You have a report from your consultant, now what?
Here are the 5 questions we are asked, or you should ask your consultant once you receive the report of findings and understand what is wrong with your building.
- What are the headlines of your report?
- As experts we have to grapple with both sides of report writing: Using expertise and technical terms to be credible, as well as using common language so that everyone can understand it. That's why we put our Executive Summary in the front of the report to explain the issues, then use lots of photos and other code and plan citations to support our findings. You'll ask, "What are the headlines, why are we here, what is wrong with the building?" If we can't state this in a few simple sentences, then we are doing a disservice, because reading a very technical report will put the reader to sleep, or cause unnecessary anxiety, unless they are building nerds like us. 🤓
- Am I safe?
- "This report is thick, the photos look scary, and there is a lot of important information in there...Do I need to move out?" Most of the time the answer is no, you don't need to move out. But you do have some important things to address such as water leaks until a scope of work can be completed to fix the issues permanently. If temporary shoring or limited deck usage is necessary because of potential collapse, that will be in our report and clearly stated.
- Will I be able to sell or am I stuck here?
- Now that you know you have issues that need correcting, you will need to disclose them so there will be a chilling effect on sales until this gets fixed. After the Florida condo collapse, most government-backed mortgages now ask if there are pending assessments to fix the building, so they will stop FHA-type lending on your property until the repairs are done. Other mortgages are still available, but there is a general reduction of options available for buyers. The ones who have to sell during this time are the most affected. We have another good article on the Stages of Repair and the dark cloud over your building during this stage, see here.
- What does it take to fix this?
- After we complete our inspection and analysis to understand what is wrong, the next step is to prepare a scope of repair for pricing.
- "We need to let the association know what type of price ballpark we are talking about." Yes, you do, but at this point without a contractor's backing, we are guesstimating only, or trying to give you a ROM price (Rough Order of Magnitude) so that you can begin planning knowing if this is a $10K, 100K, or $1M issue. Sometimes we are high, but usually low given the construction market conditions that don't seem to be getting less expensive. The guesstimate is useful, but the contractor's price is actual.
- If there is a claims process, we proceed with a narrative scope and one bidder which is suitable to obtain a price for settlement. Then that cost of repair can be used as a demand in a claims process and hopefully funding recovery.
- If there is no claim, we will proceed with construction documents (plans and specs) and a competitive bid process to obtain a contractor ready to sign a contract and do the work. Once we have the pricing back, we will have an actual cost to work with. This is the one banks will need if you are interested in a loan for repairs.
- What are the next steps?
- Scope of repair and pricing
- Do we need construction documents for the permit and contract?
- Do we have the money in reserves? Is there a claim that must be resolved first, so that we have money?
- Ultimately, we will need a bid, contract, plans, and budget approval to do the work.
These are the 5 key answers your building consultant should explain to you once they have inspected your building. With these answers, you can get to your repairs faster.
PS: Best 1 minute you have spent lately, huh? But wait, 30 more seconds for a good story.....
(Tribute to a recently deceased incredibly talented construction defect attorney mentor of mine - one of my many "lessons" from him, and a great example of an early ROM price)
Attorney: Jens, I want you to play Pin The Tail On The Donkey, and tell this board how much you think it will cost to do this fix based upon your report.
Me: (With a puzzled look on my face) You mean the game where you blindfold me, spin me around till I'm dizzy, then give me a ribbon to pin on the target, and laugh at me when I'm totally off?
Attorney: Exactly! (with a big grin)
I wasn't that far off from the pricing that came back, but you get the idea of ROM pricing.