Developers
Cost certainty before a commitment is made, and a defensible position when the numbers are challenged later.
Independent Commercial Advisory
Cost decisions you can defend.
From feasibility to final account.
We advise developers, funders and investors on commercially complex construction projects, across the UK.
Every instruction is handled by a senior commercial lead. Nothing is passed down to a trainee. And nothing is sent to an offshore desk. The person who prices the work is the person who defends it when it is challenged.
Positions are traceable. Each quantity ties back to the model or the drawing it came from. Entitlement ties back to a clause. Valuations tie back to work genuinely in place, measured on site rather than assumed from a programme.
That traceability is the point. Consequently, a figure in a cost plan holds its shape when tender returns arrive, and a variation assessment holds its shape when a contractor disputes it. Where positions are not traceable, they are simply opinions with a number attached.
What we do
Where we take responsibility.
Reltic acts for one side per project. We never advise a lender and a developer on the same scheme, and we confirm that position before an instruction begins.
01Cost planning and estimatingKnow the real number before you commit
Budgets built on rates per square metre fail quietly, then loudly at tender. We build the cost position from measured scope and test it against current market pricing, so the figure you take to a board or a lender survives contact with real returns.
Feasibility and appraisal budgetsElemental cost plans to NRM1Option and scenario testing
02Quantities and take-offQuantities the contractor cannot argue with
Most arguments about money begin as disagreements about measurement. We produce quantities from the model and the drawings, recorded so that every figure can be traced back to the source it came from.
NRM2 measurement and bills of quantitiesModel based take-off and auditTender quantity verification
03Tendering and procurementThe right builder on the right contract
Procurement decides how much risk you keep and how much you pay somebody else to carry. We structure the route, the documents and the contract so that bids are genuinely comparable and liability sits where you intended it to sit.
Route and contract selection, JCT and NECTender documentation and pricing schedulesBid analysis and negotiation support
04Cost control and variationsNo surprises between valuation four and completion
Cost drifts in small increments, then arrives all at once. We value work in place each month, test every variation against the contract and forecast the outturn while there is still time to do something about it.
Interim valuations and cost reportingVariation assessment and change controlOutturn forecasting and contingency drawdown
05Final accounts and disputesClose the job without paying for someone else's mistake
Final accounts settle on evidence, never on goodwill. We assemble the account, test the contractor's position line by line and support you through negotiation, mediation or adjudication if it reaches that point.
Final account preparation and agreementLoss and expense and extension of timeExpert and adjudication support
01Initial appraisal reportKnow what you are lending against
Before a facility is committed, we test the borrower's budget, programme and procurement against what the scheme genuinely requires. Findings arrive in a form you can put in front of a credit committee without translation.
Budget and contingency adequacyProgramme and procurement reviewPlanning, warranty and insurance position
02Drawdown certificationRelease funds against work actually in place
Certification is a measurement exercise rather than a paperwork exercise. We attend, measure and certify only the value genuinely constructed, with materials on and off site treated separately and evidenced.
Site inspection at each valuation dateCertified value of work in placeMaterials and vesting treatment
03Monthly progress reportingOne page that tells you if the scheme is still on track
Reports are written to be read by a credit team, not by another surveyor. Each cycle states progress against programme, spend against facility and precisely which exposures have moved since the previous report.
Progress against programmeSpend against facilityChange and risk register
04Cost to complete and contingency reviewWhether the remaining facility covers the remaining work
The question that matters is not what has been spent. It is what finishing will cost. We rebuild the cost to complete independently and state plainly whether the facility still covers it.
Independent cost to completeContingency adequacy testingOverrun and shortfall scenarios
05Final account verificationSign off the last drawdown on evidence, not assurance
Undisclosed claims tend to surface at the final release. We verify the settled account against the contract and confirm that the figure being certified is the figure that was actually earned.
Final account verificationRetention and defects positionClose out and certification
Specimen report
See what lands on your desk.
A complete monitoring report for a specimen scheme, written exactly as a live one would be. Nothing is redacted, because nothing in it is real. The project, the figures and the contractor are invented. The structure, the language and the level of detail are not.
Read the first two pages and you will know whether this is the standard you want on your scheme.
Prefer the full pack? Request it here
Where we work
Project types across the UK.
Residential development
Schemes from ten to two hundred units
Mixed use and regeneration
Retail, resi and public realm in one contract
Refurbishment and reuse
Existing fabric, unknown until opened up
Complex phasing
Live sites, sectional completion, tight logistics
High-end and prime residential
Specification driven cost, low tolerance for drift
Commercially contentious
Schemes already in dispute or heading there
Who we work with
Four client groups.
