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Savills’ bespoke service for owners of country houses and estates can help with considerations such as staffing and security, tax issues and tenancies. No two days are ever the same for the head of the service, Philip Eddell

I’m a land agent and I’ve helped manage estates for the last 20 years. I’ve gradually become slightly less traditional in my approach and realised there’s scope for providing sound advice at every level of the market, from an old farmhouse to something much bigger, with perhaps more land. Essentially it’s a simple idea: Savills is a firm of property consultants and we advise on all aspects of property.

Every day is different. Today, first thing, I was liaising with a client’s lawyers over a voluntary redundancy agreement, making arrangements to see the person concerned later in the week so that we can get an amicable agreement on all sides. Secondly, I had a meeting with a green energy expert who specialises in period homes and looks at energy efficiency, because typically period homes are not very energy efficient. I also had a discussion with a client who might be affected by potential changes in tax rules for non-domiciles.

I spend probably half my time in the office and half my time out of the office. Our clients don’t come to us, we go to them. With most situations, you have to see things on the ground to understand the nature of the client, the nature of the property and how the client operates. Last week, for instance, I was interviewing potential staff for an old rectory on behalf of a client. Someone else I visited last week wanted advice on selecting an architect and an interior decorator – and in which order they ought to do things.

Our clients can be anyone, but by far the majority are UK residents. They come from a variety of backgrounds: financial services, manufacturing, the media or telecoms, the arts. More often than not, they’re new owners. It doesn’t matter who you are, when you first buy a house that’s when you redecorate, change the bathroom or kitchen, build an extension or make other changes. The bigger the house, the more complicated this can be.

There are pitfalls, for example, with listed buildings. In the worst-case scenario, you can spend years without getting a planning consent and yet spend a fortune. The intelligent way is to have people who have a good reputation and credibility with English Heritage and the local authority, so you get planning consent first time and get the work done sensitively and sensibly.

Good design doesn’t really cost more than bad design and the results speak for themselves. If you get it wrong, you can damage the asset value of a property, whereas if you get it right, you can considerably increase it. For bigger houses, it’s not just adding square feet and extra bedrooms, it’s more about the overall amenity and quality of what’s done.

While much of what we do is reasonably straightforward, I’ve also been asked to advise on extraordinary things: for instance, people hiding in the woods with night-vision goggles, shipping Ferraris to the Middle East, and forensic investigations of very large building projects that have been mismanaged.

Security’s an area we’ve largely got to draw a veil over, but we deal with some high-level security requirements. I’ve got an excellent team of people who can break into houses to test exactly how good the security systems are and advise on improvements.

Some of what I deal with is quite exceptional. There isn’t much that happens in a country house that I haven’t seen. One of the strangest things I’ve done was being given training in counter-surveillance techniques and evasive driving, which was great fun.

I’ve also arranged competitions for architects, interior decorators and garden designers. The results of those are always interesting. It’s great fun to see what people can do and it’s really worthwhile as well. The other fun thing is making a difference; at the risk of sounding trite, improving people’s lives or environment. That’s the really exciting and interesting part of my work.

Contact: Philip Eddell
+44 (0)1635 277 709
peddell@savills.com