Blog

Financial Services – Borrowing Options in Your Later Years. Retirement can be an exciting time; the start of a new chapter in life. Whilst we will have worked, saved and prepared for this moment for a long time, many of us will find we don’t quite have enough money to fund all of the things we planned to do. Luckily, there are now an increasing number of options for borrowing in your later years,...

From 20 September, if you’re a Home Owners or Landlord, you could benefit from the new Green Homes Grant, which will allow you to make savings on your energy bills. Who can benefit from the Green Homes Grant? Details recently announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, state that from September 2020, Home Owners and Landlords in England are eligible to apply for vouchers up to the value of £5,000 from the...

We've had some fantastic feedback from Valuation & Survey customers recently. Our entire Surveys Team work tirelessly to ensure all customers have the best customer experience, and turnaround is as fast as possible. We've pulled together just a few 5 Star reviews from the last 4 weeks:   I CAN'T FAULT THE SERVICE      I can't fault the service we have received from Watsons...

The Future of Surveying We know the challenges facing the built environment and the surveying profession - now it's time to act. For over 150 years, the RICS has led the profession through change, enabling members to take advantage of opportunities and manage the risks presented to them. This change is now happening faster than ever, requiring all of us to think strategically about how we deploy our...

We've had some fantastic feedback from customers across the board over the last 12 weeks. While lockdown meant many services were restricted, we had many customers who were part way through selling their property, and needed to be assured that we were still operating in the background to ensure things met completion! We've had a lot of feedback for our Residential Sales Teams, who work tirelessly to...

Now might be the time to take stock and have a professional evaluation of your property. Don’t rely on guesswork or out of date information. You need to be confident that your insurance cover is sufficient to cover all your assets should the worst happen. Ensuring adequate protection is a paramount issue for any property, yet the extent of underinsurance in the UK property market continues to be...

The Government announced the new temporary changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax, but what does this mean for homebuyers? With immediate effect the new Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) threshold of £500,000 will apply and will run until 31 March 2021. This means any buyer purchasing a primary residential property between 8 July 2020 and 31 March 2021, up to the value of £500,000, will be exempt of paying Stamp...

We can use thermal imaging cameras to diagnose a variety of problems by scanning the floors, walls and ceilings when walking from room to room during an inspection. The camera we use (FLIR One Pro) attaches to any device  (tablet or mobile phone) to create a very powerful, thermal imaging camera. It produces an image on the screen with colours corresponding to different temperatures on the visible...

What is the Residential Management Company for?A Residential Management Company (RMC) protects the rights of Leaseholders. Its aims are to manage and administer the common parts for the benefit of all owners. Common parts may include the road, landscaped areas (not in private ownership), bin stores, internal communal areas and structures of any building which contains leasehold property within the...

A huge thank you to Michael Kelly our Chartered Surveyor in South Yorkshire for this great feature: Here are a few pictures of a traditional, stone built, Weaver's Cottage that is close to where I live in Penistone, South Yorkshire. It is typical of the many stone built cottages dotted along the Pennines, which thankfully I sometimes get to inspect when I'm out and about.  I tend to come across these in...