Dunham Hale Chartered Surveyors Reviews 1,064

My buyer used this firm from their London office to survey the house which is part of an estate that I’m Executor of. The surveyor, Neil, went about his work ripping plaster off the walls and leaving it on the floor. The entrance to the front door had a wall paper lined porch, a part of which he ripped off and left on the walkway. Because the house was owned by an elderly lady who died last year and the house was in need of some repair, he probably took the view that it was ok to do what he did. I took photos of what he had done and called him to ask if this was their usual way of surveying. He got very defensive and rather than hold his hands up and apologise he felt he needed to stand his ground. This exacerbated the issue because he clearly feels this was acceptable behaviour as a supposed surveyor . The images of what he did do not lie.
I probably wouldn’t have resorted to this review had he apologised. It had taken my wife and I around 9 months to clear the house to get it presentable for sale as well as to make the arrangements for the elderly lady’s funeral and to deal with Probate and difficult beneficiaries. This guy walks in and showed zero respect. In addition, the appointment was for between 9-10 am and he rocked up after 12.30pm, again with no apology. His arrogance was breathtaking ! This is not the end of the matter.

Update 24 Jan 2025
Dunham replied to my review as I expected they would. The timing of the visit I will put down to a lack of communication on the agents part.
However, I did not expect to find what I found when I returned to the house particularly as this was my family home which was put up for sale because of a family bereavement. I did call you on Thursday 9 Jan and yes, my wife and I did raise our voices at you because you doubled down on your actions. But, at no time did we verbally abuse you. Calling you arrogant does not constitute abuse. It’s an opinion of someone’s personality flaw. True abuse is far, far worse.
That is not us. When I showed independent surveyors the images I took of what I had found, they were surprised. You state that the property is ‘in such poor condition’ - I would like you to clarify this statement. Let’s see how the buyers react to the survey and I’ll take it from there. BTW, to tone this down, I have amended the review title to “DIFFERENCES OF OPINION”

Initially we appointed another company and they let us down. In stepped Dunham Hale Surveyors last minute and they booked the survey appointment within an hour of speaking with them. They explained that the results would take a few extra days than normal due to the short notice appointment. We were happy with this as we had a verbal report the day after the survey.

In summary, excellent service. Detailed report, good comms and very pleased. Managed to get 8.5k off property so extra pleased. We will certainly use again but not the original company.

Really pleased with the results of our survey. Report was very detailed and Neil was excellent and very methodical in explaining the problems with our new house. Managed to get the house for 13k less due to the defects on the house.

Dunham's certainly exceeded our expectations and we have recommended to our friends.

Excellent. Detailedrepoet, good customer service. Glad we Used Dunham's and not a large company because we spoke with the owner/surveyor throughout. We opted for the free drone survey and this helped find 7k roof repairs. Managed to get 27k off asking price of house. We will use Dunham's again. Superb

We are moving back to uk from Oz and needed a survey pretty quick. Dunham's were quick to respond, provided a competitive but not cheap quote and booked the survey in fast.

Survey report was very detailed and gave peace of mind. Jane is very knowledgeable and made us aware of a lot of issues we were not aware of. Having never visited the property we needed someone we could trust abd able to speak with. Jane called us at 10am Melbourne time but 11pm UK time, we thought this was outstanding and there report was very very good. Managed to get 12k off the house.

We will use Dunham's again

We have used Dunham Hale Chartered Surveyors six times now in our property investing business and every time they never fail to deliver on quality and advice. Sometimes the reports aren't always in time but we don't mind as the advice far out weighs the timescales and it's only a day or two late.

This time we bought a 5 bed semi in South Manchester and the details high as usual.

Got the property below market value and very happy. We will use again for our next property. Many thanks.

Recently bought a house as we are repatriating back to UK from Dubai. We havn't had a house in UK for nearly 15 years so we didn't know any surveying firms. Came across Dunham Hale Surveyors while doing a Google search.

We opted for them based on the reviews and the fact they did a Drone Survey which was free at the time.

Great communication with Jane and answered all our concerns. Report was of detail and high quality. Report was two days late but in the end we were not in a rush and considering the quality of the report, we didn't mind. Drone Survey was worth having as it showed that the chimney stack was leaning badly and a number of missing roof tiles. Managed to get £13,000 of house price.

Really good service and prompt, professional and the report was of detail and high-quality.

