Consultants

Bringing in a specialist consultant

Define the question before you appoint. Specialist consultancy is most useful when the brief is specific: whether an access route can be formed, how a fire strategy can work without altering historic doors, whether a proposed use is viable. Open-ended appointments produce open-ended fees.

Ask early. Constraints identified at design stage can usually be designed around; the same constraints found at tender or on site mean redesign, revised applications and lost time. This is the single reliable saving in specialist advice.

Check they have worked on historic buildings. Standards written for new construction frequently cannot be met literally in a listed building, and the useful consultant is the one who knows where the flexibility lies and how to evidence an alternative approach.

Keep the advice in the project record. Reports supporting a departure from standard guidance are what a building control body, insurer or future owner will ask to see. They belong with the building's documentation, not in an email folder.