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This guy sent a letter to my neightbour informing them that I had instructed him to act on my behalf for the party wall during our building works. He told them to sign a form and send back to him which they did.
He then sent me a letter to say that my neighbour had instructed him to act on their behalf and that my plans for the build may be sent directly to him.
Being in the structural engineering field myself I smelt a rat!
Being the Building Owner who is doing the works I would have been liable for all costs including my neightbours but I spoke to my neighbours if the appointed this fella and they said no they received a letter to say I had appointed him!
Do not trust this guy who is unregulated, uses a virtual address so you cannot track or trace him.Other people have left bad feedback on Facebook, please take a look yourself.
If you need to appoint a surveyor (after the Party Structure Notice has been served) ensure they are regulated by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
I am in the process of reporting him to the Trding Standards.
Planning applications are made public and this is where the guy got my details from.
I'm coming to the table late but I have been contacted by a previous client of mine who received these scam letters relating to her neighbour undertaking notifable works. They are now called South East Surveys - Telephone | [protected] or [protected], Email | office@sesurveys.co.uk
The address given is:
South East Surveys
Grangewood House
Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate
Loughton
IG10 3TZ
See letters attached
Active in Watford - my unlikeable next door neighbour appointed him. She has refused to open the door to him or answer his calls so he has not actually done anything other than look at our plans and sign the document my RICS surveyor put together.
Rics surveyor cost - £1440 including VAT
psg Cost £1, 200 including VAT but have no qualifications and have not actually done any work at all. (invoice states he has put together a schedule of condition and completed a final inspection - neither of which he has actually done as the Wall award states clearly that no access was provided)
My RICS surveyor said that PSG originally wanted a lot more but he had negotiated him down. He recommended I pay it to make it go away so it is over and done with and said it was on par with a chartered surveyors costs anyway.
So I have paid up BUT I have referred it to herts Trading standards, bbc and posted on here.
is now in Shoeburyness Philip gee aka Philip gold are not surveyors checked with RICS will be challenging there bill if it arrives and will demand copies of their/his qualifications .. this guy is a leech
Apparently they used to be a member of RICS, but got struck off due to their underhand behaviour - what a surprise! Have they carried out the work on behalf of your neighbour yet? We managed to talk to our neighbours and they put a stop to PSG before they attended site and signed our surveyors documents, which meant that there was no dispute, so no need for PSG, and no invoice for the above mentioned £648 arrived.
Oh and also possible breach of new GDPR laws! Might be worth looking in to?
Hi LouLou. We're also in Brighton and our neighbour has naively appointed PSG - how did you manage to put a stop to them acting on your neighbour's behalf? Our neighbour is willing to use someone else but from what I've read, the appointment under the Party Wall Act can't be rescinded? We're thinking of getting a solicitor involved, which obviously comes at another cost so if we can avoid that, it would be great!
He's still going! 2019 and he's harassing Brighton. He's managed to get my neighbours to sign a letter regarding our Party wall application. I've spoken to them and they were unaware of the implications, and that it wasn't necessary. They have signed our surveyors forms now that they are happy to just use them, but Phillip Gee (PSG Surveys now) wants £648 from us to not act on the matter! Any advice?
Glad I got directed to this thread before responding to PSG!
Here's a sample of the letter they send.
Thank you all so much for the heads up. I also received a letter from PSG Surveys Ltd (aka Philip Gee). He has now reached the sunny climes of LUTON, Beds. My next door neighbour is planning a large extension and he proactively sent me a letter offering his services as a surveyor. I most certainly will not be instructing him after reading these comments. I will keep you all updated on developments, Thanks again..
Before even starting the work, he is troubling us. He sent a letter to us as soon as we applied for planning permission(which we are not sure would be accepted). After a long wait the planning permission is approved and our nutty neighbour would like to appoint him as the surveyor and charges us 50% more than what the other surveyor charges.
He says that the notice we served is invalid as the party wall act doesn't cover rear extension. You ### ###, we have given the notice for excavation and we know that party wall act doesn't apply for rear extensions but for the excavation/structures .
PSG Party Wall "Specialists" ? This is an appalling scam by appalling ###.
Philip Gee / a.k.a Philip Gold ? / should be known as Philip GHOUL has now reared his ugly head again in Surrey.
