Commercial Building Surveys & Property Services
Insight Surveyors provide a full range of commercial building surveys and services for construction and compliance. Whether you’re buying or repairing a freehold or leasehold property, we will assess any defects and risks, so you can factor these into your costs. We work with SMEs, PLCs, public sector organisations, and commercial landlords and tenants.
Buying a commercial building? A thorough approach to technical due diligence is crucial. As well as surveys, we offer a variety of property services including project management.
Services
The key to managing dilapidations is to understand your liabilities in relation to the lease agreement as soon as possible. Whether you’re a commercial landlord or a tenant, we can prepare liability assessments on future dilapidations for any type of commercial property.
Our landlord services include preparing and negotiating interim and final schedules of dilapidations. If you’re a tenant, we will guide you through dilapidations as your lease expires. We’re experienced at negotiating settlements with successful claims up to £1 million, as well as managing works to control tenants’ dilapidations liability.
As your Employer’s Agent, our role is similar to Contract Admin but for a Design & Build Contract. We represent developers and investors, helping you to tap into the design experience of suitable contractors. Assisting you with the development of the design brief, we will ensure it can be tendered competitively. Our team will compare and analyse proposals, and once the contract is drawn up, we will manage this on your behalf. We look after your interests, while the contractor takes on the design responsibility and risk.
As your Project Managers, we can organise and oversee your building project. We can help you compile a specification, obtain tenders, along with evaluating and reporting on the tender. We can also help you get a contract in place, check the quality of works, certify payments, and we can chair meetings on your behalf. Our team have worked on a vast range of projects valued between £20k to £3 million and term contracts over £10 million. We’ve managed refurbishments right through to new build construction projects.
As your Principal Designer, we can take on the responsibility of health, safety and welfare for your project. We can step in at the pre-construction phase, assisting you with planning, managing and monitoring until the handover stage and beyond. Our team expertise includes small refurbishments right through to complex high-value projects.
The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) came into force on the 1st October 2023. Any construction project with works started after the 1st April 2024 falls under the new regulations and new duty holder roles are required to be fulfilled.
The Act brings into force new duty holders, one of which is the Principal Designer BSA (different from CDM).
The Principal Designer is responsible for:
- Planning, managing, and monitoring the design phase, as well as coordinating matters relating to the design work throughout the construction process.
- Ensuring all reasonable steps are taken so that the design, if built, is in compliance with Building Regulations.
- Ensuring the project is constructed in line with the design.
As Chartered Building Surveyors with the relevant experience in construction, Insight Surveyors meet the competency requirements set by the HSE to fulfil the role and are undertaking this on a variety of projects.
When it comes to planned maintenance, we can inspect your property and provide you with a detailed report. As a property occupier or owner, you will gain full clarity on future repairs and maintenance requirements. We can identify works to match your needs in terms of priority, health and safety, statutory, preventative, and more. Our forecasts include costs and how the works should be phased to give you the best value for your money.
Schedules of condition are important factual records that document the condition of a new or existing property. They are often attached to a lease to limit repair obligations, including dilapidations, or appended to party wall awards or other building works. It’s worth noting these reports do not diagnose defects. Whether you’re a landlord or a tenant, we provide highly descriptive and illustrated reports on a wide variety of commercial buildings.
Party wall notices and awards are essential if you’re developing part of a shared building or you’re close to a neighbouring building. We can act for the Building Owner undertaking the building works or the Adjoining Owners (affected neighbour). We can prepare your party wall notices, compile party wall awards, preparing and agreeing schedules of condition. As your surveyor, we can also deal with any problems that arise during the construction phase.
Reinstatement Cost Assessments (RCAs) provide you with the rebuild cost of a property for insurance purposes. RICS recommends these are carried out at least annually to reflect inflation changes with a major review every three years, or after significant alterations. We will visit your site and advise you accordingly. Our team have provided reports for local authority property stock, large corporate buildings, retail premises and houses.
If you have major building works being undertaken by another party, we can monitor the works and protect your interests. Drawing from decades of combined experience, we give you peace of mind that your project is running smoothly. We will review the design and specification regularly, checking progress and standards are met. Our team will check stage payments, certify completion at every phase, and we will negotiate any changes in scope.
We can inspect a property and advise on forms of construction, compliance and other risks prior to acquisition of a freehold or leasehold interest.
Building defects can be identified enabling any repair costs to be factored into the purchase price and difficult maintenance issues can be flagged so you purchase a property in the full knowledge of all the issues.