Avery & Co Chartered Surveyors specialise in the survey and valuation of residential property throughout the North West of England and North Wales. Louise qualified in 1990 and started her residential surveying career as an in-house valuer for Halifax (Lloyds Banking Group) before setting up Avery & Co in 2004. Louise has recently contributed to RICS working groups including the Valuation approach for properties in multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential buildings with cladding, and has also drafted sections for the review of RICS Valuation Global Standards UK Supplement VPGA 12. Louise is a Domestic Energy Assessor and in 2023 presented at an RICS webinar on energy matters relating to the RICS Home Survey Standard. In her spare time, Louise is a former Special Inspector with Merseyside Police, and is currently secretary of Merseyside & Cheshire Blood Bikes, a charity who transport blood, tissue and breast milk on behalf of the NHS. Louise is an active surveyor and has just been appointed to the RICS Expert Group for review of the Home Survey Standard. She will be focusing on the pre-sale survey framework, Appendix A Definition of the Levels and Appendix C Knowledge of the Location.

Presentation – Introduction & Welcome.

Richard is the Technical Director for the Energy House 2.0 project a world leading building physics test lab at the University of Salford. He holds a PhD in Building Physics and is a chartered building surveyor, and a Fellow of the RICS. He leads a task group for the development of international standards around energy performance. He has authored over 40 publications in this area.

Richard is the Chairperson of the British Standard for Retrofit Assessment. . He holds a place on the SAP Scientific Integrity Group at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which oversees the domestic energy model used in the UK. He is a panel member on the RICS Professional Group Panel for residential property. He is the lead of an Annex of the International Energy Agency studying the use of smart meter data to provide energy efficiency metrics for dwellings.

Presentation – Energy efficiency & Retrofit.

I am the Head of Civil & Commercial Litigation at Jackson Lees which covers a broad scope of complex legal areas. I deal with high value commercial, inheritance, contract and land disputes, so I am fully equipped to help you with whatever difficult circumstances you find yourself in, assisting both businesses and individuals.

I qualified as a solicitor in 1997, and have gained extensive experience as a litigator. I was delighted to be “recommended for Consumer Credit Act matters” credited in the 2011 edition of the Legal 500.

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to deal with ground breaking cases in relation to unenforceable agreements, unfair relationships, employment disputes, hidden commission, irresponsible lending and negligence of brokers. This includes actions by groups of borrowers against lenders, co-ordinating hundreds of cases across England and Wales. I have also had valuable experience of acting in group actions against major motor manufacturers.

I have lectured nationally on challenges to consumer credit agreements, land law issues, and overcoming the perils and pitfalls of employment law. I have also spoken at the EU in relation to the BEUC group for consumer advice organisations across the EU, and to the European Commission in relation to the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive.

I have also had the pleasure of talking about land disputes, consumer and employment rights on TV; including ITV’s This Morning, Panorama, Channel 4 News, The One Show, ITV, Inside Out, and even Neighbours from Hell!”

Presentation – Boundary disputes & Rights of way.

Fi is a Business Development Manager at Elmhurst Energy, dedicated to supporting customers across England and Wales.

She began her career in the energy assessment industry in 2007 with National Energy Services and later joined Elmhurst through the NHER merger. With over 18 years of hands-on experience working within Accreditation Schemes for Energy Assessors, Fi brings a wealth of knowledge, insight, and practical expertise to help members grow and succeed in a constantly evolving sector.

Presentation – EPCs & the future.

Nigel leads and manages a range of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) industry forums across property and valuation related areas, whose function is to provide strategic oversight, monitor market trends/industry issues, shape industry best practice, raise standards and develop policy. This is achieved through extensive collaboration with subject matter experts, industry influencers and public consultation. Nigel was responsible for the RICS cladding valuation approach guidance, RICS ‘Red Book’ UK National Supplement, residential section, Japanese Knotweed and HMO / Buy to Let.

Prior to joining RICS, Nigel worked in the Valuation teams at Deloitte Real Estate and Drivers Jonas. He also volunteered extensively for RICS, as the National Chair of RICS matrics, RICS Nominations Committee and on RICS Governing Council.