This bloke has been described as an ambulance chaser, but sadly, ambulance chasers have something mentally wrong with them. There is NOTHING mentally wrong with him; to the contrary, he's a boil on the backside of humanity who thinks he's smart enough to cash in on peoples' insecurities with regards to knowledge of planning. He silently hovers on the sideline, waiting to pounce, offering his " services ".
He's not that clever. When our neighbour showed us the letter received from PSG, I noticed there were some fundamental mistakes in what would normally pass as an official letter, so if he is able to read this, I don't know who taught him English, but he either needs extra lessons, or ask for his money back, I would.
I can't find PSG in any company check list, probably because he isn't registered and WHERE are his qualifications, if he is a real surveyor ?
I thinks he's a "geezer", possibly with a grubby collar.
His letter is ( badly ) written with a veiled kind of threat to it, which if, as neighbours, we didn't have a such a great relationship with each other, we might have been fooled into responding to him. But guess what - WE WEREN'T ! Even though he included a prepaid envelope to avoid us paying return postage on completion of his " form "- how thoughtful of him ! " Form" being the operative word !
I believe the only party wall this bloke specialises in, is the one between his ears, if he thinks his letter fooled us. I have given a copy to everyone in the street and more ! I am so glad we have these forums where we can swap stories. I will be reporting his company to Trading Standards via the CAB, Watchdog AND Rogue Traders. I will also be back on here with an update.
Nina Grace.
Hi, any update on whether you had any luck reporting him? We are currently having issues with him! Thank you
This man/company is now active in the London borough of MERTON. I live in South Wimbledon and received a letter from Philip Gee with regards to my next door neighbour's proposal to build an extension. Luckily, I saw this website in time.
I'm in Ealing and received a letter from PSG/Philip Gee at the end of July. Thank goodness I procrastinated and decided to check this company out before taking any action. I will definitely speak with my neighbours and alert them as to my findings.
I have just received a letter from this Philip Gee / Gold in the Hillingdon area of Greater London. Thank you to everyone who has posted here for bringing this unlawful scam to our attention. Hopefully this site will help more people avoid being conned by someone who should not still be operating.
I am in Hampshire, and also had an identical letter to that above. Only my neighbours' extension does not fall within the Party Wall Act provisions, as could easily be deduced from the plans. So Mr Gee is fishing for work. I will keep his correspondence, unsigned, lest he tries it on with my neighbour, and if he does, then its attempted fraud and a matter for the police. Moral - always do a search to find out who you are dealing with, before entering into any agreement.
I have just received identical letter as received by David McCormick and my property is located in Barnet Herts. This bloke is NOT a surveyor in any shape or form and the fact that he is misrepresenting himself as such should be stopped.
Problem added the attachments - trying again.
You've got to love the internet and it's ability to bring these types of fraudsters to light.
Within five days of submitting our planning application to Southend Council, our neighbour received the attached letter. We're on great terms with our neighbour and he smelt a rat instantly. It's poorly written, contradictory and simply rude! To ensure that Google picks up these key word for others to be warned, I'll put them together here:
PSG Surveys Ltd; Southend on Sea; Party Wall Act; Talbot House; Philip Gee;
I will be notifying Southend Planning office of this letter, but it seems that with the length that this thread has been active, nothing much is being done. I can't believe the Institute of Chartered Surveyors are happy about Phil calling himself a Surveyor.
Thanks everyone.
Don't pay this conman anything. Report him to trading standards. Try phoning him to cancel the appointment citing all the reasons on this board. I have discovered from my qualified surveyor In most of cases a party wall agreement is not needed. If you and your neighbours get along ( even if you don't, worth a try), then go over to them with a copy of the plans and a print out of a letter entitled "consent to party wall structure notice" which many websites offer a template for FREE - including www.gov.uk . Also a print out of this forum will help your case. Usually a polite reassurance is enough, that in the rare event that the builders might damage some of the neighbours plasterwork etc. You will fix it straight away. Once they give their written consent, then you have to wait at least a month before starting the work.
If they don't then appoint a qualified registered surveyor with a good reputation, once you've had a chance to get several quotations. Good luck.