One side per project.
Private investors and family offices
Commercial oversight on schemes where the exposure is direct and the margin for error is small.
Client-side commercial leads
Additional senior capacity and independent scrutiny on complex or contested positions.
Funders and lenders
Independent appraisal, drawdown certification and progress reporting through the life of a facility.
How we work
How an engagement runs.
Continuity matters. The person who sets the cost plan is the person who defends the final account, through every step in between.
01
Brief and appraisal
We review the available information, the site, the programme and the budget, then set out exactly what our input will cover and what it will not.
02
Cost and quantity baseline
Quantities come off the model or the drawings. The cost plan is built from measured scope and tested against current market pricing rather than historic rates.
03
Procurement and contract
Tender documents go out on a basis that makes bids comparable. Returns are analysed line by line, and the contract is selected so risk sits where you intended.
04
Delivery control
Work in place is valued monthly. Variations are tested against the contract as they arise, and the outturn forecast is updated while there is still room to act on it.
05
Close out
The final account is assembled from the record built during delivery, not reconstructed afterwards. Where it is contested, we hold the position.
Spend against the facility
Cost accrues as a curve, funding arrives in tranches. The gap between them is what a drawdown cycle answers every period.
Cumulative cost
Facility drawn
Acting for a lender? The drawdown cycle runs to a different rhythm.
See the monitoring cycle
What it costs to resolve a change, later
The records that settle a variation are made on site in the weeks around it. Their useful life is short, and the price of the argument grows as they fade.
Step 04 exists for this reason. A change closed in the month it happens costs what it
should. The same change closed at the end is a negotiation.
Scenarios
Situations that bring clients to Reltic.
Most instructions begin at the same three points. None of them are comfortable.
The budget held through design, then moved twice in six weeks once the packages came back.
We rebuilt the cost position from measured scope, identified where the drift had entered and set out what it would take to recover it. The board saw a single number rather than a moving one.
Read this scenarioBoth parties read the same clause and arrived at opposite conclusions about who carried the cost.
We tested the entitlement against the contract and the record, then held that position through negotiation. Where the client was wrong, we said so early rather than late.
Read this scenarioPackages went out to tender while the design was still moving, and the returns priced the gaps as risk.
We identified what was genuinely undefined, priced the exposure openly and kept it visible in the cost plan rather than buried in a contingency line.
Read this scenarioQuestions
Frequently asked.
How do you charge?
It depends on what the engagement is. Full lifecycle commercial appointments are usually percentage based against project value. Defined pieces of work, an appraisal or a set of tender documents, are quoted as a fixed sum. Expert and dispute work runs at a day rate, and ongoing oversight for investors is handled on a monthly retainer. The basis is agreed and written down before anything begins.
What does independence actually mean here?
We hold no design fees, no contractor relationships and no software licences to sell. In practice we act for one side of a project only, and we never advise a lender and a developer on the same scheme. If a conflict exists, you hear about it before the instruction is accepted rather than afterwards.
When is the right time to bring you in?
Feasibility, before the budget hardens into a commitment. That said, most instructions arrive later than that. Joining at tender, mid delivery or at final account still works, and the position can still be recovered. Earlier simply gives more room to shape the outcome rather than defend it.
Do you work for lenders as well as developers?
Yes, but never on the same scheme. Monitoring instructions run through initial appraisal, drawdown certification, monthly reporting and final account verification. Where a borrower and a lender both approach us about one project, we take the first instruction and decline the second.
What size of project do you take on?
The work suits schemes where the commercial position is genuinely complex rather than simply large. Residential development, mixed use, refurbishment and phased schemes are the usual territory. Volume is deliberately limited, because the same senior person carries every instruction from start to finish.
Do you need a BIM model to work?
No. Where a model exists we measure from it and audit what it contains. Wherever it does not, we measure from drawings. The model is a method rather than a requirement, and the standard of the output does not change either way.
Do you work across the whole of the UK?
Yes. Reltic is not built around a single office. Site attendance is set by the project and the valuation cycle, wherever the scheme sits.
Get in touch
Talk to us before
the decision is made.
Tell us what the scheme is, where it has reached and what is currently uncertain. If it is not work we should take, we will say so and point you somewhere sensible.
Email
Telephone
Postal address
Office 676, 60 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 2EW
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.