Presentation – RICS professional and valuation update.

Hannah started her career providing contract reviews as well as providing negotiations and general risk management advice, specialising in construction professions such as surveyors architects, and engineers. She often supports clients with negotiations as well as providing general risk management advice. Hannah has also expanded her role into professional indemnity claims handling, with a strong, specialist focus on construction claims. Hannah has since gone on to now head up the Contract Review team, based in Howden’s Bristol office where she oversees the contract review service offered by Howden to varying construction professionals alongside construction claims handling.

Stuart is a Client Director with Howden UK who partners with CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs across a range of professions to help them create comprehensive insurance programmes for their businesses. After spending 30 years in the Professional Indemnity Insurance market working as both a broker and an underwriter, Stuart knows what truly drives the best value from insurers.

Stuart is responsible for co-ordinating the wider Howden team and assuming responsibility for the day to day service, renewal activity and technical enquiries regarding his clients Professional Indemnity programme. Whilst he is based in the North West Stuart works with clients across the UK.

Presentation – PI Risk & the insurance market.

Having been involved with Sava since its inception Anne Hinds is now the Lead Internal Quality Assurer as well as an assessor. Qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor in 1986 she originally worked in the industrial and commercial sector followed by a period in the Valuation Office before moving into the residential sector, dealing with technical advice and guidance on mortgage valuations, expert witness reports and other survey and valuation matters.

With nearly 40 years’ experience in surveying, primarily in the investigation, management and handling of negligence claims against surveyors, she is particularly interested in the prevention of fraud involving surveyors. Given her experience with claims, Anne is well aware of the measures that should be taken to ensure good risk management within firms. Anne is chair of the RICS Assigned Risks Panel, she has sat on the RICS Residential Survey and Valuation Group, has been involved with several information papers including the ‘Valuation of individual new build homes’ paper.

Presentation – History of public sector housing.

Andrew Bradshaw is co-founder and partner at RTC, the North West’s leading property care specialists. With over 39 years of experience in the preservation industry, Andrew achieved his first industry qualification at just 20 years old, becoming the youngest qualified surveyor in the UK at the time.

He is a fully qualified damp, timber, and structural waterproofing surveyor, as well as an Associate of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (formerly the Institute of Wood Science). His professional accreditations include CSTDB, CSSW, and AIMMM.

Andrew currently serves on the board of the Property Care Association (PCA), the industry’s governing body, where he has also held the role of National Chairman. In addition, he acts as a PCA examiner, supporting the next generation of industry professionals.

Widely recognised as one of the North West’s leading authorities on damp and timber issues, Andrew has authored numerous articles, contributed expert commentary and appeared on both local and national television, and frequently delivers CPD training sessions to surveyors, architects, housing associations, and local authorities.

Presentation – Diagnosing timber defects.

Kate Charrington, FRICS is a residential survey specialist supporting small, independent firms and sole practitioners raise the standards of their Home Surveys. She is a member of the RICS Residential Professional Group Panel and sits on the RICS Home Survey Standard Expert Working Group. She provides independent external home survey report reviews and CPD certified structured training that reflects the evolution of home survey reporting.

As a qualified retrofit coordinator and trained Climate Reality Leader, Kate further supports residential surveyors in delivering relevant and value-led sustainability and climate-focused content into their home survey reports.

Presentation – Home Survey Standard & good reporting practice.

Malcolm Holland, BSc(Hons) MRICS, started his career as a land surveyor in the Royal Engineers before leaving the Army to return to higher education.  Having gained a degree in Building Surveying and then qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1988, he  worked predominantly in private practice and mostly in the field of residential surveying.

During the mid 1990s he spent 4 years as a senior lecturer at DeMontfort University teaching building construction and pathology. He returned to private practice in 1997 as a residential building surveyor with Countrywide Surveyors. He published “A Practical Guide to Diagnosing Structural Movement” in 2012.  Aswell as training 100’s of “in house” surveying Associates for Countrywide Surveyors, he also lectured part time for Oxford Brookes University and has presented at numerous CPD events. He retired as a working surveyor in 2023.

Presentation – Structural movement & damp meter profiling.