Property condition assessment companies are engineering and consulting firms that inspect a commercial building, review its records and produce a report setting out immediate repairs and a schedule of replacement reserves. Most competent firms will deliver a usable document. They differ on the roof, and the roof is often the largest single line in the reserve schedule.
That makes the choice a narrower question than it first appears. You are not trying to find the best general assessor. You are trying to find out, before you commission anything, who will be standing on the roof, what they are qualified to say about it, and what the firm will commit to in writing.
The four questions that separate firms
- Who attends, and what are they? A single generalist covering structure, envelope, mechanical, electrical and site in one visit is normal and is not a criticism. It does mean the roof gets a share of one person’s day. Ask whether a roofing specialist contributes the roof section.
- Is roof access included? Reports are regularly issued on roofs nobody reached. Ask how access will be achieved, who arranges it, and what happens if the seller refuses on the day.
- Is testing included, excluded or optional? Moisture testing is what establishes whether water has reached the insulation, which decides recover against tear off. If it is not in the scope, ask what it costs to add.
- Where does the replacement year come from? Age alone produces a defensible looking number that has nothing to do with the roof in front of the assessor.
What to compare in a proposal
| Line | What a thin proposal says | What a usable one says |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Industry standard practice | The standard, named, with the level of service |
| Attendance | A qualified professional | Named disciplines and time on site |
| Roof access | Where safely accessible | How access is achieved and who arranges it |
| Testing | Not included | Included, or priced as an option |
| Reserves basis | Published cost data | Stated source, with local pricing noted |
| Deliverable | A report | Draft date, final date, revision round, format |
The fee is the last thing to compare, not the first. A proposal that is materially cheaper than the others is usually cheaper for a reason that is written down somewhere in it.
Who writes the roof section
This is the question that most often explains why two reports on the same building disagree. Some firms employ roofing specialists. Some engage one for the roof section and say so. Some have a generalist assessor write it from observation at the edge of the roof, or from the ground.
None of those is wrong in itself, and the first two produce better evidence when the reserve line is material to the deal. A firm that will produce the roof section of a property condition assessment as a specialist input, or accept one from a consultant you appoint separately, is giving you a stronger document than one that insists on covering everything in house.
Scope is cheaper to fix than a report
Everything above is a scope question, and scope questions are settled before the visit for very little money. Arguing with a finished report settles almost nothing: if nobody got on the roof, no amount of revision adds a walk, and if no testing was done, no revision establishes whether the insulation is wet.
Where the diligence window is short, decide which of the roof questions actually affect your price and commission those directly. Roof due diligence at each deal stage sets out what is worth doing when, and a separate roof remaining life report can sit alongside a general assessment when the reserve year is the number under argument.
What to do next
Shortlist three firms, send one written brief, ask each for a redacted sample, and read the roof pages of those samples before you read the fees. Then check the lender’s requirements before you appoint. When the report arrives, reading the roof line of a property condition report covers what to look for while it is still in draft, which is the only point at which comment costs nothing.
Common questions
How many firms should I get proposals from?
Three is the useful number on a single building, and it is enough to expose the differences that matter. Below three you cannot tell an unusual scope from a standard one. Above three you spend diligence time comparing documents rather than reading the building you are buying.
- Send every firm the same written brief, not a phone description
- Ask each to price roof access and any testing as separate lines
- Compare what is included before comparing the fee
- A fee far below the others usually signals a narrower scope
- Keep one firm in reserve in case the timetable slips
Write the brief once and reuse it. It should say the asset type, the approximate area, the standard you expect the work to follow, whether roof access will be available, what you want tested and when you need the draft. Firms pricing the same brief produce comparable proposals, and the exercise takes an hour. Firms pricing three different conversations produce three numbers that cannot be set against each other, which is how a buyer ends up choosing on price alone.
Does a national firm or a local firm produce the better assessment?
Neither reliably. A national firm brings consistent formats across a portfolio and the capacity to cover several markets at once. A local firm brings familiarity with the building department, the climate and the systems common in that market. The question that separates them is who physically attends.
- Ask who performs the site work, by name and discipline
- National firms often subcontract specialist sections locally
- Consistent formats matter most across a multi asset deal
- Local knowledge matters most on code and climate questions
- Either model is fine if the roof section is written by somebody qualified
Portfolio buyers usually benefit from one firm and one template, because comparing twelve reports written to twelve formats is slow and error prone. Single asset buyers usually benefit from whoever knows that market. In both cases the subcontracting question is the one to ask early: a firm that engages a roofing specialist for the roof section is not hiding anything, and it is often a better arrangement than a generalist assessor forming a view from the parapet.
What should a property condition assessment proposal contain?
A scope, a standard, a schedule and an exclusions list. If any of the four is missing you are being asked to buy a fee rather than a piece of work, and the gaps appear later as things that were never included rather than as things that were done badly.
- The standard the work will follow, named rather than implied
- Who attends, their discipline and how long they will be on site
- Whether roof access is included and how it will be achieved
- Any testing included, and what it would cost to add
- Draft and final dates, and what a revision round includes
Read the exclusions before the inclusions. That is where you find out that the roof will be viewed from accessible vantage points, that the assessment assumes documents the seller has not yet produced, or that the reserve schedule uses published cost data rather than local pricing. None of those is dishonest, and all of them change what the report can be relied on for. Our [property condition assessment checklist](/checklists/property-condition-assessment-checklist/) sets out the field items a thorough scope should cover.
Do lenders keep approved lists of assessment firms?
Many do, and it is worth asking before you commission anything. Agency and portfolio lenders frequently maintain panels, require a particular standard, or set a maximum age for the report they will accept. Commissioning outside those rules can mean paying for the work twice.
- Ask the lender for the panel and the standard required
- Check how recent the report has to be at closing
- Confirm whether the lender will accept a reliance letter
- Ask whether the lender needs to be named in the engagement
- A seller commissioned report rarely satisfies a lender
Sequence this early, because it is one of the few diligence items where the order of operations costs real money. Find out what the lender needs, then write the brief to satisfy both your own questions and theirs. Where the deal might be financed by more than one party, ask whether a reliance letter can be issued later to a lender who was not named at the outset. Most firms will do it; a few charge for it, and all of them prefer to be asked before the report is issued.
What are the warning signs in a sample report?
Ask every shortlisted firm for a redacted sample and read the roof pages first. Three things tell you most: whether the roof is divided into areas, whether photographs are located rather than merely captioned, and whether any remaining life figure says what it was based on.
- One blended condition for a building with roofs of different ages
- Photographs with no reference to a location on a roof plan
- A replacement year with no stated basis behind it
- A limitations section that is generic rather than specific to the visit
- Narrative and reserve schedule that contradict each other
The last one is the most revealing and the easiest to miss. A narrative describing a roof as serviceable alongside a reserve schedule placing replacement in the first or second year usually means the assessor saw a roof near the end of its life and softened the wording. Read the two together on the sample, ask the firm about any mismatch you find, and listen to the answer. How a firm explains its own previous report is a better guide than anything in a capability statement.