Investors model rent, finance, voids and maintenance, and then price regulatory expenditure at roughly zero. Over the next ten years that line includes EPC C by 2030, fire door programmes, building safety duties, licensing that can be designated over you without warning, and a Decent Homes Standard in 2035. It is forecastable. Almost nobody forecasts it.
A building survey covers condition. A solicitor covers title. Between them sits everything that decides what this asset costs to hold lawfully — and nobody is instructed to look at it. These are the seven we work through, and the question we are actually answering in each.
The current rating, the underlying assessment data rather than the band, the realistic route to EPC C and what it costs against the £10,000 cap. Commercial assets over 1,000 square metres face EPC B from 2031; below that the standard stays at E.
Can this reach the standard within the cap, or is it an exemption?Height, external wall construction, the registration and safety case position, the fire door programme and the residential PEEP duties that began in April 2026. Who the accountable person is, and whether that becomes you on completion.
What duty are you buying, and is it criminal or civil?Whether a mandatory, additional or selective licence is required today, whether one is held and what conditions attach. Since December 2024 a council can designate up to 100% of its private rented stock without central approval.
Is there a scheme, a consultation, or a rent repayment order waiting?Deposit protection and prescribed information on every tenancy, because since 1 May 2026 a defect there bars a possession order on almost every ground. Written statements, converted tenancies and the information sheet that was due by 31 May 2026.
Could you actually get vacant possession if you needed it?Unexpired term and the marriage value threshold at 80 years, the service charge history, the reserve position, section 20 consultations run or missed, and any major works consulted but not yet demanded.
What is coming through the service charge that is not in the accounts yet?Consents, completion certificates, unauthorised works, Article 4 directions, and for development the Approved Document B changes taking effect on 30 September 2026 — which on a tall scheme is a design and viability question rather than a compliance one.
Is the building lawful, and is the scheme still viable?Everything above priced and placed on a year-by-year timeline across the hold period, then run through the yield. Not a list of risks — a number you can put in the model and a figure you can negotiate against.
What does this actually do to the return?Where the buyer is overseas or corporate: the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, ATED filings due whether or not relief applies, and the Register of Overseas Entities, where a missed annual update places a restriction on the title that stops you dealing with the asset at all.
Can you actually transact with this once you own it?A surveyor tells you the roof has eight years left. A solicitor tells you the title is good. Neither is instructed to tell you that the building needs a second staircase to be developed, that the EPC route to C costs more than the cap allows, that a selective licensing consultation closed in the borough last month, or that the deposits on four of the eleven tenancies were never protected and you therefore cannot remove anyone. Those are the findings that change a price, and they fall in the gap between the two reports you are already paying for. We are not a substitute for either — we are the third one nobody commissions, and it is usually the one carrying the largest number.
Describe the asset and we will build a ten-year regulatory expenditure profile, run it through the yield and score the risk. It is a desktop model, not a report — the real thing is built from the actual certificates, the council’s designations and the tenancy file. But it will tell you very quickly whether this is an asset worth diligencing properly.
Forecast regulatory capital expenditure, next ten years
A desktop model built from the answers on the left. Figures are typical 2026 ranges and the timing is our expectation of when each obligation realistically has to be met, not the last possible date.
Earlier is cheaper, and the value is almost entirely in whether the finding can still change something. A report delivered after exchange is an interesting document; the same report a fortnight earlier is a price.
A desktop screen on the information in the listing and the public registers, before you have spent anything. Cheap, fast, and it occasionally stops a purchase outright — which is the highest return this service ever produces.
Alongside the survey and the searches, using the seller’s documents and the council’s designations. This is where the number becomes a negotiation, because a forecast you can evidence is a forecast the other side has to answer.
Ranked by exposure per asset rather than assessed one by one, so you can see which properties carry the cost and price the tail separately. On a portfolio the variance between assets is usually larger than the average.
Lenders are asking harder questions about EPC, cladding and service charge levels, and a flat with a charge above 1% of value is already being restricted. Having the forecast before the valuation is better than explaining it afterwards.
The rules move. A property that was compliant and unlicensed in 2025 can be non-compliant and licensable by 2027 without anybody doing anything. An annual re-run is a fraction of the first one.
The Approved Document B amendments taking effect on 30 September 2026 make a second staircase mandatory above 18 metres, which changes core layout and saleable area. That is a decision to take at design stage, not at Gateway 2.
Three levels, because the right one depends on how much you have already committed. Buying the cheapest one first is usually correct — if the screen finds nothing, you have spent very little and you can proceed with confidence.
