Surveying Firm
How the firm cut pre-report research time by 83%
Eight browser tabs, 2.5 hours of manual lookups, 800+ instructions a year. Five API calls changed everything.
The challenge
Every RICS Level 2 and Level 3 report the firm produced required the same pre-instruction research: property record, EPC certificate, flood zone classification, radon affected area check, coal subsidence risk, comparable sales evidence, and council tax band verification. Eight separate lookups before a surveyor could even begin writing.
Individually, each lookup took 10 to 20 minutes. Collectively, they consumed between 2 and 3 hours per instruction. With 22 surveyors and over 800 instructions a year, that represented more than 1,600 hours of senior professional time — every year — spent on data gathering rather than analysis.
The secondary effect was just as damaging: because there was no standardised data pipeline, the quality and depth of pre-instruction research varied between surveyors. A surveyor in a rush might skip the radon check. Another might pull comparables from a less comprehensive source. RICS standards require rigour; the manual process made rigour dependent on individual discipline.
Their director had been exploring solutions for two years before finding an API that covered all the required data types in a single integration — without requiring a bespoke data contract or a minimum annual commitment that made the economics unworkable for a 22-person firm.
"We were doing 8 browser tabs of manual research before every Level 2. Now the data is there before we arrive on site."
The solution
A report pre-population tool that auto-fills Their RICS template using five API calls — triggered when a new instruction is entered.
the firm built a lightweight instruction management tool that connects directly to the Homedata API. When a new instruction is entered, the system resolves the address to a UPRN and fires five calls in parallel, each targeting a data category required for RICS Level 2 and Level 3 reports.
The property record provides the structural baseline: bedrooms, property type, floor area, and tenure. EPC data adds the energy efficiency picture. Flood risk, radon, and comparables complete the environmental and market context. The results are mapped directly into Their standard report template — relevant sections pre-filled before the surveyor opens the instruction.
The remaining 25 minutes of pre-report preparation is now spent reviewing and verifying the pre-populated data rather than searching for it. Surveyors arrive on site having already read a structured briefing. The consistency improvement has been immediate: every surveyor works from the same depth of pre-instruction research, regardless of experience level or time pressure.
Two surveyors' worth of capacity was freed without any change in headcount. The firm took on 40% more instructions in the 6 months following launch. ROI was reached in week six.
/api/v1/properties/{'{uprn}'}/
Bedrooms, property type, floor area, tenure, council tax band, lat/lng.
/api/epc-checker/{'{uprn}'}/
Current energy rating A–G, efficiency score, potential rating, floor area.
/api/risks/flood_risk/?uprn=
River flood risk, surface water risk, risk bands. Required disclosure in RICS Level 2/3.
/api/risks/radon/?uprn=
Radon potential percentage and risk band by UPRN.
/api/comparables/{'{uprn}'}/
Up to 200 comps, 0.5mi radius, bedroom-matched, distance-ranked — Land Registry data.
The results
Integration
Fourteen API calls per instruction: address find (2) + retrieve (5) + property record (1) + EPC (1) + flood risk (1) + radon (1) + comparables (10) = 21 total. All five data calls fire in parallel after UPRN resolution, completing in under 500ms. The firm built a lightweight Node.js instruction portal that maps API responses to their RICS template fields — the template auto-populates, and surveyors see a fully prepared instruction brief within seconds of entry. The integration was built and deployed in three weeks by one developer.
"We were doing 8 browser tabs of manual research before every Level 2. Now the data is there before we arrive on site. We've taken on 40% more instructions and our surveyors are less burned out."
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