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News
Harris & Moss Offices
Burnley 9 Manchester Road
Tel: 01282 422333 | Fax: 01282 454064
Email: burnley@harrismoss.co.uk
Nelson 13 Scotland Road
Tel: 01282 695118 | Fax: 01282 617716
Email: nelson@harrismoss.co.uk
Colne 30 Albert Road
Tel: 01282 864228 | Fax: 01282 864228
Email: colne@harrismoss.co.uk
Barnoldswick 16 Church Street
Tel: 01282 815994 | Fax: 01282 815993
Email: barnoldswick@harrismoss.co.uk
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David's Blog - 12/06/2009 |
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Site Notes By David Moss (extracted from the Burnley Express)
This occasional column was originally intended to be a light hearted insight into the life of a local surveyor. I had imagined stories of attacks by mad dogs, roof timbers cut away to accommodate train sets in the attic and other DIY disasters.
Unfortunately the slowing of the housing market over recent months left me in a more serious mood – hence the recent direction of “Site Notes” and its concentration on the housing market.
However recent increases in house sales and the re-launch of Property Today in the Burnley Express have prompted me to resume my surveyor at large role in the style of James Herriot with a clip-board!
Over my time looking at hundreds of houses per year I never had any particular worry about empty houses, dingy attics or dank basements, that is until a mortgage inspection I carried out one Saturday morning.
I remember the house on Coal Clough Lane all to clearly. It was one of those elevated bay fronted terraces over looking Coal Clough House, and I still think about it every time I drive past. The inspection was a straight forward valuation for mortgage, and did not present any difficulties or problems – until I came to the basement. At the rear was a clear open basement area – clean, dry and bright, but the front of the sub-floor was sealed behind a brick built “partition wall”.
This wall spanned the width of the house but had a hole knocked through it to give access to the unlit and rather damp void beneath the front sitting room. A quick inspection with my torch revealed no obvious horrors, such as dead bodies – that was a house in Colne – and so I stepped bravely in to the unknown.
I remember that the compacted earth floor felt soggy underfoot, but I was more concerned with the condition of the timbers to the sitting room floor, so was shining my torch upwards, looking at the joists and boards. When I stood on something hard I wasn’t concerned at first, but then felt something clasped firmly around my calf! I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know what was holding onto my leg and so rather than shining my torch downwards, I dragged my foot backwards across the floor. This only made the grip on my calf even tighter and I realised, reluctantly, that I was going to have to take a look.
In the shadows I saw a long black hairy creature, illuminated in the torchlight, but still clinging to my leg as various thoughts flashed through my mind. At that point I gasped and stepped back and the creature promptly fell to the ground. Sensing that freedom was at hand I escaped back through the hole in the wall to the relative safety of the rear basement. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know what had attacked me but my curiosity got the better of my nerves and I cautiously shone my torch back through the hole into the front cellar.
No rats or rabid dogs could be seen but there was a flue brush lying on the floor – The wire handle to the brush had been bent at 90º so that when I stood on one end of it the actual brush had flicked up and stuck against my leg and when I dragged my foot backward it had stuck more firmly still.
I can laugh now, but it wasn’t funny at the time and I’m more cautious now going in to dark dank cellars!
G David Moss, FRICS
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