Amongst our clients are many large and small, national and local surveying practices at both the professional and agency ends of the spectrum. We have also advised architects, civil engineers, interior designers and planners. Some of these have been clients for many years and we are delighted to have seen them grow and prosper. We have advised some as they moved from partnership to limited liability partnership status and with others we are exploring other the impact of other business structures. Our help has also, on occasions, seen us support banking and funding negotiations, the hiring and firing of partners, advice on profit sharing arrangements and other sensitive partnership matters.
Our experience with so many property practices means that we are familiar with the majority of accounting systems used by property professionals – making our advice particular responsive and relevant. Meanwhile, we take great care with the quality of our staff and their training – for example, our staff attend RICS training sessions to ensure they remain aware of changes in the rules concerning client monies.
Our professional practices team works closely with our real estate group which advises a large number of both large and small, public and private property companies at home and abroad. This means that we often have clients in common with our property professional practices allowing us to provide a particularly seamless service to mutual clients. Both our professional and property clients benefit from the technical expertise, up to date commercial knowledge and strong market contacts we have within the real estate market. We also provide service company audits – at very competitive rates - to some of our managing agent clients. One of our tax directors has extensive experience in the retail environment which is often of interest to retail agents.
Whether for the practice or for particular client projects and developments, many of our property professionals (and their finance professionals) - find our specialist VAT unit of great value. Our dedicated VAT partner does much of his work within the property industry and has managed to save clients much time and money on particular transactions and their systems in general. Similarly, the experts within our leading not for profit team are able to advise surveyors on the special regulations relating to charity tenants.
Where practices have international offices, or clients with international property transactions, our membership of the MSI Global Alliance, an international alliance of independent legal and accounting firms, with over 250 member firms in 100 countries, is of value. In most instances, we will have personally met the overseas representatives from whom our UK clients seek advice.
Our strong private client team works closely with our professional practices unit – ensuring that we are able to support the needs of individual partners and directors as well as the practice overall. This extends to financial planning where our advisers in our joint venture haysmacintyre financial planning advise on a range of pensions, investment and insurance issues. For some of our surveyor clients, we provide a tailored “Joining the partnership” training sessions to help new partners become familiar with their new roles, responsibilities and associated financial management.
Located at the heart of London Mid-town, we are well placed for surveyors in both the West End and City markets although many of our clients have offices throughout the UK which we serve just as effectively. Our friendly yet professional and commercial style means that our partners and managers are welcomed within property firms and usually become a part of their social scene as well. We regularly invite teams of young surveyors to join our Young Professional Networking events to share training experiences and to help build productive professional relationships for the future. Our managing partner has been asked many times to provide both formal and informal addresses at our clients’ partner conferences and dinners and is always pleased to help where he can.