PSG SURVEYS LTD - AVOID THESE VULTURES!

[LouLouC]

Disgusting, crafty, company!! Sends letters to your neighbours after looking at planning applications telling them to instruct PSG and you will pay, total vultures!! Our neighbours have stated that they felt under pressure to sign, and that it was implied that they needed to go with PSG and not our Party Wall surveyor.
Once we pointed out all the poor reviews which are all over the internet to our neighbour, and the lack of need for an additional surveyor they were devastated they had fallen for this, and immediately asked PSG to cease and not to do any works. PSG then tried to say that we owed them 3 hours for works they had already done at a rate of £180 plus VAT per hour. When we challenged what work they could possibly have done, and asked for a breakdown, they then stated to forget hours, and that to not do the works we owed them £540 plus VAT!! Daylight robbery!! Needless to say we will now postpone our build so that we don't have to give this horrible person a penny of our hard earned money!! The man seems to have no scruples at all!!
If you are contacted by this company please just throw the letter in the bin - it's not worth the paper it in written on!

 

[mattylad]

If your neighbour had contracted with them why does this mean that "you" owe PSG anything?

 

[LouLouC]

Because we are the ones building the extension we are liable for party wall costs under the Party Wall Act. Only one surveyor is needed, but it seems that PSG like to make people think otherwise. It's literally the only industry that a third party can instruct someone at your expense, even though you have no control over it. Crazy!

 

[kingandy2nd]

Because we are the ones building the extension we are liable for party wall costs under the Party Wall Act. Only one surveyor is needed, but it seems that PSG like to make people think otherwise. It's literally the only industry that a third party can instruct someone at your expense, even though you have no control over it. Crazy!

Can you get ahold of the letter sent to the neighbours? Might be worth reporting their practices to trading standards.

 

[LouLouC]

They have been reported loads of times. The company are not a member of any professianal body in their industry anymore due to their underhand tactics, however, technically although they lack morals, the law of the Party Wall act does allow the loopholes that they use, but most other party wall surveyors would never stoop to such tactics to drum up business.

 

[wessex101]

There are a number of firms that follow this business model. They simply trawl through planning applications lists and exploit the fact that neighbours do not talk to each other then use hard sell tactics on neighbours to get them to sign up. They are nearly always unqualified and unregulated so they are pretty much untouchable by the authorities.

Because they just go through the planning lists they usually just pick likely jobs, they don't usually bother to check so the work might not actually come under the Party Wall Act.

They are usually quite aggressive but fundamentally not very good and often make mistakes which can invalidate their instruction. Your case is quite unusual in that it sounds like you have already appointed a party wall surveyor, they usually rely on the building owner being totally unaware of the Party Wall Act and exploit them accordingly. I would expect your appointed surveyor to advise you how best to avoid engaging with the rogue firm and try to get their instruction by neighbour nullified. A classic mistake is they fail to get all relevant residents in neighbouring property to sign their instruction which makes it invalid. Also worth checking to see if the work can be executed outside the Party Wall Act such as designing shallower foundations, change beam bearings etc. the cost of the redesign is usually cheaper than the party wall surveyor's fees.

 

[^woody^]

Because we are the ones building the extension we are liable for party wall costs under the Party Wall Act. Only one surveyor is needed, but it seems that PSG like to make people think otherwise. It's literally the only industry that a third party can instruct someone at your expense, even though you have no control over it. Crazy!

Did you serve notice on the neighbours, and did they dispute the notice, before that surveying firm were instructed?

If not, they were not instructed pursuant to the Act and so you don't owe them jack.