The Burkitt family have a long-standing history of surveying which started off when Arthur Burkitt (grandfather of Alan Burkitt and James Burkitt) became a student member of the Chartered Surveyors’ Institution in 1932.
After serving as a Captain of the Royal Engineers in World War Two, Arthur became a member of the Auctioneers & Estate Agents’ Institute in 1946.
He soon grew his knowledge in rating achieving the accolade of the Special Rating Diploma on 25th June 1947 and was one of the first people to do so. In the mid 1950’s he became District Valuer of the Leicester Valuation Office where he was responsible for rating valuations across the region.
His assistant, Mr. Culverwell, a name well known to current Rating Surveyors (see the landmark case of Lotus & Delta v Culverwell) took over his position. Arthur Burkitt died in 1967, and if only he lived a little longer, the case could have been known as Lotus & Delta v Burkitt!
Arthur’s son, John Burkitt FRICS, began his journey in surveying studying Estate Management at the College of Estate Management in London (a faculty of Reading University).
Early in his career, John worked in various trainee surveyor roles at Snow & Astill and Hertfordshire County Council before securing a Graduate Surveyor position at Spencer Son & Gilpin in Leeds in 1971. The surveying firm later merged to become Eddisons where John became a Full Equity Partner in 1976.
On 1st January 1989, Rowland Burkitt Chartered Surveyors was established when John set up on his own in Horsforth, Leeds. With clients including Thomas the Baker and The Noble Organisation, John carried out a variety of work including rating appeals, acquisitions & disposals, rent reviews & lease renewals and valuation.
In July 1990 John purchased new offices at Atlas House and the Rowland Burkitt name soon became well known to surveyors and businesses throughout Leeds and Yorkshire.
John retired in 2016 which was the same year that Alan took the reigns of the family business.
Both Alan and James have learnt their trade at other companies/organisations (Dunlop Heywood and the Valuation Office Agency) and Alan officially took over Rowland Burkitt Chartered Surveyors in 2016 setting up his base in Garforth, Leeds.
Alan grew the business from 2016 to 2021, advising clients on rating appeals, lease advisory and acquisitions & disposals whilst James was working his way up the ranks at the Valuation Office Agency.
In 2021 James gained MRICS status and they both soon made the decision to join forces to continue the Burkitt family story.
