SDL Surveying is to resume physical inspections straight away after the government announced it was lifting restrictions in England yesterday.

The firm says it has brought its valuers and booking team out of furlough and introduced new safety procedures in place to protect its surveyors and home owners during property visits.

From today, where appropriate it will replace desktop valuations with physical inspections.

The company expects remote valuation to be in the minority once again.  

All SDL surveyors will adopt a specific post-lockdown inspection procedure, which has already been approved by SDL’s lender clients.

Valuers have also received personal protective equipment which was delivered earlier this week to a number of meeting points across the country.

Managing director Simon Jackson says: “We are very pleased to announce the immediate recommencement of physical inspections and to say that, from today, our surveyors will be visiting properties in order to carry these out in a controlled and safe fashion.

“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.

“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.

“A significant amount of work has gone into this from the SDL team and we believe it demonstrates our commitment to our bank and building society partners and a shared desire to get the market moving 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.

“These are of course early days but this is a major step forward on the road back to normality and it is testament to the planning and preparedness of the SDL Surveying team that we can begin inspections today and produce the mortgage valuations which consumers, mortgage brokers and lenders are waiting for.”