Using RiskWise to Improve Readiness for Sale

Since the recent political changes within the UK, Europe and further afield, real estate markets have changed.  As uncertainty unfolds, the requirement to improve ‘readiness for sale’ couldn’t be more pressing.  This article reminds readers how RiskWise is helping property owners, investors and agents improve readiness for sale and deliver cost savings to the transaction process:

Documentation Requirements

Referring to the Investment Property Forum (IPF) ‘Readiness for ‘Sale’ guide, a complete list of documentation required during a transaction is provided within Appendices 2 and 3.

Additionally, the Commercial Property Standard Enquiries (CPSEs) detail the full requirement for supplementary information which must be disclosed during the process.  Some of the key areas include:

Health and Safety

The Health and Safety file, and Fire safety requirements listed are one aspect which, if maintained correctly during the day-to-day management of a property, can be easily compiled and provided to the purchasing party.

Within RiskWise, using the Year Planner and Event Matrix tools ensures every required inspection has been completed, any mandatory documents are uploaded and stored, and any corrective actions are tracked to resolution.  This includes all statutory requirements surrounding health and safety, management of water systems, electrical testing, asbestosAsbestos is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK1.  Asbestos was extensively used in construction materials up until the late 1990s, and is present in a significant number of bu... More management (see below) and fire safety.  When required, all information can be easily accessed and downloaded from RiskWise for easy handover.

Asbestos and Environmental

Provision of the most recent asbestos survey, a written plan to manage asbestos and copies of all environmental audits and reports, can be easily provided as this information is collated within RiskWise on an ongoing basis.

The RiskWise Asbestos Register simplifies this further by also providing a full asbestos register in digital format, with a history of Asbestos Containing Materials on site, removed or encapsulated.  Sample records may be stored alongside survey reports as well as any actions.

From an environmental perspective, the maintenance of Energy Performance Certificates, reports of categories and records of any Environmental Audits, incidents or Pollution Incident Response Plans are also available on a property-by-property basis, or across a portfolio for complete reporting.

Waste management and utility data, if stored within RiskWise, can also be made easily accessible, or exported for the required parties.

Contractor Documentation

Where contractor documentation such as insurance documentation is required, users of the RiskWise Contractor & Performance Module can easily identify and export details for contractors relevant to the property in question, as well as a history of works completed.

Additional Information

Many clients also use RiskWise to store and monitor other documentation required for the transaction process including: tax information, land registry documents, lease details, tenant information, insurance policies and utility data.

Claims Information

Details of any outstanding claims along with a full claims history, required as part of the transaction process, can be easily logged and reported from RiskWise.  Clients using RiskWise can log any type of incident: property damage, environmental or person-related.   The tracking of each incident ensures all required information is correctly captured through customisable incident forms, and, any claims are logged through to resolution.  To improve claims defensibility, a complete audit trail is maintained including date and time stamps.

Assets

Details of any plant or machinery present within the property to be disclosed during the transaction process can be tracked using the RiskWise Asset Register.  This area of RiskWise allows inspections, issues and records to be maintained for each individual item of plant or machinery as well as any manuals or warranties.

Property Inspections

The IPF guide states that typically seller and buyer property inspections should be arranged at least once and ideally twice during the transaction process to ensure effective due diligence.  This inspection, although informal, should ideally be fully documented, and the RiskWise App provides a seamless, offline tool to do this – capturing all details, date and time-stamped photographs and notes as the inspection takes place, and maintaining a full audit trail automatically behind the scenes.

Information Handover

At stages during the transaction process, as and when information is required, RiskWise provides a variety of options for making information available:

• Tailorable logins for individual stakeholders providing a window of access to just the required property information or documents.
• Reporting tools including user-specific dashboards, graphs, favourites and data searches – which can be used to create status updates of outstanding tasks within a property or transaction process as well as historic reports on previous inspections and actions closed.
• The RiskWise Property Download tool provides a complete summary export of all documentation relevant for the relevant property.

Ease of Use & Collaboration

The IPF guide details that having an online management system which ensures a logical structure, quality of information and which is user-friendly helps provide time and cost savings to all parties.   Bringing all parties together during the day-to-day management of a property ensures all relevant information is up-to-date.  When a property is then highlighted for acquisition or disposal, RiskWise can be opened up through stringent user access controls to provide just the relevant information to new stakeholders.

Audit Trail

By opening up RiskWise to all relevant stakeholders, RiskWise ensures collaboration and more importantly, a complete audit trail of all records stored and updated – Environmental, Asbestos, Health and Safety, Tenant, Insurance or other information.

Summary

Providing all levels of detail from management information through to detailed due diligence and a full audit trail, RiskWise provides a simpler approach to ‘readiness for sale’.  Where the day-to-day management of a property is maintained through RiskWise, all records are automatically stored and can be made available instantly to any parties involved in a transaction.  The additional benefit is that RiskWise also maintains a full audit trail automatically, and escalates items for resolution prior to the transaction.

The benefits of improving readiness for sale using RiskWise are multiple – it ensures more effective day-to-day management of a property, which in turn facilitates:

• an easier transaction,
• improved property desirability in difficult trading environments,
• easier investment decisions,
• reduced costs and delays of transactions,
• improved visibility and certainty for all stakeholders in the transaction process.

For further details on how RiskWise or the S₂ Partnership can help manage your portfolio, please contact us – we’re happy to help.