Discussion
A lot will depend on the size of your building and therefore how many people it will take to survey it (or over how many nights/mornings). Plus there will a charge for travel time, mileage and the like. Surveyors I have worked with before have charged around £200-250 a day, so one bat survey would be around half a day's work (a survey will be around 3 hours plus travel and there will usually be more than one surveyor). So it will be quite pricey I'm afraid.
knotweed said:
A lot will depend on the size of your building and therefore how many people it will take to survey it (or over how many nights/mornings). Plus there will a charge for travel time, mileage and the like. Surveyors I have worked with before have charged around £200-250 a day, so one bat survey would be around half a day's work (a survey will be around 3 hours plus travel and there will usually be more than one surveyor). So it will be quite pricey I'm afraid.
Yes, sounds about right......the quote I've had is for 2 dusk and 1 dawn survey, on two buildings.....£2100!!! For some ****ing bats. I've even said I'd happily put in a bat loft and some boxes regardless, and therefore skip the survey? But no, it seems I must have the survey ( according to the extorionate bat survey person ). Ironiacally this makes me think alot of people uthenise the little buggers or remove any trace of them for fear of this kind of bill. The law of unintended consequences.
What do you need the survey for? Planning condition? I have muchos experience in trying to avoid paying bat survey fees with regards to a building due to be demolished. I'm all for nature but in our experience, here's how it all adds up...
Dawn and dusk survey = £850 plus VAT. Once you've got this, you won't actually get a report. You'll get an email saying something along the lines of 'We think we saw a bat vacating the building. We can't say exactly what kind of bat it is, whether it's a winter or summer roost, or whether it was just passing through.'
When I asked about a written report, I was told 'We don't actually write up reports, just use the info for the mitigation statement when we apply for your European Protected Species licence.'
So, go to Natural England and you'll discover the licences cost £0 and, legally, you need one if there's been a bat seen anywhere in the same county. However, here's the rub, you need a bat expert to fill the form in. That, apparently, will take an 'expert' approximately 36 working hours, without a break, to fill in. Total cost £1250.
Then, you ask the expert if there are any 'hidden' costs. He confesses that he needs to train the demolition team (that's me) what to do in the event of seeing a bat = £more. Also, he needs to watch some of the demolition taking place, just in case = £even more. During demolition, if you see a bat, best bet is just to empty your account into a bag and hand it straight over to the bearded guy, in the hope of distracting him away from looking in your pond. Because if he sees a newt in there, you're really screwed.
The bat robbing season starts in May, and they stop doing them later in the year (August springs to mind) - in which case, you'll have to wait until May next year. The licences take 30 working days, and there are restrictions as to the time of year demolition takes place. Bird nesting season not good. Owl nesting season not good either. About three days between Xmas and NY. But that's when the bat guy is having a holiday, so you have to wait til May and start the process all over again
Don't expect any advice from Natural England either, they really are fence sitters. Good luck!!
Dawn and dusk survey = £850 plus VAT. Once you've got this, you won't actually get a report. You'll get an email saying something along the lines of 'We think we saw a bat vacating the building. We can't say exactly what kind of bat it is, whether it's a winter or summer roost, or whether it was just passing through.'
When I asked about a written report, I was told 'We don't actually write up reports, just use the info for the mitigation statement when we apply for your European Protected Species licence.'
So, go to Natural England and you'll discover the licences cost £0 and, legally, you need one if there's been a bat seen anywhere in the same county. However, here's the rub, you need a bat expert to fill the form in. That, apparently, will take an 'expert' approximately 36 working hours, without a break, to fill in. Total cost £1250.
Then, you ask the expert if there are any 'hidden' costs. He confesses that he needs to train the demolition team (that's me) what to do in the event of seeing a bat = £more. Also, he needs to watch some of the demolition taking place, just in case = £even more. During demolition, if you see a bat, best bet is just to empty your account into a bag and hand it straight over to the bearded guy, in the hope of distracting him away from looking in your pond. Because if he sees a newt in there, you're really screwed.
The bat robbing season starts in May, and they stop doing them later in the year (August springs to mind) - in which case, you'll have to wait until May next year. The licences take 30 working days, and there are restrictions as to the time of year demolition takes place. Bird nesting season not good. Owl nesting season not good either. About three days between Xmas and NY. But that's when the bat guy is having a holiday, so you have to wait til May and start the process all over again
Don't expect any advice from Natural England either, they really are fence sitters. Good luck!!
Timmy35 said:
Ironiacally this makes me think alot of people uthenise the little buggers or remove any trace of them for fear of this kind of bill. The law of unintended consequences.
Had one holding up a near million pound contract once, he decided to fly away afore the flying rat lovers turned up and took all traces of his turds and nest with him. Damn civil of him if you ask me. 
Don't get me started on the whole ecology stuff. How about badgers? I'm sure they hold committee meetings - council, planning and natural england policy books at the ready, to decide how to screw you over (the badgers that is). The bearded types saw a badger footprint in the neighbouring field (no sh*t, it's the countryside) and decided we needed a badger survey. If you dig a hole, you're supposed to put a badger ladder in. If you put up a fence, you need a proper badger stile and don't even consider putting anything in the way of aforementioned badgers 'commuting route'. That'll be another £400. Oh, and what about a nesting bird survey - another £250 for some geek to come and miss the partridge sitting feet away from the build (it had six chicks - see we're not nature detonators).
Sorry, am I ranting?
Sorry, am I ranting?
I started a refurb on an very large old barn a few years ago and found a bat flying around in the hall, we eventually caught it with the net from the swimming pool then let set it free!
A couple of weeks later a bat expert had been called by the architect to come survey which I think was to cover the architects back.
We got a b
king from him for letting the bat outside too early in the year!
The jumped up little prick had steam coming from his ears when it was suggested that if we see any more we'll contact him on the bat phone!
Not sure how much power the bat people have but I can imagine them revelling in costing developers lots of money!
A couple of weeks later a bat expert had been called by the architect to come survey which I think was to cover the architects back.
We got a b
king from him for letting the bat outside too early in the year!The jumped up little prick had steam coming from his ears when it was suggested that if we see any more we'll contact him on the bat phone!
Not sure how much power the bat people have but I can imagine them revelling in costing developers lots of money!
I commission about 15-20 bat surveys a year, they tend to cost around £500 to £1000 depending on the size of the site etc. That shoukd include a written report and the relevant form filling (Skintemma - its all about how you instruct the consultant 
)
I use Middlemarch Environmental, they cover the whole of the Uk
)I use Middlemarch Environmental, they cover the whole of the Uk
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