An unfinished property can need both corrective work and construction that has never been completed. Before setting a new budget or completion date, review the building’s condition, available records, and outstanding approvals. An old scope or progress percentage may not show what the project now needs.
Gather the Available Records
Ask the owner, lender, and existing project professionals for:
- Current drawings and specifications, including revisions and approved changes.
- Construction contracts, scopes, estimates, and change orders.
- Purchase and delivery records for materials and equipment.
- Permit approvals, inspection results, and outstanding notices.
- Progress photographs, testing records, and identified incomplete or defective work.
- The latest schedule and requirements for bringing the property into use.
Check the date and version of each document. Identify missing records so the team can follow up. Questions about legal obligations under earlier agreements should be reviewed with the owner’s advisers.
Establish What Is Built and What Is Documented
Compare the work on site with current drawings, approved changes, and inspection records. Installed plumbing, electrical work, or other systems may still need testing, correction, or approval.
Identify which work can remain, what needs investigation, and what must be repaired or completed. Bring in the relevant design or technical professionals where their review is needed.
Review Approvals Separately From Physical Progress
Check which permits and approvals are in place and which inspections or signoffs remain. Assign each outstanding task to the party responsible for it and account for the work needed before an inspection can proceed.
Finished interiors alone do not mean a building is approved for use. Required occupancy documentation and signoffs need to be part of the completion plan.
Define the New Engagement
Decide whether you need Bau to complete construction or manage the project on your behalf.
As general contractor, we manage the agreed construction, coordinate trades, maintain the schedule, and coordinate applicable inspections and closeout.
As owner’s representative, we coordinate design professionals and expediters and oversee the contractor’s contractual work for the owner. The contractor directs daily construction. Our engagement defines Bau’s scope and authority, including the decisions retained by the owner.
Read about these responsibilities in our professional project process.
Develop the Completion Scope, Budget, and Schedule
Develop the completion scope from the confirmed repairs and unfinished work. Identify items that still need investigation, design, or approval, and state the assumptions behind the estimate.
The schedule should account for trade sequencing, material availability, site access, utility work, inspections, and signoffs. Update it as the review or construction uncovers new information, and identify decisions or documents needed to keep work moving.
Project Reference: Brooklyn Lender Takeover
A lender brought us in to untangle inherited construction problems and complete an eight-unit multifamily building in Brooklyn. We identified corrective work, developed the completion scope and budget, repaired building systems, and finished the interiors. We also negotiated subcontractor obligations and final payments and helped secure signoffs and a certificate of occupancy.
Read the Brooklyn lender takeover case study or talk with us about your unfinished property.