The firm said that where appropriate, desktop valuations will now be replaced by physical inspections for its staff and network surveyors, with remote valuations returning to the minority.
Its surveyors and booking team have now been brought out of furlough to begin working through its lender clients’ backlog of physical inspections.
All SDL surveyors will adopt a specific post-lockdown inspection procedure – already approved by lender clients – and each has received their own Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
It added that the number of physical inspections it could carry out would depend on a number of factors, but anticipated there would be a strong appetite from consumers to allow these to go ahead.
SDL Surveying managing director Simon Jackson (pictured) said he was pleased to make the move and that a significant amount of work had gone into it.
“The nature of the threat from Covid-19 means that safety is of paramount importance which is why we’ve put in place a new full inspection procedure that each surveyor will be using on every job,” he said.
“This follows current safety guidance, has been approved by our lender clients, and means we can start inspecting properties from today in order to get those cases moving through the system again.”
“We are anticipating a large volume of backlog cases to be completed over the next seven to 10 days which is why we have moved all our surveyors and booking team out of furlough in order to make sure we get through this work as quickly as possible,” he added.
