For commercial building surveyors technical due diligence advice can pose a number of challenges: you have to provide a mixture of technical and legal advice with clear solutions to issues, often managing a large multidisciplinary team, while also incorporating guidance from the client’s legal and property advisors. Get it right, however, and you can save both money and trouble further down the line.

Depending on the potential liabilities of any given site or property, the areas a surveyor may advise upon include title and neighbourly matters, dilapidations obligations, construction contracts, the structural integrity of buildings, building design and configuration, repair/maintenance and condition, statutory compliance, environmental investigations, flood risk analysis and energy performance – the list can go on.

Take, for example, a recent multidisciplinary instruction we acted on: the client had purchased the freehold interest of a mixed-use scheme dating back to the 1950s. The 14-acre site in Egham, Surrey (pictured above), comprised 200,000 sq ft of offices and light industrial space, laboratory and ancillary accommodation, along with a multi-storey car park. The seller intended to remain on the site under a new leasing structure that was to be drafted as part of the purchase, while the client was to hold the site as an investment, with the long-term intention of refurbishment or redevelopment.

Considering the client’s requirements and the potential liabilities associated with a site of this nature, a full scope of technical due diligence services was required. Building services engineers, environmental and flooding consultants and structural engineers inspected and advised on the site, alongside a team of chartered building surveyors.

The aim of this multidisciplinary team was to ensure that all technical risks were considered as part of the acquisition and the lease agreement process. The transaction developed over a six-month period, during which the team effectively provided a ‘technical bid support’ role to the buyer as the parties negotiated the finer detail of the transaction, adding significant value by providing the client with protection from technical risks and liabilities throughout the process.

While not all projects will be as complex, when undertaking due diligence it is crucial that a building surveyor understands the client’s key drivers for the acquisition, as well as having an appreciation of the seller’s perspective. This allows for informed technical advice to be provided within the correct legal and transactional context and clear solutions to be provided to problems that would otherwise remain both costly and unsolved.

Further information

Contact Savills Technical Due Diligence