We had the free drone survey and this told us the roof needed doing. We looked at a few surveyor but Dunham hale provide a personal service where we spoke direct with the surveyor instead of a sales team and and large firm.

Managed to get £10k off house and this paid for our survey, stamp duty and legal fees.

Very happy and we have recommended to two friends who are buying next house. Thanks Dunham Hale Surveyors

We used Dunham surveyors for our house survey. Excellent service and very good communication. We will use them again in the future.

First time buyers and very pleased we chose dunhams. Detailed report and good communication helped us to know what was wrong with our new house. Will use again when we next move.

I was very disappointed with the service received. They were very responsive when discussing the survey, e.g. should we purchase level 2 or 3 survey. Then once payment was received I could not get through on any contact number (mobile or office) I had made arrangements with our real estate for the roof to be accessed and advised the Dunham hale office to let the surveyor know access could be provided on the day to assess the roof via the real estate agent, they confirmed. However the surveyor was not informed and I had to sort access out on the day of the survey. Additionally, post moving in the water pressure isn’t great and the boiler was broken- neither was picked up on the survey and we have had to incur extra costs to fix. Would recommend going elsewhere.

Very good service and better than the last surveyors we used. Neil is a very experienced and knowledgeable surveyor and the communication was first rate. Took an extra day than stated but the report was of high quality. We used the extra drone survey for the roof and we found out about a new roof which was estimated at 25,000. Current in negotiation about our offer. Neil and Dunhams were 5 star. We would certainly use them again.

We used Dunhamhale surveyor for our house purchase in Croydon. Excellent, and Neil our surveyor was very thorough and provided detail in the report and allowed us to negotiate 16k off the house. The drone survey was extra but worth every penny.

Great report and Jane answered all our questions. Exceeded our expectations. Would use Dunham again. My only complaint is Trustpilot. Three times I tried to add this review and each time the screen froze. Nothing against Dunham though.

Easy process. Great value level 3 survey and drone survey. Excellent customer service. Jane was a pleasure with and went above and beyond the expected service. She took time to discuss the survey in detail.
Would highly recommend

Booked a Level 3 Survey with drone footage of the roof of the property we are looking to purchase.

I found the report detailed and the drone footage allowed us to talk to the owners in regards to issues.

I was a bit iffy about which company to use for a survey due to some of the reviews but overall I am happy with the report as it pointed out some things we were unaware of but also pointed out the things we were aware of but wanted some feedback so we could have a discussion.

The only thing I would comment on which tbh is minor was that I didn't receive a notification to say "the survey was booked on x date" just an email to say it was done a few days after it complete but definitely not something to rate down on.

Survey was returned within the timeframe they promised and was as detailed as I was expecting based on their templates.

Lee (Ref: 240550)

Asked Dunhamhale to conduct a level 3 survey. Overall no bad, did the job.

Minus 1 star each for :
1. Was told that my friend can claim the referral bonus by sending my invoice with his email address. Did so, but no feedback at all.
2. Received an email in *October*, inviting to write a review in trustpilot, offering an Amazon voucher. However the deadline date is *30-Sep*

Eric (report ref 240533)

Excellent service, prompt replies to any queries and thorough report received within a week. Would highly recommend

We asked Dunham Hale to provide a RICS Level 3 Survey for a property we are purchasing. Responses to our initial inquiry were prompt and report was returned to us within 5 working days of the inspection.

Overall, the service was good, and the report of sufficient detail to satisfy our needs. However, responses for some of our email inquiries were not always answered. For instance, we inquired about the free drone survey promotion (as our initial inquiry was made during September). We also asked about receiving a phone call on the day of the inspection, as well as the proper procedure for processing a referral (my sister had referred Dunham Hale to us), but we received no response.

Elwin (Report ref 240545)

Edit (29.10.2024):

We have since been contacted by Dunham Hale to clarify some of the issues raised in my review. Happy to say the referral will be processed pending the proper checks. It was also explained to us that the Drone Survey was not necessary for our particular circumstances as it would provide no extra benefit for us. Have upgraded our rating as a result.

240531 – Sun Cheung
The survey was carried out in 7 days after my instruction for a level 2 homebuyer report. A detailed survey report was completed in 2 working days. The report provided comprehensive information and supported with pictures for reference. Such information is useful for a home buyer.
Thanks for their prompt response and service. Have referred a friend to use their survey service already.