a likelihood that asbestos containing materials were used somewhere and will remain in situ. 😯 Can you identify what these are? 🤔 Can you assess the risk of hidden asbestos? 🤔 What if you need to refurbish the building to make it lettable? 🤔 What if you want to alter it, say from flats to HMO or vice versa? 🤔 What if the building needs upgrading to make it comply with forthcoming EPC ratings? 🤔
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You are obliged to find asbestos containing materials in advance of the commencement of works. If it needs to be disturbed or removed, the cost of works begins to escalate considerably. This directly affects the value of the property. 🙄 So, you need to know this information before bidding at auction, otherwise, you don’t know how much to bid up to. 😳
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The buyer who didn’t do their due diligence will overbid and has to swallow the extra costs later. 😬 However, if you have a good working knowledge of asbestos containing materials and where they can be found, you would be in a better position than all the uneducated buyers who are dabbling with serious risks. 😲
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I am giving a full two hour training session on asbestos and where it is found as part of my up coming course ‘Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes’, which starts in less than three weeks’ time, on 27th January. It will run on Monday evenings, starting 8pm, throughout 2025. 😀
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If you are buying property, planning to buy, have a portfolio and have never received any training on recognising asbestos, then the cost of not knowing could easily be well in excess of the cost of the course. 🤬
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In addition, you’ll learn about Structural Movement, Dry Rot / decay, Damp and Condensation problems and much, much more. 😄
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You know if you have building surveying missing from your property knowledge. There is only one course which fills in that gap and this is it. Message me privately with your contact details and I’ll set up a call to learn a bit about your property journey and to tell you about the course. 🙂

Perils of buying at auction #6 - Defective Title 😟~Properties that end up in auction may be gems waiting to be found, b...
14/01/2025

Perils of buying at auction #6 - Defective Title 😟
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Properties that end up in auction may be gems waiting to be found, but they are more likely to have a defect or issue that prevents them from being sold by private treaty. 😬
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To the trained eye, defects can be picked up from a visual inspection, but things I classify as ‘issues’ may not be. One of these is the problem of defective title. It can take many forms and I’m sharing one of the most interesting I have come across, which was 25 years ago. 😀
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A bank had repossessed an end-of-terrace property and when they examined the deeds, they discovered that it also included additional land at the side, which was now occupied by a new-build house which was in different ownership. 😆
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The recently constructed house was largely on a vacant plot, but approximately a quarter of it stood on land which was within the legal title of the neighbouring house, now in the hands of the bank. 😲
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1. What rights do you think the bank had to resolve the matter? 🤔
2. What has happened to the value of their repossessed property?🤔
3. If you were purchasing the new-build house, how would this situation affect you? 🤔
4. What has happened to the value of your would be purchase? 🤔
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Offer your answers on the chat below. When I return, I’ll explain. 👍
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If the owner of the new-build house needed to sell, the predicament they are in mean that selling by auction may be the only way forward. However, this ought to be mentioned in the Legal Pack and should be picked up by Legal Advisers. 😒
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Not doing due diligence in advance could be catastrophic for an auction buyer. On the other side of the coin, knowing how to resolve the issue could mean getting a decent property on very favourable terms. 😉
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I’m be teaching Legal and Planning Issues on the 2025 'Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes' course, which starts at 8pm on Monday on 27th January. Even if you’re experienced in property investing, it is unlikely that anyone has actually taught you how to survey buildings like a surveyor does. 🙂
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Make another New Year’s resolution. Fill in gaps in your knowledge and use them to negotiate better deals and proceed with greater confidence and certainty during 2025 and beyond. The course runs weekly online on Monday evenings, starting this month. It is hosted by a practicing Chartered Surveyor - that's me. As a member of my network, you also get 1:2:1 personal help when needed. 😊
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Message me privately and I'll send you a link to book a call to chat it through with you. ✅

Here's a tweaked post from five years ago:💨 Wind suction damage! 😲~When the wind blows, the elevation of a building faci...
10/01/2025

Here's a tweaked post from five years ago:
💨 Wind suction damage! 😲
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When the wind blows, the elevation of a building facing the direction of the wind may experience pressure, but the opposite elevation experiences the forces of suction. This can lead to damage, especially if the cavity wall ties are corroded. 🙄
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You may look at this photo and think, 'that property is too old to have cavity walls'. Wrong - cavity wall construction began to appear during the 1890's, although it didn't become the standard for another 40 plus years!
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When wall tie corrosion becomes advanced, the ties may no longer serve their primary function to hold the outer skin of masonry to the inner skin, which is the load bearing element of the building. This means that the external brickwork can become unstable with the risk of collapse, although that's rare. 🤨
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Early cavity walls contained far fewer ties than modern equivalents which means that visible horizontal cracks associated with wall tie corrosion may not be apparent. However suction damage could be.
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Wall tie corrosion is an example of 'decay' leading 'movement' which I'll be sharing with participants of my forthcoming surveying houses course - Mastering the Art of Surveying Homes. 🤓
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The photo shows a vertical crack in the mortar pointing adjoining a window. It is consistent with the outer skin having become detached from the inner skin and being 'sucked' outward by the wind. There is potential for collapse to occur. 😟
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Suction damage can also appear on the inside of the building, usually in the form of diagonal cracks extending from the upper floor window reveals to the ceiling. 😯

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