A booming building property market is increasingly resulting in legal firms, strata management bodies, insurance brokers and banks partnering with building consultancy firms to create more efficient compliance management reporting systems to protect property owners, builders, and investors.
According to John Coghlan, Director, Buildspect Building Consultants, the 50+year-old company is seeing an increasing demand for building inspections and dispute reports for residential, commercial and industrial developments, requiring them to act more as an in-house inspection and reporting arm.
“There are a multitude of trends currently driving the property market, with new builds, property sales and post COVID strata building upgrades. We’re increasingly finding that professional organisations operating in the building space are moving towards engaging us collectively on an ongoing basis to manage the preparation of timely professional building and renovation reports, notices, defect reports, and related services to meet compliance requirements for buildings and minimise any future disappointments leading to unwanted, expensive, and often avoidable court actions,” Mr Coghlan said.
So far this year, we’ve noted a significant increase in professional organisations looking to partner with us for expertise to inspect serious and complex build issues and ensure accurate and useful expert witness reports when disputes arise.
“This is a more strategic approach, and our firm is well-equipped to handle it, with more than seven experienced specialist building inspectors on staff, along with a sophisticated and experienced reporting administration team to diarise and manage all stages of the building process, provide project management services, and ensure accurate control. Our experts work with the lawyers, financiers, insurance firms, receiver managers, and strata management and owners’ corporations to comprehensively address the requirements for each specific situation with a build project,” Mr Coghlan said. “And we can turnaround reports typically in 4-weeks window in contrast with the industry standard of 3 months, which makes us the go-to firm in the marketplace. Especially as we’re recognised by many property legal professionals as the best practice building report consultancy, for major construction works in Australia.”
There are key building stages where disputes typically happen: base frame; lock-up; fix-up; handover; and at the 5yr+ mark. Every build needs to consider each of these key inspection stages and secure the relevant building notices and property condition reports to accurately document the completion of each stage. Securing best practice reports from an experienced consultancy firm with the necessary resources to provide documentation that will, if needed, stand up in court to protect property investors’ assets is key.
“While these reports can sometimes be regarded as an undesirable expense that can be minimised, most experienced property advisors appreciate that it’s worth investing in the best reporting possible to protect their investment in the immediate and longer term.
“If a matter does end up before the courts, property owners and investors want to be assured that all t’s are crossed, and i’s dotted so that they are better assured of the best possible outcome’” Mr Coghlan explained. “Our highly trained and efficient professional team assists you with avoiding and resolving serious complex building issues, offering peace of mind while saving you time and money.”
