When Louis Maycock joined TFT as Senior Party Wall Surveyor in March, he wasn’t expecting to still not have set foot in an office by April. But, this is on-boarding in the time of social distance. We caught up with Louis a few weeks in to hear about his role in TFT’s Neighbourly Matters team and how remote working affects his day job.

Welcome to TFT Louis! Tell us about your role and what brings you here:

Hi – it’s great to be here, even if ‘here’ is just my kitchen table for now! I joined in late March and my role is a Senior Party Wall Surveyor.

I’ll be based in the London office, though working with all our different regional offices and clients across the country. Party Wall sits within TFT’s Neighbourly Matters team, alongside our Rights of Light and Daylight & Sunlight specialists. It’s great to be part of a much larger and multi-disciplinary firm as my background includes over 10 years of specialist consultancy. I’m very excited to expand our Party Wall offering, to plug in to all the great work going on across TFT’s services.

How have you found settling in to work away from the office?

So far, so good. This would have been my first ‘commuter job’ coming in from Hertfordshire, so was expecting some time to get to grips with that. But so far my commute from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen table is proving quite relaxed.

The biggest challenge was getting to grips with new systems etc. Luckily, I got plenty of induction to set me straight. It’s generally been really easy to settle in with the team itself. I’m a people person and I was hoping to find a firm with some soul which shares my values, and TFT has definitely fulfilled that so far. It feels more like joining a family.

Thanks to the technology in place it’s also easy to connect with everyone I need to speak to throughout the day, and they’ve been so supportive - even apologising that we can’t meet face to face. All in good time!

What’s filling your time in these first few weeks?

I’m getting stuck right in to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of my role: client liaison, service of notices, preparing and agreeing awards, undertaking schedules of condition, attributing and contributing to design team meetings, repairing reports, preparing and agreeing scaffold and crane oversail licences. Generally being the go-to man for everything relating to party walls.

Just a few things then! How much of your day job is impacted by social isolation?

Every job is different, but I usually advise a site visit to undertake a schedule of condition (recording the condition of the adjoining owner’s property) and to identify how the building owner’s proposals will affect the adjoining property. Often these are done first, but given the impacts of current travel and social distancing restrictions, I can progress the bulk of party wall work remotely and then conduct schedules once we’re able to start travelling again.

I’m also planning a CPD session – for clients, industry friends and the wider TFT team, held over Microsoft Teams naturally! I’m looking forward to developing this service line a lot more – the first step is getting our surveyors and partner firms up to speed with the latest party wall matters. Then I can start working together with our teams to help our clients better navigate them.

Sounds like you’re a busy man, Louis. We’d better let you get back to it!

If you’re in need of support for your party wall matters, get in touch with Louis and find out more about our services here.