Fredrick Adam Ltd

We are so happy to have found and used Frederick Adam. In a nutshell, despite a long process and complications arising from being located in the Green Belt and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), through Kerry and Toms knowledge, diligence, persistence and hard work we were able to gain an uplift of 72% additional floor space to extend our house to be the home that we had dreamt of. This would not have been possible without them. We initially sought Kerrys advice via a recommendation after our first planning application to extend was refused and our architect and current planning consultant did not think we could get what we wanted. Upon reviewing our case Kerry thought we had a good chance by taking a very specific approach despite the refusal and complications of the Green Belt and AONB. The first thing Kerry did was set out a clear plan from start to finish, with options and contingencies. This put us at ease as we knew there were different courses of action we could take. Throughout the process, Kerry was always very mindful of our budget and the amount of risk we were willing to take. The route Kerry advised us to take, which was successful, involved securing planning permission for a smaller percentage increase along with certificates of lawfulness (CoL) for permitted development outbuildings. This allowed us to apply for our final part of the planning permission using the potential construction of the ugly outbuildings as our fallback position. The council did not make things easy and initially our CoL application was refused as was our application using the fallback position. However, Kerry had a contingency in place already for both of these outcomes. In response to the CoL refusal we applied for 3 separate outbuildings which were granted, and following refusal of our final planning permission the next stage involved going to appeal. The entire planning process was long-winded, complicated and full of jargon that we didnt understand. Kerrys knowledge and expertise is so thorough and up to date that we did not have to worry. She dealt directly with the council and interpreted jargon filled reports and emails for us. This took the stress away from us, not to mention the time it would have taken us to understand everything prior to even responding or creating the documents required. Kerry prepared the mountain of paperwork required for the appeal, managed all of the council correspondence, advised us when legal advice should be sought and presented on our behalf at our verbal appeal hearing. We were also lucky enough to have Toms support on the run up to the appeal hearing and during the event. Despite not being our architect he still spent time understanding our home to provide design guidance and challenge to the council within this hearing. Had we known of him previously we wouldnt have hesitated in using him as our architect after seeing the value he added. The long wait after our verbal appeal hearing to be told our fate was nerve wracking and Kerry chased as much as she could and constantly kept us up to date. Upon hearing we were successful we were obviously elated, as was Kerry. Further evidence of how much she cares. Throughout the entire process it truly felt like Kerry was in it with us, she really cared about securing what we wanted. You will be hard pushed to find someone who works as hard as she does, with such persistence, customer focus and diligence. Her focus on the detail was outstanding and the amount of paperwork she had to review prior to the appeal hearing was immense, yet she knew so much of it off hand. Kerry was always available at the end of the phone or email to answer our questions which constantly put us at ease and feel like a valued client. We hope we wont need to ever apply for planning again and navigate the minefield that comes with it and deal with the associated frustrations, however if we did, we would absolutely use Frederick Adam again. We couldnt recommend them enough!
Feb 20th, 2020

So far very helpful, knowledgeable and skilled. Prompt too.
Aug 12th, 2019

I have paid a substantial amount to these people for an assessment of and advce to the maximum floorspace we would be elligible to extend our property by. Had a very friendly service and comprehensive report but the numbers didnt make sense and having queried these, are stil awaiting a response after FOUR weeks!
May 10th, 2018