Managing a development, and working with your surveyor

Most developers meet a monitoring surveyor for the first time when a lender appoints one, and the instinct is to treat them as an obstacle — somebody checking up on you, standing between you and your own facility.

That is the wrong way round. The surveyor is the mechanism that lets a lender release funds without a debate every month. Work with them properly and drawdowns become routine. Work against them and every single stage turns into a negotiation.

That arrears point is the single biggest cause of stalled projects, and it is entirely avoidable.

If you have put every available pound into buying the site, the first drawdown will catch you out. You need working capital to carry each stage until it has been inspected, signed off and paid. Build that into your cashflow from the outset — running out of money mid-stage is far more expensive than borrowing a little less at the start.

We require a minimum 10% contingency within build costs. Some developers treat it as padding to be trimmed until an appraisal works.

Do not. Ground conditions, materials lead times, a variation nobody anticipated — something will happen. If costs overrun beyond the facility, the shortfall is yours to fund before further money is released. A real contingency is what keeps that an inconvenience rather than a crisis.

If there is one rule that saves more time than any other, it is this: no surprises.

Specification changes, a change of contractor, a delay to the programme — raise them as they happen, not at the next inspection. A variation flagged early gets absorbed. The same variation discovered on site becomes a query, then a report, then a delay to your money.

The same applies to anything affecting value: a change to unit mix, layout or finish. If the scheme drifts away from what was valued, that is a conversation to have straight away rather than at practical completion.

Nothing slows a drawdown like poor records. Keep invoices, variations and the programme current, and make sure your contractor understands the surveyor will want to see them.

Where refurbishment costs are modest — up to around £60,000 — a monitoring surveyor rather than a full quantity surveyor is usually the right appointment. Where building regulations are involved, or the works are more substantial, a QS is better. We will tell you which we need, and why.

Practical completion is not the end. You will need a final inspection and sign-off, warranties in place and building control certificates issued.

If your exit is a sale or a refinance, the incoming buyer or lender will want all of it. Developers who chase that paperwork during the build exit smoothly. Developers who leave it to the end lose weeks at precisely the point interest is still running.

We appoint a monitoring surveyor or quantity surveyor on every development and heavy refurbishment, and a member of our team visits the site as well. Once a drawdown is authorised, funds go out the same day.

We would far rather hear about a problem from you than read about it in a report. If something has changed on your scheme, pick up the phone.

01244 565095 · underwriting@breezecapital.co.uk