Habitus Surveyors Ltd is on the brink of voluntary adminstration - three weeks after appointing the crisi management frim, Interco Associates to undertake management of its debts.

This leaves many independant surveyors, including members of the ISA, who have undertaken work for the company, unpaid and, in some instances, subject to large debts for survey fees which may never materialise.

One member with unpaid fees of £1000 cites other surveyors in his locality where fees due from habitus may amound to £20,000 or more - putting those individual practises at risk of demise themselves.

ISA has a series of examples to demonstrate poor practise and undercutting of fees, for instance a mid-Victorian 7 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 4 reception room dwelling set in 40 acres with swimming pool, where a net fee of £511 was on offer by Habitus for undertaking a Building Survey which it had alrady accpeted from Woolwich Ekins.

Another example involves a Building Survey of a 4 bedroom modern detached house with structural problems and Building Regulations breaches, where Habitus offered a net fee of £360, with an urgent provisio to include a mortgage valuation for the Woolwich and instructions that the mortgagor should be met on site for purposes of consultation in case, "there was anything too onerous"!

Habitus has also actively engaged in inviting "drive-by" valuations at net fees of £25, but any professional surveyor undertaking work of this type must either be desperate for instructions or have little regard for competency, or both.

The survey invitations referred to above, not unexpectedly, were declined by the ISA members who were approached, but ISA is aware of others taking on work where the fee is barely sufficient to cover secretarial services and expenses.

Apart from habitus Surveyors Ltd, the habitus Group is directed by those with marketing, rather than surveying backgrounds, determined to increase market share by aggressively undercutting fees of local indpendant surveyors by driving hard bargins - leading in some instances to poor quality work and public dissatisfaction.  The company has clearly expanded too quicly and might have succeeded but for the "backwash" following the American sub-prime fiasco, 'Northern Rock' and ineptitude on the part of government in its attempt to re organise the house-selling process, all factors which are currently having an adverse effect on the UK housing market.

The tele-sales girls at Habitus have usually justified 'low fees' offered to surveyors by explaining that, "there will be a  more profitable job tomorrow" and, moreover, that the company indemnifies the surveyor against third party PI claims, yet what happens if the employer itself becomes insolvent? 

Habitus - the company profile

Originally styled as Habitus Indpendent Chartered Surveyors Ltd, the habitus brand has diversified, applying the 'generic' 'Habitus' name to various private limited companies including, Habitus Surveyors ltd, Habitus Information Ltd, forming a relatively complicated and incestuous network.

The above printed in the Christmas 2007 newletter ISA (Independent Suveyors Association)