Property developers, investors & managers
Find a Registered Building Surveyor who specialises in providing commercial property advice, from technical due diligence reporting, investigating building defects, assessing building compliance, maintenance planning or managing lease reinstatement obligations.
Building investigations, assessments & maintenance
Commercial property inspections
Whether your building is a workplace, a home or a learning environment, it needs to be fit for purpose and continue to deliver on its performance requirements over its life.
Registered Building Surveyors have the experience and capability to ensure that your property performs over the long term. Our members offer independent expert advice and technical expertise across all aspects of your building or property portfolio. Depending on the brief, services can be tailored to find value for money property inspection solutions that align with your long-term strategic goals. A Registered Building Surveyor can be engaged at any stage of the property life cycle, from inception through to the property’s operation/occupation phase assisting with maintenance strategies and planning. Given the increasing stock of older property across New Zealand, our members are also involved in repair/remediation inspections and most recently we are assisting owners as they approach the question of how to address sustainability issues, given the move towards zero carbon buildings.
Technical due diligence (TDD) investigations
Registered Building Surveyors can assist those acquiring or disposing of property to make an informed decision by highlighting any risks and technical issues. Our members will provide clients with a completely impartial, balanced, professional opinion of the condition of a property. The term ‘TDD’ is often adapted by the industry and can include services referred to as a building survey, building condition assessment, pre-acquisition survey or vendor survey. In some cases TDD can also apply to the monitoring of development work for certain stakeholders. Registered Building Surveyors are trained to review, analysis, discover and gather information about the physical characteristics of a property in line with your requirements. Inspections may establish defects or deficiencies in the property that could have an impact on the asset or the life safety of the occupants - whether in the short, medium or long term. TDD is vital for those who wish to make well informed investment decisions.
Defect and weathertightness investigations
If your property is suffering from a specific defect, our Registered Building Surveyors are experts in the identification of building defects and providing recommendations on an appropriate repair strategy to address any issues. They can provide advice on any investigation works required, and prepare a report recording the defects, the probable cause, and the best strategy for remediation, which may be used to assist your decision-making or by your advisors in respect of a legal claim.
Dilapidation/lease reinstatement reporting
Engaging a Registered Building Surveyor helps to streamline the negotiations between landlords and tenants, when commencing or ending a leasing agreement on a property.
It is strongly recommended that with any new lease arrangement, a schedule of condition is prepared which clearly establishes a benchmark on where the property stands at the time of entering the agreement. At the end of a lease, a condition assessment and review of the lease obligations should be carried out by a building surveyor. This enables an impartial assessment to establish any works that may be required, the costings to undertake such works and whether the responsibility for delivery lies with the landlord or tenant.
Maintenance planning
Regular and informed maintenance deliver is a key component to maximising the value of a property, whilst prolonging it’s expected life span.
An effective and efficient maintenance plan will aim to be proactive as opposed to reactive, as maintaining a building costs far less than replacing elements all together once significant failure has already occurred. Typical maintenance plans extend over a 5 – 10 year period and assess the building fabric and infrastructure by including information such as element types, condition assessments, element/product life expectancies, timeframes for maintenance delivery and costings to carry out such works. Building surveyors may also co-ordinate with other consultants to assess specialist areas such as building services or land conditions.
Maintenance plans are often utilised to support budget allocation or for future development planning.
Schedule of condition reporting
It is often a resource consent requirement for construction developments to provide schedule of condition reports to document the condition of nearby properties, both before and after construction. A detailed schedule allows a condition benchmark to be set for a property prior to construction works being undertaken. This provides a clear record of condition to reference against upon completion of the development or should any claims of damage arise in the meantime.
Insurance claim assessments
Registered Building Surveyors can assist insurance companies in providing impartial expert advice relating to property related insurance claims to determine the likely causes of the damage due to insured events, lack of maintenance, defective construction, or poor workmanship.
Design, remediation and construction management
Remediation and remedial design
The first step for any remediation project is to establish your requirements and a scope of works necessary to appropriately remediate the building in question. Registered Building Surveyors can provide services from discovery right through to completion and handover of the remedial works. This may include condition assessments and reporting, design and consent applications, contractor procurement, contract administration and construction observations.
Contract administration
Our Registered Building Surveyors can assist and advise on the appropriate contract version for your project and provide contract administration services such as:
- Contract preparation.
- Procurement of professional and construction services.
- Contract administration during the construction phase through to completion.
- Assistance with financial matters alongside a registered quantity surveyor.
In addition to the services noted above, our members can also provide specialist advice where contract disputes arise through working closely with the parties to the contract and legal professionals.
Clerk of works and development monitoring
The role of Clerk of Works has been around since the 13th Century with the original title of “Cleric of the Church Works”. The role has developed over the centuries and can be briefly summarised as “ensuring value for money for the client through rigorous inspection of the materials in use and the craftsmanship deployed in their usage.” This role offers quality assurance through on-site assessments against the full scope of contract documents.
The term development monitoring is becoming increasing popular, and is a service that can include monitoring and reporting on design compliance, the standard of materials and workmanship or the financial and programming status of a development.
