2022 has been another busy year for Lea Hough. The teams across all of our departments – from our survey and valuation team, through to our education team – have had another successful year of inspections, providing reports and assisting clients with projects.
Here our team take a look back over the year and highlight some of the most memorable instructions or projects they have been involved with during 2022.
Paul Dignan
My highlight is achieving the excellent funding results again for our school / academy clients. We have secured millions of pounds of funding for academies, schools and sixth from colleges and helping them to deliver these projects.
Gareth Clarke
Successful delivery of the first scheme for the Burnley Heritage Action Zone. It’s always great to undertake work in my home town and I am over the moon with how this project has turned out. These are always challenging schemes on neglected properties. The project was designed and contract administered by Lea Hough Chartered Surveyors, with works part-funded by Historic England. It’s great to see that many traditional features are being reinstated in the Burnley Town Centre Conservation Area and Heritage Action Zone.
Gary Newton
Settling a very tricky dilapidations claim on behalf of a landlord (Lancaster City Council) with an outgoing tenant of a commercial property, which was a well-known national chain.
Mat Wright
Becoming MRICS Chartered Building Surveyor https://www.leahough.co.uk/latest-news/mat-wright-mrics-apc-success/
Dominic Brown
In April 2022, Lea Hough was instructed to undertake a valuation of Werneth Park Music Rooms within Oldham, Greater Manchester.
The Victorian-era property dates back to the 1850’s and has Grade II listed status. However, unfortunately, the music rooms have been unused for several years now and have fallen into a state of disrepair. Despite the current condition of the property, the building still retained some of its attractive original features such as the external patterned stonework, which still proves to be an outstanding feature for the public to enjoy whilst spending time within Werneth Park. Upon inspection of the property, it was evident that the local area deserves to see the building restored back to its former state and use as local music facilities, allowing the public to enjoy this historic attraction.
Lea Hough was instructed to advise upon the current value of the property and the redevelopment value of the property based upon the hypothetical scenario of the music rooms being subject to a full refurbishment.
We understand that the client will use the advice provided by Lea Hough to apply for funding to undertake the renovation. We hope to see the building restored back to its former state in the near future!
Matthew Parkinson
A very interesting Diminution in Value Valuation on a property that had been purchased by a young family who had bought the property without knowledge that regular flooding of internal areas occurred. This had not been disclosed to them during purchase, by the vendor. The issues had a significant effect on the value and needed specialist valuation advice.
James Leech
There are two instructions that particularly stand out for me from this year. They are:
- Insurance reinstatement valuation on Newtown Mill, Burnley – for Burnley Council who have since acquired the building.
- Valuation of proposed Extra Care facility at West Paddock, Leyland – for South Ribble Borough Council, to advise upon land value and completed development value.
Thomas Sutton
Undertaking a Level 2 survey and valuation of a 1960’s chalet style bungalow. This revealed a multitude of defects including significant moisture ingress via failing roof coverings, structural movement to a porch extension and asbestos containing materials in several areas. Secondary maintenance and age-related issues such as corroding lintels and extensive areas of receded mortar pointing were also identified.
My client was very relieved to have instructed us to undertake the survey, as they had not identified any of these issues during their initial viewings. Evidently this highlights the importance of having a survey undertaken pre-purchase. Had they not instructed us, they could have been left with a bill for thousands that they had not budgeted for.
Paul Drake
I’ve enjoyed undertaking so many Quinquennial Surveys of churches – generally all as explained on here: https://www.leahough.co.uk/latest-news/commission-for-quinquennial-inspection-survey-reports/
Gemma Murray
As Office Manager, the most memorable job of this year was a survey that we did on a property in Blackburn in the summer. The client was an elderly gentleman in his late 80s who had only just sadly lost his wife. He hadn’t ever gone through the house-buying process on his own and he was completely lost. He was moving from his home in Cornwall, where he had lived for nearly 50 years, up to Blackburn to be near to his daughter and grandchildren. At the start of the process he was often quite tearful on the telephone as he was really struggling. I talked him through everything and kept him updated every step of the way. He decided to buy the house after receiving a favourable report and subsequently moved up to Blackburn. After he had moved in he sent us a lovely thank-you card including some photos of him and his grandchildren, who he hadn’t seen in years, and thanking Lea Hough for making the process so easy for him and for helping him through it. It was a really nice ‘feel-good’ moment and felt quite personal as he liked to chat every time he called, so I heard a lot of tales from him! It was great to feel that the service had made a positive difference for him.
Richard Bailey
Gaining planning permission on this site at Blainscough, Coppull, after backing our judgement and going for an Appeal. More information can be found in our news article https://www.leahough.co.uk/latest-news/planning-approval-obtained-at-appeal-for-123-dwellings-on-chorley-safeguarded-land/
Richard Prest
I’ve generally enjoyed progressing a series of lots of different land sites, and progressing all of them through the marketing stage, the planning stages, and contract stage, and bringing them all forward towards sale completion, and maximising value for our landowner clients.
James Roberts
Setting up an office address in North Manchester and starting to pick up more and more survey work in this region.
Michael Harrison
Having another successful year of CIF and SCA bids and gaining more school / academy clients through word-of-mouth recommendations. Then getting all of the CIF Bids submitted in time for the deadline in December – a mammoth amount of work!
To get in touch with a member of our team to discuss your requirements for any of our services in 2023, please contact us.