PSG contacted me regarding an extension to my neighbours property. The timing of the approach suggested that he was approved by the council. Foolishly I appointed his company. He has contacted my neighbour and demanded high fees for his work. I now find he does not appear qualified to do this work. My neighbour and I are now in a difficult situation. Harrow council should warn neighbours about tyhis when they send the planning applications out.
I work for the RICS and have had a complaint regarding Mr Philip Gee today, we are unaware of this individual and have no record of him. Please use caution and always check with the RICS if your surveyor/surveying firm is Chartered and Regulated. If they are not, the RICS cannot be held responsible for any action taken.
This guy has also struck in Ealing. he has written to me suggesting he is acting for his clients my neighbours asking for a copy of the party wall agreement and suggesting this must be in place two months before work starts. Again the letter is threatening and implies that if I do not comply I will be breaking the law. Thanks to all who have reported this crook. I will report him to trading standards.
Thanks so much to everyone on this website. I live in Harrow and received a letter from Philip Gee twice. I too checked the RICS website which had no knowledge of him. Many Thanks to everyone.
We have received a letter from this PSG as well (Hounslow Area) Can we ignore his letter and get into an agreement with our neighbour and carry on with our planned work. Our Neighbour received letter and he signed and returned to PSG too!
We have received a letter from him (Thurrock Area) stating he has been instructed by our neighbours, we are also in application stage - the plans only went in a few weeks ago! Very odd as they were completely on board the last time we spoke but we will be checking again. I have asked for a copy of his written instruction so I can see what he has been asking and will be taking this further. I presume trading standards are our first port of call.
Hi, Urgent help required please. We received a letter few weeks ago from PSG surveys too about our extension- which is still in the application stage!. Interestingly his office is in Harrow, we are in a different borough! I'm going to smooth things over with the neighbour as we don't plan on building anything until 2016 earliest. What shall we do about this idiot? Who do we complain to? I noticed there weren't any initials after his name, unlike our own surveyor- so clearly he hasn't any professional qualifications. Please let me know what steps to take...Thanks.
We have received a letter too- in Surrey. The interesting twist here is that we believe GEE is in cohoots with our neighbour. We have not parted with any money as of yet and are in the process of reporting him to Trading Standards and Police. His company's VAT registered address is :-
FLAT 11, AURORA COURT
14A SUNSET AVENUE
WOODFORD GREEN
ESSEX
IG8 0SN
So, if anything does go wrong I'll be paying him a visit- And I don't do anything by halves Mr Gee!
Looks like he targeting East London now. Wish I'd found this thread before. I'm in Hackney and this ### letters and calls got me worried and made me instruct him before my next doors had got planning approved. Now my next doors have got planning approved but decided not to go ahead with anything this year due to costs but now this ### says he wants me to pay up for sending letters to my next doors and because I 'instructed' him. He's saying it's my fault and he has minimum fee. I didn't know anything about party wall act and feel he's scammed me now, he new exactly that my next doors had not been approved yet when he contacted me. He's now threatening me with court action if I don't pay, not to mention creating an awkward feeling now with my next doors as he bombarding them too and expecting me to pay now for that too!. Wish id just taken my own ###ing pictures and got my next doors to put right any broken tiles or cracks as my next doors are reasonable anyway.
AVOID THIS ###!
I've reported him to Sarah Smith of my local trading standards.
03/12/14 Another case in Redbridge. I have recieved a letter from P S G Survey Ltd signed but pp behalf of Phillip Gee dated 03/12/14 stating he writes on behalf of my neighbour (on left) who has intructed him to act for them when in fact when I served a party wall notice to my neighbour (on the left in Oct 14) he consulted with friends and family and redbridge council whom confirmed it is not required as my property is semi detached with my neighbour on my right. Whom I'd also served a party wall notice and had the acknowledge notice signed agreeing to my plans to proceed with my rear extension. After reading the threads here its obvious this fraudster still is not detered and doign the rounds. So be warned and recommend anyone else affected by this conman to report this in this forum so others can see and perhaps use printedouts of these testimonies to be presented to the respective neighbours as proof for them not to fall into this trap and inadvertently cause unecessary neighbourly disputes.
Another case in Redbridge.
Received a letter stating my neighbour has instructed this company. Waiting to speak to my neighbour to confirm. Thank you for all the comments which have helped us stay clear of replying to this rouge.
