Inspection COPY COPY Flashcards
How do you ensure your safety on a general inspection?
- Charged mobile phone
- Plan an escape route
- Implement a call back system with office
- Make calendar available to colleagues
- Make sure you know who you are meeting
- Be aware of aggressive occupants and dogs
- Follow your instinct
What is the guidance of RICS Surveying Safely?
Can you name some responsibilities?
Effective 1st Feb 2019.
Global GN.
Basic good practice principles.
Corporate and individual responsibilities.
Corporate responsibilities:
Line management structure, staff training, company policies & procedures, clear accountability, insurance, adequate resources. Investigate incidents.
Personal responsibilities:
Responsible for own H&S and anyone under your care. Duty to comply with company policies &b procedures. Report breaches in good time, personal risk assessment, wear PPE, do staff training.
What are your lone working policies?
Inform line manager / colleagues where you are going and when you expect to be back.
Fill in information on your Outlook calendar (who meeting, time, address)
Must charge work phone
Empty buildings require a minimum of two people
What does RICS VPS 2 ‘Inspections, investigations and record’ in Red Book state?
- INSPECTIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS: Inspections must be carried out to the extent necessary to produce a valuation that is professionally adequate for its purpose.
- ToE – must agree the extent of inspection
- REVALUATION WITHOUT REINSPECTION: only if valuer is satisfied no material changes since last assignment. TOE must state this assumption has been made. Interval for professional judgment. Regular vas, re-inspection not necessary every time.
- VALUATION RECORDS: details of inspections must be clearly and accurately recorded under VPS2.
What is a ‘proper record’ of an inspection?
Required under VPS2 of Red Book - Audit trail; legible, unambiguous notes that allow an effective response to any future enquiries. Retained in appropriate business format. Photographs.
What would you find in the ToE about an inspection? What requirements are there for what to include? (for valuations)
VPS 1 ‘Terms of engagement (scope of work)’ in Red Book:
- When settling the terms of engagement, must agree the extent to which the subject asset is to be inspected and any investigation to be made
- Record any limitations or restrictions
VPS 2 ‘Inspections, investigations and records’ in Red Book
- extent necessary to produce a professionally adequate valuation
What sort of property characteristics might you note? (external/internal)
EXTERNAL: Type of construction, condition, site boundaries, access, car parking, no. of storeys, situation, roof type, defects, contamination
INTERNAL: specification, fit-out, layout, current use, condition, no. of cores, defects, contamination
What due diligence do you carry out prior to an inspection?
Desk top review; situation, location, plan route, arrange access via client.
Risk assessment.
Prepare items to take; print plans, inspection proforma, charged camera, disto and spare battery, pen and paper, charged mobile phone, PPE (if required).
What are the signs of contamination? How would you account for the existence of contamination whilst determining the value of a development site?
DESKTOP: radon (.gov map of radon affected areas), consider site’s previous uses
VISIBLE SIGNS: evidence of chemicals, oil spill, presence of tanks.
VALUE: Deduct the cost to remediate from the gross site value. Don’t provide advice until specialist report is commissioned. Caveat the advice citing reliance on reports and special assumption.
When carrying out an external inspection, what should you take note of?
- Method of construction
- Repair and condition of the exterior
- Car parking/access/loading arrangements
- Defects/structural movement
- Check site boundaries with OS map and/or Title Plan
When carrying out an internal inspection, what should you take note of?
- Layout and specification - - flexibility and obsolescence
- Repair and maintenance
- Defects
- Services – age and condition
- Statutory compliance – asbestos, building regulations, H&S, Equality Act, Fire and planning
- Fixtures and fittings and improvements made
- Compliance with lease obligations
Competency example: Industrial unit inspection
What was the purpose?
Property management, tenant had served a notice to terminate (S27) so had to check condition
Competency example: Industrial unit inspection
Talk us through the inspection
- Desktop: reviewed lease, plans, identified photographic schedule of condition
- Local area: was an industrial estate managed so knew the area
- External: noted condition and repair, comparing to photographs. Was steel portal framed with steel cladding walls and roof.
- Internal: again compared to photographs, noted walls needed to be whitewashed and flooring reskimmed
Competency example: Industrial unit inspection
How did you do the schedule of works?
Took new photographs and compared them to the old ones. Detailed what clause of the lease they were in breach of and the remedy needed.
Competency example: Shop improvements
Purpose of inspection
Property management
Competency example: Shop improvements
Garage construction?
Timber framed with flat asphalt roof
Competency example: Shop improvements
How did you know no asbestos?
Checked plans etc before inspecting, looked at the asbestos management survey / registry and there was none identified. I didn’t go into the garage itself but was on the first floor looking down.
Competency example: Shop improvements
Why building surveyor?
Noted the improvements needed but as some of the roof had fallen in, I recommended the building surveyors be involved as understood my limitation
What is the difference between steel frame and concrete frame buildings?
Steel frames – usually have less columns and a wider span between the columns
Concrete frames – usually have more columns , lower floor to ceiling heights and a shorter span between the columns
*If not aware of construction form, check architect’s drawings or building manual
What is the difference between the fit-out types (shell an core, Category A and Category B)?
Category is level of fit-out
Shell and Core - common parts completed, remainder a bare shell ready for tenant fit out. No lighting or facilities.
Category A - similar to a Grade A specification. Functioning space that landlords would lease (habitable). Usually included in your Cat A fit out:
- Raised floors and suspended ceilings (with a basic finish)
- Basic mechanical and electrical services
- Fire detection services and smoke alarms
- Air-conditioning and ventilation (HVAC)
- Basic internal finishes
Category B - tenant fit-out to individual needs
Grades of Office space?
Grade is level of quality
Grade A – high spec, new or recently refurbed
Grade B – average, perhaps previously occupied
Grade C – lowest spec, generally 20+ years old
Which areas of the Red Book relate to inspections?
VPS2
What RICS guidance is there on contamination?
Contamination, the environment and sustainability, 2010
What is the process for carrying out an inspection?
Consider my personal safety, and those for whom I have a duty of care
Inspect the local area
Inspect the property externally
Inspect the property internally
What are the different purposes you might carry out an inspection for?
Valuation
Agency
Property management
What are deleterious materials and what are some examples?
Materials that can degrade with age, causing structural problems. Signs include age of building & construction e.g. concrete frames from the 1960s, and brown staining on concrete.
Examples include High Alumina Cement.
What are hazardous material and what are some examples?
A material that is harmful to health.
Examples include; asbestos and lead piping.
What are the differences between an inherent and a latent defect?
Inherent: has always been present, and is a defect in the design or original construction of the building, e.g. misplaced reinforcement.
Latent: a defect that could not have reasonably been identified on an inspection; e.g. problems with the foundations that may not show signs for several years.
What are common defects and their causes?
Movement (causing subsidence, heave, shrinkage cracking in new plasterwork, settlement cracks)
Water (causing rot and damp)
Deterioration of building materials (causing structural issues)
In period buildings: typical to see spalling, wet and dry rot, tile slippage on the roof, damp at GF level, water ingress around door and window openings, cavity wall tie failure (bulging wall and horizontal cracks).
Modern buildings: roof leaks, cracking in brickwork from settlement
What would you suspect from horizontal cracking? Vertical cracking?
Horizontal: wall tie failure (which also can cause bulging)
Vertical: caused by settlement, subsidence and heave
Asbestos regulations and RICS guidance?
RICS: Asbestos and its implications for surveyors and their clients
Statutory: Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
