What Is Technical Due Diligence (TDD)?
"In the context of real estate acquisition, management and disposal, Technical Due Diligence (TDD) is a globally used phrase used to describe essentially a commercial building survey. Although it is a widely-used term there appears a lack of understanding or consistency in what this actually covers, indeed there is often a bespoke nature of TDD instruction curtailed to specific client needs, sector norms or individual investment strategies..........In essence there is often a huge amount of information to collect, analyse, process and report in very short time scales. This is often done on buildings or portfolios equating to very high investment values........TDD and commercial buildings surveys essentially involve highly bespoke contract instructions due to the often-unique nature of the assets or complexity of the transactions. While no one TDD or survey contract instruction is identical, the actual the process of doing this is quite ‘mechanical’. There is essentially a list of things to check (often driven by the clients’ requirements). Therefore, the surveying skillset required to do this is the same as that applied to the inspection process of many other facets of building surveying works, such as dilapidations or schedules for planned preventative maintenance. Furthermore, the process of undertaking a TDD or commercial building survey is also highly transferrable between different real estate sectors and upon different types of building. Indeed, providing the surveyor understands local laws, building culture and language; the process of TDD and commercial building surveys is transferable to different countries.
Principally there is a requirement to do a site visit to record and analyse information before delivering and reporting upon the findings. Crucially this will have to be cross referenced with historical documents held for the property or asset. The intention is to form an opinion of the past, present and future issues associated with this in order to advise the client or investor of the potential risks that they may be exposed to both immediately and in the longer term".....(Tagg, A.2018.Technical Due Diligence and Building Surveying for Commercial Property.Routledge):
Print 