Charles Living & Son have been offering their surveying, residential estate agency and residential/commercial letting services in Stratford & East London since the 1970’s. Established in 1903, we are members of the three main professional property organisations: RICS, ARLA and NAEA.

Although it is recognised that Charles Living founded the company in 1903, there is strong evidence of the Living family being involved in property management and construction approximately 100 years prior to this date as the name Living appears in early records associated with property development of Red Lion Square in the city of London.

The Living family have always been until the recent past very closely associated with Charles Living & Son.  The last member of the Living family who was actively involved in the partnership was Bernard Living who retired in September 1999 having worked for the company for approximately 40 years.  He did not spend his entire professional working career with Charles Living & Son and gained valuable experience in the City and West End practices.  His father, Leslie Living was the senior partner prior to Bernard becoming senior partner.

Ian Williams is now senior partner in Charles Living & Son and is a second generation Chartered Surveyor himself his father being a Chartered Building Surveyor and the Chief Building Surveyor of the London Borough of Newham until the time of his premature death in 1974.  The practice of Charles Living & Son is and has been for many years in the London Borough of Newham and formerly the County Borough of West Ham. 

Ian’s father being a surveyor in the London Borough of Newham proved useful for Ian Williams in the early 1970’s while he was still at school studying for O Levels and A Levels.  He enjoyed what would now be termed as work experience in his Easter and summer holidays working with the practice of Charles Living & Son.  It was with this background that he joined the practice as a full time employee in the summer of 1973 as a trainee surveyor.

The A levels obtained enabled him to proceed to study for a Chartered status.  The chosen route to establish these credentials was by day release course at the North East London Polytechnic (now the University of East London).  Having passed the final exams he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1983.  Ian Williams was then an associate partner in 1986 becoming a full partner in 1989 and senior partner in October 1999 after the retirement of Mr Bernard Living.  He continues in this role to the present time.

Ian Williams MRICS is a Chartered Surveyor in what was the general practice division, which specialises in valuation.  He has been involved with Charles Living & Son for close on 30 years, since he first worked with them on a part time basis and has picked up a wide knowledge in relation to valuation of all types of property throughout the north east sector of London and indeed the surrounding counties to the east and north of London.  His speciality in valuation matters would be residential and residential development and over the years he has established a large client base.  He is able to undertake valuation for all types of residential and commercial property and is indeed involved on a regular basis in this area.

The early part of his career saw him involved acting for many clients in respect of Local Authority compulsory purchase and acquisition of property in the London Borough of Newham, which was intense during the 1960’s and 1970’s when Ian Williams first started working with Charles Living & Son.  Part of his early duties involved managing client’s portfolios and that experience provided a foundation to becoming involved in larger scale estate management for all styles of property.  He is therefore able to advise on all aspects of estate management and landlord and tenant negotiation of residential or commercial property.

Mark Wade joined the practice in 1987 after spending three years with other practices in the surrounding areas as a trainee negotiator.  His early role in the company was to assist in residential sales and the residential property management, gaining him valuable experience in both these fields.

 From 2001, the company has expanded the residential letting and management department to cater for the large number of new landlords attracted to the area and the availability of ‘Buy to Let mortgages.’  The number of properties that are now managed by Charles Living & Son has increased dramatically over recent years and Mark has built up a vast number of landlord clients who have remained with the company for many years happy with the comprehensive service that we have been able to offer them. Through the contacts made the company also now lets and manages a number of properties throughout Essex.

 His commitment and loyalty to the company was rewarded with prompt promotion to Sales and Lettings Manager and he is now a partner of the company overseeing a number of sales and lettings staff.  His professional qualifications with both ARLA and NAEA together with his experience, provides a wealth of knowledge in both sales, lettings and management within the East London Area and Essex.

Verity Smith joined the company in October 1998 as a secretary to one of our Building Surveyors. She left for a short time in 2001 to pursue a career in central London, however returned to the company in 2002 as secretary to Mark Wade. Since then she has been actively involved in assisting the Sales and Lettings staff but now deals with Property Management on a full time basis.

Karen Hawkes joined the company 1990 in a junior position, however as time went by, her responsibilities within the company grew and she was eventually promoted to become Secretary to Ian Williams until she left in 1998 to raise a family. We are pleased that Karen has now re-joined our company to resume this position and her duties now also include overseeing repairs to the growing number of properties that we now manage.

Sean Boggans joined the company in 2002 as a trainee Sales and Lettings adviser and throughout that time has gained a valuable experience of the sales and lettings market in Stratford. His role within the company include an important input in the day to day running of both sales and lettings and he also provides some assistance to Ian Williams in his valuation work.

More recent members of staff are Jamie Baker and Paul Warrior who are trainee sales and lettings advisers and Zoe Fryer who is our office assistant. 

So although the Living family are no longer part of our company, their name lives on and their old fashioned values of a professional company offering services in all aspects of property has evolved into a modern day practice.