Development sites and mixed-use schemes are quoted individually — the work is driven by the scheme rather than the unit count. Where a report leads to work we can also do, you are under no obligation to use us, and we take no commission from any contractor, installer, broker or insurer. We will tell you the market rate so you can check ours against it. If you are against an exchange date, say so at the start and we will prioritise the findings capable of changing the deal rather than delivering a complete report after it.
A postcode and the asset type is enough for us to tell you whether a desktop screen would find anything worth having. No card, no account, and if the asset looks clean we will say so.
Four questions. We will come back with what we would look at, what we think the exposure is and what the report costs.
It changes how fast we have to move and how much we can get from public sources.
Choose as many as apply. It tells us where to go deep.
An address if you have one, a postcode district if you would rather not say yet.
No charge for the conversation, and we will tell you if a desktop screen is all you need.
Check it over. Tapping the button opens WhatsApp with this ready — nothing has been sent yet.
Send this on WhatsAppEvery one of these has a free tool on it. None of them asks for your details before it gives you an answer.
A costed, sequenced route to the 2030 standard against the £10,000 cap — then the works run.
Retrofit pathway planner, domestic and commercialfrom £250 →An outsourced building safety function for freeholders, RTM companies and managing agents.
Compliance calendar — every documented check a building needsfrom £2,400 a year →Your outsourced compliance department. Certificates, licences, tenancy duties and local schemes, tracked per property.
Obligation register, twelve-month calendar and a start planfrom £9 a month →It sits in the gap between them, and the gap is wider than most buyers realise. A surveyor reports on condition — the roof, the damp, the structure. A solicitor reports on title, and raises the enquiries the seller has to answer. Neither is instructed to tell you that reaching EPC C on this stock costs more than the cap allows, that a selective licensing consultation closed in the borough last month, that four of the eleven deposits were never protected so you could not obtain possession, or that a tall scheme needs a second staircase to be developed after 30 September 2026. We do not replace either report and we would not want to. We are the third one, and on the assets where it matters it carries the largest number.
Less than you would think, and that is rather the point. Most of the expenditure comes from deadlines that are already published: EPC C by 1 October 2030 with a £10,000 cap, the Decent Homes Standard in 2035, the PRS database rollout, Awaab’s Law expected in 2027. Those are dates, not forecasts. What we are estimating is the cost of meeting them on this asset, which is a surveying question rather than a prediction. Where something genuinely is uncertain — a licensing designation that has not happened yet, a cladding cost that may be funded — we carry it as a flagged provision rather than burying it in a total, and the report says which is which.
A written report per asset: the position in each of the seven domains, the ten-year expenditure profile with dates, the effect on yield, a risk score, and a short list of what to do before exchange as against what can wait. On a portfolio we add a ranking so you can see which assets carry the exposure, because the variance between properties is almost always larger than the average. You also get the working — the certificates, the register entries and the council designations we relied on — so your solicitor and your lender can use it rather than taking our word for it.
A desktop screen in two to three working days, which is usually enough to decide whether to proceed. A full asset report is five to ten working days depending on how quickly the seller produces documents, and that is genuinely the constraint — not our end. On a portfolio, allow two to three weeks. If you are up against an exchange date, tell us at the start: we would rather deliver the two or three findings that could change the deal inside your timetable than a complete report after it.
Sometimes, and more often it changes the structure rather than the headline. A forecast the other side can check is much harder to dismiss than a view about the market, and a seller who disputes it has to produce the certificates to do so — which is itself informative. In practice the findings that move a deal are the binary ones: an unlicensed letting, an unprotected deposit, an unassessed external wall, a lease under eighty years. Those become conditions of the contract or a retention. The slow-burn items — EPC, Decent Homes — usually change your model rather than the price, and knowing that before you commit is worth the fee on its own.
Yes, and the timing question is sharper for you. Approved Document B amendments take effect on 30 September 2026, making a second staircase mandatory in new residential buildings above 18 metres — which changes core layout, saleable area and therefore viability. That is a decision at design stage, not at Gateway 2, and the practical deadline is well before September because the design has to be substantially settled first. We also look at the Building Safety Levy from 1 October 2026 on applications for ten or more dwellings, biodiversity net gain as it now stands, and the accountable person duties that attach the moment the building is occupied.
A fair question and one you should ask anybody in this position. We take no commission from any contractor, installer, broker or insurer, and we will say so in writing. Where a report recommends work we can do, you are under no obligation to use us and we will tell you what the market rate is so you can check. If you would rather we did the diligence and somebody else did the works, that is a perfectly reasonable way to buy it — the report is written to be used by whoever you choose.
It is also one of the few that is genuinely knowable in advance, because the deadlines are published years ahead. The asset that looks cheapest on a yield screen is frequently the one carrying the largest one.
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