Independent quantity surveyors across the UK
Quantity surveying and cost advice for contractors, developers, investors, lenders and homeowners. We act for one side of each project, from the first estimate to the final account.
Professional indemnity of five million pounds, evidenced.
On every project we act for one party only. Never two sides of the same build.
The person who prices the work is the person who defends it.
Instructed across the United Kingdom, wherever needed.
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
The capacity we act in is confirmed in writing before an instruction begins. If we already act for another party on the same project, we decline.
Budgets built on a rate per square metre fail quietly, then loudly at tender. We build the cost position from measured scope and test it against current market pricing before you commit to the scheme.
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.
Procurement decides how much risk you keep and how much you pay somebody else to carry. We structure the route and the documents and the contract so that the bids you receive are genuinely comparable.
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 act on it.
Final accounts settle on evidence, and never on goodwill. We assemble the account, test the contractor's position line by line and support you through negotiation, mediation or adjudication if needed.
Prepared monthly, measured and backed up, so they are hard to reduce.
Priced and recorded as they happen, with the contract clause and the instruction attached.
We check whether a notice is valid and on time, and prepare the response.
Assembled from the record built during the job, negotiated on evidence.
Support through negotiation, mediation or adjudication.
Before a facility is committed we test the borrower budget, programme and procurement against what the scheme genuinely requires. Findings arrive in a shape you can put in front of a credit committee.
Certification is an exercise in measurement rather than a paperwork exercise. We attend, measure and certify only the value genuinely constructed, with materials on site and off it treated separately.
Reports are written to be read by a credit team, not by another surveyor. Each cycle states progress against programme, spend against facility and which exposures have moved since the previous report.
The question that matters is not what has been spent. It is what it will cost to finish. We rebuild the cost to complete independently and state plainly and early whether the facility still covers it.
Undisclosed claims tend to surface at the final release. We verify the settled account against the contract and the record and confirm that the figure certified is the figure that was actually earned.
Specimen report
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.
Ask for it and you will know within two pages whether this is the standard you want on your scheme.
Sent as a PDF, usually the same working day.
Where we work
Schemes from ten to two hundred units
Retail, homes and public realm as one
Existing fabric, unknown until opened
Live sites, sections, tight logistics
Specification led, low room for drift
Already disputed, or heading that way
Clients
Five kinds of client. One side per project.
Senior QS capacity without a full-time hire. Applications, variations and final accounts, prepared so they stand up when the other side checks.
Cost certainty before the scheme is committed, and a defensible position later on, when the numbers are challenged by a contractor or a funder.
Independent appraisal, drawdown certification and monthly progress reporting, written to be read by a credit team, and not by another surveyor.
Commercial oversight on schemes where the exposure is direct, the margin for error is small and nobody else is testing the numbers for you now.
The builder’s price checked before you sign, the work valued each month as it is built, and the final account settled on evidence at the close.
How we work
Continuity matters. The person who sets the cost plan is the person who defends the final account, through every step in between.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The final account is assembled from the record built during delivery, not reconstructed afterwards. Where it is contested, we hold the position.
Scenarios
Most instructions begin at the same three points. None of them are comfortable.
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 scenario
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.
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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 scenarioInsights
Eighty seven articles on the commercial questions that decide a scheme, written for developers, funders and investors rather than for other surveyors.
01Budgets, elemental cost plans, contingency and the figures a board or a lender will test.
Read the category
02NRM2, bills of quantities, model based take-off and the audit trail behind a defensible number.
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03Routes, tender lists, JCT and NEC, bid analysis and where liability actually lands.
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04Valuations, change control, outturn forecasting and the records that settle an argument.
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05Initial appraisal, drawdown certification, cost to complete and reporting written for a credit team.
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06Assembling an account, testing entitlement, negotiation and the route into adjudication.
Read the categoryQuestions
Yes. We prepare applications for payment, variation accounts and final accounts for main contractors and subcontractors. On any one project we act for one party only, so we never act for a contractor and its client on the same build.
Yes. That is one of the most useful moments to bring us in, because the price is still open to change.
Tell us what it is. If it is not work we should take, we will say so and point you somewhere sensible.
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.
We hold no design fees and no software licences to sell. On every project we act for one party only: the client, the contractor or the lender. We never act for two sides of the same build. If a conflict exists, you hear about it before the instruction is accepted.
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.
Yes, but never on the same scheme. Monitoring instructions run through initial appraisal, drawdown certification, monthly reporting and final account verification. Where two parties approach us about one project, we take the first instruction and decline the second.
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. On every one of them the instruction stays with the same senior commercial lead from feasibility to final account, with no handover to a junior once the fee is agreed.
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.
Yes. Reltic is not built around a single office. Site attendance is set by the project and the valuation cycle, wherever the scheme sits.
Yes. Recent instructions include a six storey residential scheme in East London and five new build houses in Twickenham, alongside a residential block in Manchester and an industrial unit in Liverpool. Site attendance is set by the project and the valuation cycle, wherever the scheme sits.
Get in touch
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.
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.
