Not only the total cost of the project, but also how safe the building will be, depends on the professionalism and integrity of the people making up the construction estimates. That is why, in order to make sure of the quality of design and the reasonableness of the price of the planned actions, many people order examination of estimates.
Why is it needed?
It is quite natural that trusting the procedure for checking the estimates to the contractor is essentially meaningless, since today, unfortunately, you can easily come across such specialists who are not interested in the proper execution of various papers. Often there are even cases of fraud, when the developer tries to artificially extend the construction of any building, and also overestimates the real cost of renting equipment and various materials. Simple human errors also occur, which can be the cause of carelessness.
That is why, so that you do not have to lose your own money or get a low-quality object due to such things, it is best that the estimate was preliminary evaluated by qualified specialists.
What are its advantages?
To date, such a service is especially widespread in the case of various tenders or any competitions, since the risks here are no longer associated with the fact that the applicant may try to overstate the real value of the object, but rather with attempts to underestimate it. Some are trying so hard to win tenders to receive large orders that they offer to build an object for unrealistically small amounts of funds, but in the end it turns out that in fact the winning company simply does not have the opportunity to implement the initial plan. It also happens that the customer did not conduct an examination of the estimates, and the contractor begins to save so that in the end the design is of extremely low quality.
In addition, the service is also popular among private customers, since no one wants to be deceived or suffer because of someone else's mistakes. Moreover, such a check often saves more money than you have to spend on it.
Which is better to choose?
Nowadays, the examination of estimates is carried out by public or private entities. Basically, the state is engaged in such procedures only if some facility is being built with the involvement of budgetary funds, as well as when it comes to ensuring the security and defense of our country. In addition, a state examination of estimates may also be required if verification of the documentation for any technically complex or unique objects is required. In total, we can cite about twenty different reasons why the services of such specialists can be involved in conducting budget checks, but in any case they are carried out only during the planning stage of construction work, while commercial structures work with objects located at any stages of construction.
If we talk about immediate tasks, then the state examination of the estimate according to 44-FZ is required in order to determine the degree of safety of the designed structure. Due to the holding of such an event, experts determine how the future construction meets the current requirements of the technical regulation. The non-governmental procedure is carried out by completely independent companies, and basically it may not even be an examination of the 44-F3 estimate, but a standard check of documents for the economic feasibility of the project and individual expenses for it.
Who does this work?
In companies that have been operating in this market for a long time, such inspections are mainly carried out by professional estimate engineers with appropriate qualifications and many years of work experience.Basically, the examination of construction estimates in low-rise construction or some other is carried out according to a special program that provides for the division of the estimated cost into several parts, including the cost of materials, costs necessary to pay employees, rented equipment and many other features. After that, the specialist carefully checks all these points for possible fraud or some elementary errors. In the overwhelming majority of cases, modern experts examine the estimates in the “GRAND-estimate” and other similar programs.
How is it carried out?
Basically, the verification procedure is the same for all cases.
First of all, an exact list of tasks is established that the examination of the estimate for current repair or construction will solve. After this, a certain package of documentation is compiled that is necessary for the analysis, and it is important here to hand over to specialists the maximum possible amount of documentation related to the facility being built.
Next, an approximate period of work is determined, which will directly depend on the total amount of documentation provided, as well as the scale of the facility being sold. It should be noted right away that these factors are also often decisive in determining the cost of the work carried out, and their duration is always discussed in advance with a specialist. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the final examination of the estimate (example / sample above) is carried out in the period from a week to two months, during which the analysts prepare a report on the reliability or inaccuracy of various parameters in the submitted documents.
How to cheat customers?
Before the construction, the company is engaged in the preparation of various estimates, that is, estimates the exact cost of the work. In the overwhelming majority of cases, construction organizations, depending on their goals, try to underestimate, or, conversely, overstate the cost of various materials and work in order to secure additional profit. At the same time, the intentional and, more importantly, artificial change in value is carried out even in the process of drawing up the estimate, that is, when the customer tries to choose from several companies the one that is more preferable for carrying out various works.