Thanks so much to everyone on this website. I live in Hackney and received a letter from Philip Gee 2 weeks ago. I never thought I'd be taken in by a con trick but nearly fell for the scam. It seems so plausible. I was saved by going to the RICS which had no knowledge of him. Many, many thanks.
I just received the same con letter from PSG as described above. Why is this ###, Philip Gee, allowed to operate like this without the law catching up on him?
Renovating is stressful and expensive enough. Do we really need fcuking con- man to give us a scare?
Thanks to this website, I found out his modus operandi. Thanks everyone!
My neighbours have both received a letter from him. One had sense and tore it up but the other replied back. We now have a letter from him saying that one side is his clients. Their command of English is not good.
We have not even completed planning yet and have no detailed drawings and thus have not sent Party Wall notices out, and may not do so for some months. Are we still liable for his costs?
Hi All,
Just to let you know that I just received a letter from Phillip Gee at PSG Surveys Ltd in relation to my neighbours planning application. I live in Lewisham . I'll warn the neighbours. Thanks for the heads up!
this guy has struck again in Red bridge where he targeted elderly widow.Approached 2 neighbours and now sent MCOL to take her t o Court.We discovered his scam from Architect and he got signature from 1 neighbour but not the other.No photos and what he produced has been declared not fit for purpose by qualified Party Wall SUurveyor.We are the 1 man band builder that did the work and the neighbours were happy to proceed without him when they saw print out from this Forum.Now she is afraid to sleep since he has served MCOL on her...any advice.thanks, Katherine...p.s I have reported him via Citizens advice to trading STANDARDS as suggested on this site.
This company/man is operating in London Borough of Redbridge too. My elderly parents have received one of his letters and it terrified them. I am going to send a copy to the Council, Trading standards and the BBC. So glad I googled this company.
Philip Gee or Philip G (psg surveys) is now working his way around Kingston upon Thames. Beware! Reported to trading standards and seeing what the faculty of party wall surveyors has to say, but he is, of course, not registered with them. One imagines he is treading the legal line quite finely as there is no one to complain to as he is not regulated by anyone. His company can be searched online. One director philip gold. No website, one email, no professional qualifications. He is just a . . . man. You might as well pick someone at random in the street. Will update if get anywhere.
I agree with jtjaeger, this firm are worse than ambulance chasers. I live in the Watford area and I also received a letter from PSG Surveys Ltd. After seeing all of the complaints on here I complained to Simon Legg at Brent (and Harrow) Trading Standards. His reply states that the public must complain via the Citizens Advise Consumer Service who will filter everything and pass on legitimate complaints. He states that there is nothing wrong with this Company and they are basically NOT interested. Because I live in the Hertfordshire area their Trading Standards should be the ones that I complained to, not him. I have complained to Herts via the Citizens Advise Service and they should contact him. If you have a complaint re this company then use the Citizens Advise service in your County and refer them to Simon. If enough people do complain perhaps they will get it sorted. If all else fails I think maybe Dom, Rogue Traders, should be contacted. Thoughts please.
I had exactly the same run in with PSG Surveys, he (Philip Gee aka Philip Gold) moves from London Borough to Borough, searching through local council planning portals, which are open source, and then sends these letters and instruction forms to the neighbours of premises have extension works, many of whom are taken in, and believe him to be a qualified surveyor, which he is not. The instruction form clearly stated for him to act as your surveyor, the costs of which must be met by the party having works. The acts and authorities quoted are under the party wall act. The manner of the correspondence is quite menacing, designed to make you fear legal actions are being taken against you.
Being in law enforcement I smelt a rat too, so I challenged Philip Gold and he immediately backed down taking no further instruction from my neighbours, one of which was completely convinced PSG were legitimate, and remains so today.
I conducted some open source ground work and found that Philip Gee is in fact likely to be Philip Gold and is not a chartered surveyor, although the instruction form clearly stated he would act as your surveyor.
Folks, this is more than just 'ambulance chasing' and an attempted fraud, the tipping point being the instruction form offering up his services as a surveyor, Harrow & Brent trading standards agreed and took this case on but regretfully don't seem to be doing much as at time of writing I'm aware PSG is still targeting homeowners having extension works in the Watford area.
Be sure to report any further dealings with this individual to Harrow & Brent Trading Services.