Providing an Accurate Reinstatement Cost Assessment

The client

A national property management company required an urgent Reinstatement Cost Assessment (RCA) for a residential apartment building under active construction. The national property client approached Innovus with this business-critical surveying project to ensure a fast turnaround and highly skilled expertise on a building with complex and challenging specifications.

The challenge

The building, located in Hendon, North-West London spanned 4,463 square feet over 8 floors of residential properties. With tenants due to move in imminently, the client required an accurate assessment of rebuild costs for insurance purposes ahead of tenants moving in. Posing many challenges, this assessment was unique in that the building had not yet been completed. Some of the obstacles included:

• No internal building access due to ongoing works.
• The external building having incomplete fixtures and fittings such as balconies, yet to be built.
• The location of the building being on a large, active and complex building site with multiple constructions underway.
• Surveying information being limited to desktop research.

 

The solution 

Faced with ambiguous specifications and limited to desk-based research such as floorplans and second-hand information provided by project managers, the Innovus surveying team went above and beyond, deploying creative tactics in order to problem solve. Here’s how the team thought outside the box to deliver a thorough service for the client:

• The team focused on building strong relationships with key stakeholders to gain additional information and fill in knowledge gaps.
• Rather than rely on desk research and floorplans alone, surveyors proactively arranged on-site visits despite the high risks posed by the active building site. This enabled them to gather detailed information and maximised the accuracy of the assessment.
• Utilising their extensive expertise, the surveying team were able to refer to previous experience and technical knowledge to assess the value of features not yet built or visible from outside.

The result  

Thanks to the thorough planning and creative approaches taken by the RICS-regulated Innovus surveying team, this complex Reinstatement Cost Assessment was completed within the client’s two-week timeframe. The client was highly satisfied with the work carried out by Innovus and the lengths taken by the surveyors to gain additional information and ensure accuracy amid ambiguous circumstances.

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