Commercial Building Inspector

The Commercial Building Inspector adheres to the ASTM E2018 guidelines.

As a Member of NACBI (National Association of Commercial Building Inspectors) we comply with the following:

• NACBI Code of Ethics
• NACBI Standards of Practice

An trained Commercial Building inspector needs Ontario Building Code training to understand the difference in construction techniques and how they all function together, engineered steel truss systems, steel wall framing, the numerous types of roof systems, the various exterior wall systems, etc.  As a Certified Building Code Official with the Ontario Building Officials Association, the Commercial Building Inspector exceeds those qualifications.

When you  purchase or Net Lease a Commercial Building in the Toronto or GTA area or any where in Southern Ontario, it is very important to have a Comprehensive Property Condition Assessment “PCA” performed by highly knowledgeable Commercial Building Inspectors with years of experience inspecting commercial buildings throughout the Southern Ontario Region.
Net Lease, Triple Net Lease, also known as NNN Lease inspections are very important to have performed before you sign a lease agreement. You need to know the exact condition of the building. You need to make sure the building has been maintained well, and you need to know what maintenance has been performed in the past. We review all past maintenance information and perform the inspection like we are buying or leasing the building for ourselves without any regard to what the current owner may say has been repaired or replaced in the past. Many times we find amateur repairs to a building which will fail soon, are unsafe, or need repair or replacement now because the owner did not have a professional perform the repairs in the first place.

Commercial Property Condition Reports are based on the clients “needs and expectations.”

All Commercial Property Condition Assessments are not the same. In fact, reports will vary substantially based upon the particular information a client needs relative to a property and their needs. Owners may need to know how well a property has been maintained especially if they have leased the property to a business. Buyers need to know what they are buying and what it will cost to have repairs performed or changes made to a building to suit their needs.

The ASTM E2018 guidelines.

Scope

The ASTM E 2018 guideline defines good commercial and customary practice in the U.S. and Canada for conducting a baseline property condition assessment (PCA) of the improvements located on a parcel of commercial real estate by performing a walk-through survey and conducting research as outlined within this guide.

Physical Deficiencies…The ASTM E 2018 guideline defines good commercial and customary practices for conducting a baseline PCA, the goal is to identify and communicate physical deficiencies to a user. The term physical deficiencies means the presence of conspicuous defects or material deferred maintenance of a subject property’s material systems, components, or equipment as observed during the field observer’s walk-through survey. This definition specifically excludes deficiencies that may be remedied with routine maintenance, miscellaneous minor repairs, normal operating maintenance, etc., and excludes de minimis conditions that generally do not present material physical deficiencies of the subject property.

Walk-Through Survey  …The ASTM E 2018 guideline outlines procedures for conducting a walk-through survey to identify the subject property’s material physical deficiencies, and recommends various systems, components, and equipment that should be observed by the field observer and reported in the property condition report (PCR).

Document Reviews and Interviews …The ASTM E 2018 guideline includes procedures for document reviews, research, and interviews to augment the walk-through survey so as to assist the consultant’s understanding of the subject property and identification of physical deficiencies.

Property Condition Report …The work product resulting from completing a PCA in accordance with the ASTM E 2018 guidelines is a PCR. The PCR incorporates the information obtained during the Walk-Through Survey, the Document Review and Interviews sections of this guide, and includes opinions of probable costs for suggested remedies of the physical deficiencies identified.

Objectives …  Objectives in the development of the ASTM E 2018 Standards are: (1) define good commercial and customary practice for the PCA of primary commercial real estate improvements; (2) facilitate consistent and pertinent content in PCRs; (3) develop practical and reasonable recommendations and expectations for site observations, document reviews and research associated with conducting PCAs and preparing PCRs; (4) establish reasonable expectations for PCRs; (5) assist in developing an industry baseline standard of care for appropriate observations and research; and (6) recommend protocols for consultants for communicating observations, opinions, and recommendations in a manner meaningful to the user.

Multiple Buildings  Should the subject property consist of multiple buildings, it is the intent of this guide that only a single PCR be produced by the consultant to report on all of the buildings on the subject property.

To obtain additional information please contact:

ASTM International
100 Barr Harbor Drive
West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959

When inspecting large complexes, the inspectors require adequate time to visually inspect all the equipment.  To gather the needed information for the assessment, each of these items have to be actually visually inspected by human eyes, document the age of each item, determine the industry standard of the life spans, and then put this information on paper with our signature.

Types of commercial real estate that would benefit from an inspection or property condition assessment performed by a commercial building inspector include: