01
Initial appraisal
Review of the cost plan, programme, procurement route, contract terms, team appointments, warranties and insurances, with the residual risks set out for the credit paper.
Read the pageLender side
For lenders, funds and credit teams
Your security is a building that does not exist yet, priced by the borrower and delivered by a contractor you did not select. Independent monitoring is how that exposure gets read in time to do something about it.
The problem
The information you lend against was prepared by the party who needs the facility.
A development appraisal is a commercial document with a purpose. It is built to get the scheme funded, and it does that job well.
The cost plan may rest on rates rather than quantities. The contingency may be sized to make the appraisal work rather than to cover the risk. The programme may assume a start date that has already moved. The contract may have been amended in ways that shift risk back towards the employer, and therefore towards you.
None of this shows up in a summary. It shows up in the third drawdown, or in the request to increase the facility, or at the point where the remaining money no longer finishes the building. What you need is someone reading the underlying documents with no interest in the answer.
What we do for you
Before the facility, during it, and at the end.
02
Facility adequacy
An independent view on whether the facility and its contingency actually complete the scheme, including the costs outside the building contract that are routinely understated.
Read the page03
Drawdown certification
Each drawdown assessed against work properly executed and cost properly incurred, certified to your timetable and in your format.
Read the page04
Progress reporting
Progress against programme, cost against facility, change, quality observations, cost to complete and the risks to completion, at the interval your credit process requires.
Read the page05
Distressed and stalled schemes
Where a scheme has stopped or the facility is exhausted: an assessment of the true cost to complete, the contractual position and the practical options available.
Read the page06
Completion and exit
Practical completion, outstanding works, retention, warranties and the closing report on the facility.
Read the pageWe do not advise borrowers on schemes we monitor. It is checked before the first conversation, not after.
One side per project
A monitoring appointment is only worth what its independence is worth. If the same firm has written or advised on the cost plan it is certifying against, the certificate adds nothing to your file except a signature.
We run the conflict check against the scheme before we discuss scope or fee. If we hold a borrower-side appointment on it, we decline and tell you plainly, which is more useful to you than a carefully worded information barrier. On other schemes with the same developer we may be borrower side, and we will disclose that too.
Why it matters commercially
Understanding the borrower side is what makes lender-side work useful.
01
We build cost plans on other schemes, so we know exactly where a cost plan is usually thin and what a comfortable contingency is hiding.
02
We run change control on other schemes, so we recognise the variation pattern that precedes a facility problem months before the numbers show it.
03
We settle final accounts on other schemes, so we can see which contract amendments will cost the employer, and therefore your security, at the end.
Questions
Before you appoint.
How fast is the conflict check?
Same day in most cases. We need the site address, the borrower entity and the professional team. If we are conflicted we will say so immediately and you can appoint elsewhere without losing a week.
Do you work to our report template?
Yes. Most lenders have a structure their credit process depends on and we work to it rather than asking you to adapt to ours. Where no template exists we issue our standard structure, which covers progress, cost, change, cost to complete, risk and recommendation.
Can you take over monitoring mid-facility?
Yes. The first report is then a position audit: what has been certified against what has actually been built, what the remaining facility realistically completes, and what has been left open. That report is more work than a routine one and we price it separately so the scope is clear.
Will you say something unwelcome about a borrower we want to lend to?
If the documents support it, yes, and in writing. That is the appointment. A report shaped to protect a transaction is worth nothing in a credit file and worth less than nothing if the scheme later fails. Where the position is sound we say that just as plainly and briefly.
Insights