Billericay's housing stock is mostly suburban: detached and semi-detached homes off Western Road, Laindon Road, and Mountnessing Road, plus a meaningful number of bungalows around Outwood Common Road and Sunny Croft. Bungalow-to-two-storey conversions are the most common airspace project type in the town, followed by side-and-up extensions on semis and a smaller number of rooftop schemes on the older 1960s blocks closer to the High Street. The wider area takes in Stock, Mountnessing, and Crays Hill. Our Essex team is locally based and the practice is RICS regulated, with over 30 years of combined surveying experience.
Larger schemes that come forward in Billericay typically need party wall services alongside the airspace work, particularly where party walls are shared with adjoining homes.
As well as providing daylight, sunlight and rights of light advice, our role would be to make contact with the occupants of the existing building to establish any concerns regarding the development. We will work closely with the professional team to identify the initial questions and look at how these can be addressed.
It is our experience that maintaining the same point of contact for the duration of the project offers the existing occupants’ reassurance and continuity.
Where a homeowner is raising a bungalow or adding a storey to a semi, we work alongside the architect on neighbour relations and the party wall position. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies wherever the new structure ties into a shared wall, and a notice usually has to be served on each adjoining owner before works can start.
Where a developer is adding new flats above a residential block, the role widens to full occupant liaison. We make first contact with the existing leaseholders, attend meetings to talk through their concerns, prepare Schedules of Condition for the flats directly below, and act as the named point of contact between developer and residents throughout the build.
Airspace work generally sits alongside daylight and sunlight, rights of light, and party wall workstreams on the same site. The same surveyor stays on the project from instruction to completion, calls are answered by a qualified surveyor, not a call centre, and a free initial assessment is included with every new instruction.
Over the past four years, CHP have worked very successfully with us in their capacity as party wall surveyors. Through his calm, sensible approach and excellent communication skills James Crowley, in particular, gained the trust and confidence of the entire team and stakeholders. Looking forward to working with CHP again.”
- Clare Goggin, Jackson Coles
Airspace schemes generate more questions and more risk than a standard extension. The structure below is occupied, the works happen at height, and the relationship between the developer and the existing residents drives most of the project's success or failure. A dedicated surveyor takes that relationship off the developer's plate.
Outcomes from a well-run scheme include programme certainty, fewer damage claims, and planning sign-off without late objections from neighbours. Planning routes in Billericay run through Basildon Borough Council, with some upward extensions falling under permitted development depending on house type and proposed height. Specialist airspace development advice sets out the most likely path early in the project, and a free initial assessment is the usual starting point.
Get in touch.
Head Office
2-6 Boundary Row
London, SE1 8HP
Essex Office
2-6 Boundary Row
London, SE1 8HP
020 3714 4090
Get in touch.
Head Office
2-6 Boundary Row
London, SE1 8HP
Essex Office
2nd Floor, 10 High Street
Wickford, Essex
SS12 9AZ
020 3714 4090
enquiries@chpsurveyors.com
