Chris Scorer
Chris Scorer’s family has been working in Dartmouth property services for over 120 years. He joined the business in 1976 and has spent the past 42 years selling houses, renting out holiday homes, doing property management, surveys and professional valuations. He is slowly starting to wind down so he can spend more time playing tennis, in fact he’s such a fan of the sport he has taken part in every regatta tennis tournament since it began 50 years ago. Steph Woolvin had a chat with him….
Letcher and Scorer started back in 1896. It was a small family run estate agents, which served Dartmouth’s Victorians very well and survived two world wars. It has moved locations various times; it was once on the old Natwest Bank site and it also had a spell in what is now the RNLI Visitor Centre. It’s now just Scorer Property and is based in Anzac Street with Chris Scorer at the helm. He went to Bristol Poly and qualified as a chartered surveyor before joining the business. Back then he would work all hours dealing with house viewings, surveys, sales and letting issues. “Initially the estate agent game had a buzz about it, I was always out and about keeping on top of what was up for sale and for what price. It was good fun.”
But after a few years he decided to drop a lot of the estate agency work and focus more on other property services. He is mainly office based now and deals with holiday lettings in Dartmouth and St Ives. He also manages a number of private rental properties with well-established local trusts such as the Hadley Trust. “I’m the middle person I guess, so if someone calls me from one of our properties to say there is a leak I organise the plumber.” With his own house up at Mount Boone Chris says it’s a lovely commute into work, a slow walk with no traffic jams or disruption!
Chris says a down side of the job is the compliance: “You need a member of staff just to do the admin for all the constantly changing rules and regulations - whether it’s do to with health and safety or data protection. You need to stay on top of it or your business can suffer serious fines and get in trouble with the law. It’s a disproportionate part of the job really, far too much time is given over to red tape.” He has seen quite a few changes over the past 40 years in the job and says a lot of it is to do with social media: “It’s important to have a lot of ‘likes’ on a holiday property for example – then more people will think about renting it!
The internet has meant there is less face-to-face contact in the world of estate agency. People see the property online, they make an appointment to see it and don’t actually have to come into an office at all.” He has also seen Dartmouth change with shops and businesses coming and going: “It is sad to see so many independents closing down and the chains moving in. I don’t think there has been a massive increase in the number of second homes here though, and actually I don’t think they are as bad as some make out. We need to remember that they provide employment with many of the owners using local cleaning services, builders and tradesmen and when they visit they do tend to spend a lot in the town.”
Chris is a retired chartered surveyor now and works part time in the office: “I’m the wrong side of 60 so it’s time to start winding down. It means I have extra time to focus on the things I love – music and tennis” He has played in the regatta tennis tournament every year since it was set up 50 years ago in 1968 and is the only person in the town to have that record. “I was tournament organiser for seven or eight years in the early stages, which I enjoyed, but it did take up an incredible amount of time. There were no mobile phones or emails back then so there was a considerable amount of leg work contacting everyone and getting people together!”
They used the old pavilion on Coronation Park as a base and got BT to put a landline in. Back then they had to use the Naval College courts as well as the park because there were so many people and not enough court space. Chris remembers picking up his first racket when he was a boy of eight or nine and he started hitting a ball against the wall of his mum and dad’s house on Coombe Road (next to Coronation Park). He went on to play at school and in local clubs and soon started entering individual competitions and mixed doubles with his children.
But all this exertion came at a cost in 2003 when Chris had to have an operation to straighten out his right arm, which had been twisted due to years of hitting balls. “It meant I couldn’t play a game for a few months and then I couldn’t serve very well but it wasn’t long before I was back playing again.” It’s not just tennis that interests Chris though; he also plays badminton - he’s played for Gloucester, Avon & Somerset, Bristol University and more recently Devon Vets.
He has passed the sporty gene down to his daughter Beth and son Guy. Beth lives in Dartmouth and has her own national internet company providing energy performance certificates and heating and insulation grants. She plays squash, tennis and does snowboarding. Guy, who is based in London and works in business development, plays golf.
When Chris isn’t at work or on the tennis court you can usually find him in his award-winning garden. It was once runner up in the Times Back Garden Of The Year Award. “It’s mainly sub tropical trees and plants like bananas, kiwis, pomegranates, figs and agapanthus. We have produced bananas but they are Japanese so you can’t eat them. We were very close to getting an avocado once as our plant did flower but then the birds came along and took all the seeds!” Chris and his wife Toni have opened up the garden to the public a couple of times as Toni sometimes organises garden safaris for the RNLI.
If they aren’t out the back with their trough and secateurs the pair are often found in Kingston Upon Thames spending quality time with their grandchildren Sean and Sophia. They also enjoy the odd music concert at the weekend, fond of 70s music like Wishbone Ash, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan and Yes. “David Knopfler from Dire Straits used to jam with my flatmates upstairs when I was at uni,” he says with a reflective look in his eye. “I got him to come to the Flavel to do a concert a few years ago. I was really into music when I was young and started a regular disco at university called ‘Starship Troopers’ (named after a track from the Yes album). I was quite a mover back then!”
First published By The Dart magazine August 2018