When buying a property, where you may plan to carry out extensive building works or requires remedial building work highlighted in a survey, we can arrange a pre purchase visit and supply advice and a report on potential design, timelines and build costs. Very often this report will help the buyer in the negotiation of sale.

Understanding your requirements and visualising the finished home. We arrange drawings of the existing property, then look at the layout options that best meet the brief. Once every component of the house, and it’s design, has been considered and approved by you, the plans are drawn for planning approval.

Planning Applications, Building Regulations, Party Wall Notices, Structural Engineer and other services. We can manage the whole process from application submission, assisting with any site visits or further information requested by the council, right through to when approval is granted.

We write a scope of work, which lists every element of work required for the duration of the project. This ensures everyone is clear on what needs to be done, and importantly all work is covered in the contractors’ tender response.

By tendering professionally you’ll get more competitive, accurate quotations. The builders’ quotes will also be structured in a way which is easy to understand. And as they will all be presented in the same format, they’ll be easier to check and compare.

The tender documentation we use is detailed and comprehensive and will help to ensure that no items are forgotten – which will reduce the risk of extra unplanned costs when onsite. Whilst there is obviously a cost to tender in this way, the fee is usually recouped several times over by the prevention of avoidable overspends while onsite.

Once we have agreed to proceed with contractors and suppliers, we build a project programme detailing critical time lines, which, along with the scope of works, agreed quote and payment terms will form part of the contract between you, the client and the contractors/suppliers. These documents will ensure all parties are aware of their responsibilities before work starts on site.

The standard approach for most building projects is to appoint a single, main contractor to carry out the build. In this case, the builder schedules and manages the build team and materials procurement on your behalf. This is an ideal choice if you have limited time to invest in your project, as it enables you to step back from the project. However this approach delegates control to your builder and this can lead to issues if you do not have an independent person to oversee the works on your behalf.

As your Contract Administrator, we monitor the progress and quality of the builder’s work for you, and highlight any issues. We visit the site regularly and hold meetings with the builder to ensure the build progresses smoothly, and to program. As part of our role we check and assess the invoices, and approve them for payment against the works that have been completed. We also check, challenge and record any extras (known as cost variations) for you, so that the bill for any unforeseen extras is correct, fair and reasonable.

Once the build has commenced, we visit the site regularly to monitor progress and ensure the quality of work. We are on hand to help you make any decisions, including those related to technical building specifications, allowing you to make informed decisions that work with the brief, budget, and timeline.

The project will need to be completed, and handed over, known as ‘Practical Completion’. The final 5% of the project is vitally important to ensure the final product is the best it can be.

Once the project nears completion, we will organise the resolution of any snags. Typically, these would be things the builder has accidentally missed, or where there are minor faults, that will need to be addressed prior to Practical Completion.

After completion, within the contract, the client retains 2.5% of the value, for a defect period, typically 3 – 6 months. At the end of this time, we will call the builder back to address any defects for you which a have materialised since completion.

We will help oversee the release of retention figures and calculate the final accounts.