What is a Commercial Building Assessment?
Commercial Building Assessments, also known as Property Condition Assessments or Commercial Building Inspections, are different from Residential Home Inspections in many ways. The structure type, inspector certification and training, process, reporting, and clients all vary between the two types of inspections.
In Connecticut, the Home Inspection licensing regulations govern residential buildings up to 4 units. However, a license is not required to conduct an inspection of a commercial building. At Tiger, we have four Certified Commercial Building Inspectors who have completed a nationally recognized program and are highly experienced. We have been providing Commercial Assessments for over twenty years and have seen an extensive array of buildings.
The Commercial Assessment Process is vastly different than residential. Buildings ranging from apartments to industrial to retail to auto dealerships vary in complexity and components. Therefore, the process begins with a review of the property to determine staffing specialties and scope of work. A proposal outlining services and pricing is provided to each commercial client. Upon scheduling our site visit, we build the necessary team for the scope of work and begin our municipal research. Municipal research includes contacting the Building, Zoning, Health, and Fire Departments. Further information for review by our Tiger Team is generated from maintenance records and interviews with building managers. After our inspection site visit, the report is assembled and delivered to our clients within 7 business days.
The information in our Commercial Building Assessment Report follows the ASTM 2018 guideline. This standard includes a description of the property, identification of conditions of significant deficiency that require immediate attention, and components that the client should budget for replacement. For those conditions that fit into a per-unit estimate, we provide opinions of probable costs to allow our client to plan for future expenses.
Often the size and repetitive conditions are prohibitive to inspection of all components, so the ASTM standard provides a provision for representative observations. Our Lead Inspector will design a plan to sample an appropriate number of like components in order to convey to the client the magnitude of commonly encountered conditions.
Since 1992, Tiger Group, Inc. has developed expertise in the inspection of commercial properties. Our commercial clients vary, ranging from investors to business owner-occupants, as well as leasing clients. Commercial Assessments require specialized knowledge and personnel and the ability to perform the site inspection, research data, access information, and prepare a report. Compared to some home inspection companies that only crossover to light commercial inspections, we have a specialized group of inspectors and industry contacts forming Tiger’s Commercial Division. Our specialists are qualified to assess buildings of many types and sizes; we look forward to assisting with your next Commercial Building Assessment.
Are you looking for additional information? Contact our Client Service Team Lead, Jillian at 800-328-4677.
