Christopher Baker MRICS MRPSA

Christopher is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Director of Baker Accordia, a trading name of ClystCore Ltd, the RICS-regulated chartered surveying practice he founded at Winslade Park, Exeter. Baker Accordia is the practice's specialist identity for expert witness, dispute resolution and ADR work.

What makes the practice effective is the breadth of what Christopher has done with his own hands. He has tendered, procured, valued and certified construction work as a quantity surveyor and contract administrator. He has inspected and reported on houses and flats under the RICS Home Survey Standard, diagnosing damp, water ingress, roof, render and movement problems and specifying their repair. He has sat on the employer's side of the table, the contractor's side and the surveyor's side, so when a dispute arrives he already knows how the records were made, where the pressure points are and what a reasonably competent professional would have done.

That range is matched by an appetite for learning. Christopher treats every instruction as a chance to go deeper into the law, the technology and the methods that bear on it, and he invests continuously in professional development, from expert witness training and accreditation to adjudication and the use of thermal imaging, moisture profiling and drone survey in defect work. The result is evidence that is technically grounded, up to date and written to be understood by the people who have to rely on it.

Expert and advisory work

Christopher acts as party-appointed expert, Single Joint Expert and expert adviser on quantum, payment, building defects and professional negligence matters, and on disputes between neighbouring owners. He reports to Civil Procedure Rules Part 35 and its Practice Direction, Criminal Procedure Rules Part 19 and the RICS practice statement for surveyors acting as expert witnesses, under the practice's own terms of engagement. Instructions to date include County Court, Crown Court and adjudication matters; a summary is on the Expert Witness page.

Other practice areas

Through ClystCore, Christopher also undertakes quantity surveying and cost management, employer's agent and contract administration appointments, reinstatement cost assessments and RICS Home Surveys at Levels 1 to 3. He is not a RICS Registered Valuer and does not give valuation evidence; where a dispute requires an opinion on value, a Registered Valuer is instructed separately.

Expert CV

A CPR-compliant expert CV, setting out qualifications, relevant experience and previous appointments, is available to instructing solicitors and barristers on request and will be published here shortly.