Third-party-certified assessor vs in-house trained: real day-rate gap?

BAFE SP205 registration carries a fee and an audit. What's the honest premium clients pay for it, and is it wider or narrower than it was two years ago?

Client pushes back on FRAEW cost — what's working?

Numbers from the PAS 9980 quote come back and the client compares to a headline "external wall check" from a competitor. How are you defending the scope without sounding defensive?

Simultaneous evacuation changes in HRB — how's your template coping?

Post-BSA reviews are driving more stay-put-reversed decisions. Template surgery or new document type? Interested in how practices are handling version control on FRAs that change e…

When do you walk away?

Client won't implement your recommendations, won't pay for a re-assessment, and now wants you to sign off the next cycle. How do you handle the exit without a professional-indemnit…

How invasive on a 1960s block before calling Type 4?

Client wants Type 3. Concrete frame, mystery service risers, previous landlord files are thin. At what point do you recommend the step up, and how do you frame the cost?

FRA software — recommendations and warnings

The market is crowded and noisy. I have tried four packages in the last three years and keep coming back to a combination of on-site tablet capture and desktop report generation. C…

Scoring significant findings — frameworks and pitfalls

Getting rating consistency between assessors is notoriously hard. Some firms use a 1-5 severity scale, some use RAG, some use a matrix of likelihood × consequence. What works for y…

PAS 79 vs bespoke methodologies — what is your default?

PAS 79-1 or -2 is the reference point for many assessors, but not everyone uses it end-to-end. What is your default approach, and why? Full PAS 79 with the prescribed pro forma Cus…