The Benefits of a Building Assessment Report
When planning repairs and maintenance on a building it can be beneficial to consider engaging a company to conduct a building assessment report.
A building assessment report can work wonders by giving insight to the “health” of the building and its condition. The report can also help with prioritising the items that are most important such as ensuring compliance is maintained throughout the building as well as help the body corporate make logical decisions to achieve the best outcome.
Transparency
A building assessment report can play a big role in ensuring transparency is maintained, giving all owners an educated understanding of what the building requires now and possibly for the next 3+ years. Transparency is key to successfully managing the spending of monies on the asset with the benefits to the building being at the forefront of all decisions being made.
A building assessment will help identify.
- The current condition of the building.
- Risks associated with the current condition of the building.
- Defects in the building.
- Helps determine total remedial costs.
Common building concerns.
- Rooftop waterproof membranes
- Podium and balcony waterproof membranes
- External building concrete expansion joints and cracks
- External building concrete spalling
- External building paint
- Building windows
- Common areas
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Unfortunately, there is a common saying …“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” This way of thinking can be detrimental to not only the integrity of the building, but it can also cause financial hardship to a body corporate.
Effective maintenance planning is crucial, this is where the benefits of a building assessment report will be of “value” as it will give you an educated understanding of the “health “of the building which can be used to map out when and how each stage of the building’s maintenance and improvements are conducted.
Reactive vs Proactive
Being reactive by only fixing something when it breaks will cause the body corporate to make irrational decisions due to the unplanned event, and no doubt cause a false economy because of the urgency in fixing or repairing the problem.
False economy is an action that saves money at the beginning but which, over a
longer period of time, results in more money being spent or wasted than being saved.
Being proactive by maintaining a scheduled list of future works on the building can be beneficial to everyone who has a vested interest and giving all stakeholders peace of mind. This is where a building assessment report comes into the equation.
Conclusion
When trying to get an understanding of the true condition of a building … your asset; requesting a building assessment report is the best way forward. Developing a long-term maintenance plan with an expected budget forecast will not only maintain the buildings integrity, but it is also more likely to ensure your asset continues to retain its value and capital growth.
This article was contributed by Margo Grant, Business Development Manager – BOSS Building Maintenance
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Hi Margot,
Thanks for the constructive comments. They are a good reminder of the concerns of body corporate committees. However for those who often think about these things we are left wondering what is the next step from just knowing what the problems and solutions are?.
Building assessments and reports are of little use without a defined and costed plan. Most BCs can identify the needs but do not have the skills and resources to to prepare a plan of costed maintenance priorities and even if we did we do not have the ability to turn those needs into contract specifications of extent of work, workmanship and materials and conditions of contract or even the experience to call, evaluate and supervise tenders. Engaging a major Facilities Management company may not be an appropriate solution for small to medium BCs.
Our BC once obtained such a report only to realize that its management was beyond our resources. A later exercise was to obtain a simple building condition report again to realise that the report did not “package” the necessary work into contracts. The next step was thus beyond our ability to cost, design and schedule the necessary contracts to get the work done and even if we did we did not have the funding to do the work.
What is missing is not Facilities Managing but a facilities MANAGER. There are plenty of offerers to write reports and do the work but not at a scale that that can be comfortably engaged by small BCs. We do not need and cannot afford grand all encompassing schemes We just need to cost, plan and supervise a small and medium repair jobs one by one. Even that can be a major exercise for a committee of volunteer amateurs without building experience and even if we did have the skills what about the resources. A lucky/unlucky individual committee member may not have the time and should not be expected to spend the time managing the maintenance of a simple but multi-million dollar value complex.
Where can we find an independent Facilities Management consultant to assist on a regular but job by job engagement ?
I appreciated it when you shared that it is great to have a building assessment report as it can provide insight into the structural health of the building and its condition. In this way, you can determine what type of maintenance needs to be carried out. I would like to think if a company has a transmission tower that is no longer in good condition, it should consider hiring a reliable service that can help repaint it.