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Instruction Building surveys - pre-acquisition investor survey
Property Nordic Bank House, London
Value In excess of £50 million
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The City of London was considering purchasing the freehold of Nordic Bank House in London for investment purposes and, prior to committing to the purchase, asked us to inspect the building and to produce a pre-
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acquisition survey report on the building’s condition.
Our client was proposing a substantial investment and needed a complete picture of the associated responsibilities and risks as owner and landlord of the building. Therefore, although our report naturally highlighted the various defects that we found, this was only part of our role in the due diligence process. For instance, as the building was occupied under a lease we checked the documentation to determine whether the landlord or the tenant would be responsible for any major building repairs. We also provided budget costs and a predicted time-frame for building elements likely to require significant expenditure, so that our client, as landlord, would be forewarned of their potential exposure in the event that the tenant reneged on their obligations.
Very often large buildings warrant the use of specialist consultants, especially with regard to services installations. In this case in tandem with our own inspection and report we coordinated those of a specialist cladding consultant, a mechanical and electrical specialist and a lift engineer. We also liased with our client’s solicitors to determine whether any of the information disclosed to them by the vendor was relevant for our purposes.
As with most survey work time was of the essence. Not only did we issue a summary of our findings to the client just a day after our inspection but the full report was delivered only seven days from instruction.
Following acquisition the City of London asked us to prepare an interim schedule of dilapidations against the tenant.
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