When you need one
Buying, leasing, or lending against a commercial building
Buying a freehold investment
A shop, pub or office with a tenant in place. The lease looks after the income. The survey tells you what the building will cost you over the term, and which of it the tenant already carries.
Before an auction
Agents say there is no time for a survey. There is: one viewing slot is enough for us to inspect, call you the same day and get the report to you before the room.
Taking a lease
On a full repairing lease you inherit the building's condition. Knowing it before you sign is the difference between a fair rent and an expensive one.
Owner occupier purchase
Restaurant, workshop, surgery, studio. You are buying somewhere to trade from, and the survey is what stops the first year's profit going on the roof.
Lender or investor requirement
A report prepared by a RICS regulated firm, in a format a bank, fund or board can rely on.
Portfolio and planned works
Buildings you already own, inspected element by element so the next five years of maintenance is a plan rather than a series of surprises.
What we inspect
The whole building, and the lease behind it
Structure and fabric
Roof coverings and structure, frame, external walls, floors and any basement or cellar. Movement, cracking, damp, water ingress and timber decay.
Shopfront and envelope
Fascia, glazing, doors, security shutters, parapets, flashings and rainwater goods. The parts of a commercial building that fail first and cost most.
Services in use
Electrics, gas, heating, water, drainage, ventilation and air conditioning, inspected as visible and in normal operation, with testing recommended where records are missing.
Compliance and risk
Means of escape, fire precautions, asbestos indicators, knotweed, extensions or alterations that may have needed consent, EPC position.
The lease
Where the premises are let, each finding is read against the repairing covenant so the report says who pays.
What we could not see
Stated plainly. Trading premises rarely open every door on the day. The report records what was inaccessible so nothing is assumed.
What you get
A rating, a cost and a name against every item
Condition ratings, element by element
Urgent items separated from routine maintenance, in the RICS one to three format buyers and lenders already know.
Budget repair costs
A figure against each defect, so the survey becomes a negotiating position rather than a list of worries.
Who pays
On a let building, each finding read against the repairing covenant. Tenant's problem, or yours.
Matters for your solicitor
Consents, certificates, fire risk assessments and lease points to raise before exchange, in one place.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Need the figure as well as the condition? See commercial valuations. Taking a lease and want the condition on record? See Schedules of Condition.
RICS regulated · London and the South-East
Tell us about the building
The address, the size, whether it is let, and when you need to know. We quote the same day.