During the construction process, it often turns out that the customer had to spend much more than was originally expected. The estimates were made inaccurately or incorrectly, which ultimately resulted in a serious loss of money, which, naturally, would not be pleasant to anyone.
Often there are situations when incorrectly drawn up estimates are the mistake of builders, and sometimes we are talking about the intentional shelter of any shortcomings. One way or another, the only one who will pay for such errors is the customer who incurs real financial costs.
Contractor Fraud
Monthly, contractors provide an act of completion so that the customer pays for the completed amount. Probably, every person who is not too much versed in the various intricacies of construction will not be able to fully verify everything, so you just have to believe what the builders wrote.
For example, many people prefer not to include certain types of work in the budget, but at the same time put the customer before the fact after they are completed, forcing him to pay them accordingly, which he is not really obliged to do.
How are customers wrong?
Many people believe that the examination of construction estimates with the federal budget or private investment requires serious financial investments, as it is expensive in itself.Practice shows that in reality such an opinion is completely erroneous, since by conducting a professional audit of the estimated documentation, it is possible to save up to 30% of the money that might be required for the construction of this facility.
It should be noted that in most cases, the price of expert services fluctuates around 1-3% of the total project amount.
What can they find?
Among the errors that are most often found in incorrectly prepared estimates, one can single out an increase in labor costs, expenses for renting a transport, as well as other similar articles. Often, specialists are also able to detect the purchase of materials that are too expensive or some kind of equipment. If we talk about real mistakes, then most often they are in the process of compiling overhead costs or misused coefficients.
In the process of conducting the inspection, often the specialists have to not only work with the estimated documentation, but also visit the facility on their own. Quite often, this is required in order to assess whether the real volume of services provided by the contractor corresponds to the list indicated in the documentation.
When checking the correctness of the established prices, the examination of construction estimates and budget documentation is checked for several factors. First of all, the specialist determines how much these prices correspond to market value, and also determines whether they contradict the parameters recommended by applicable law and regulatory requirements. To carry out such an audit, a huge number of specialized regulatory bases are used, including TER, TSN, FER, SBC and many others.
Also, when an examination of the estimates for the construction of an individual residential building or any other single object is carried out, the fact that the estimated standards are periodically adopted to be uniform for all standards, and sometimes they are set separately for each region, is taken into account. Ultimately, experts draw up a conclusion that describes in great detail the errors found during the verification of the documentation, as well as recommendations for their elimination.
Thus, specialists most often encounter:
- incorrect wording of overhead costs;
- inflated transportation costs;
- incorrect selection of similar objects;
- the error of the coefficient that recalculates everything into the current value
- inflated terms of work;
- increased labor costs.
All this leads to a significant increase in costs, because even minor errors in the ratios lead to a significant cost overrun.
How much is it?
Almost every company that is being evaluated (KOSGU or questions of a private nature does not make a difference) often does not indicate in advance any specific figures in terms of cost. Only a preliminary form is proposed technical specifications which approximately describes the object in question, and only then, after carrying out its verification, experts can determine the specific numbers. The use of such technology is extremely understandable, because each object has many individual features, and for this reason, the estimate for it is also absolutely unique, and therefore it is simply impossible to name the exact and full price in advance.
Some experts believe that the price at which the examination of the estimate for current repairs under 44-FZ will be carried out should be negotiated only individually. The final amount is affected by the urgency of all work, the number of experts involved, the amount of documents submitted for analysis, as well as the number and complexity of the tasks.In some cases, the examination requires the use of special equipment, which also affects the cost of the work performed, and, among other things, the criteria include the remoteness of the facility, the primary or secondary verification and a host of other parameters.
The only thing that can be noted is that many companies indicate the approximate cost of checking the cost of certain types of work, objects and many other elements, by which you can roughly imagine the price of the general procedure. Based on this information, each person can already independently verify the budget provided to him and indicate the approximate amount in which the examination of the budget estimate under 44-FZ will cost him.
