Commercial & Large Loss Reinstatement
On a commercial claim the building damage is rarely the expensive part. The expensive part is the business not trading. Everything we plan is built around getting you operating again as early as the work allows.
Trading Through the Repair
Very few commercial clients can simply close for eight weeks. So the first conversation is not about the building, it is about the business: what has to keep running, what can move, what can be closed off, and which parts of the premises are worth the most per week.
From there the work gets staged — hoarding off a section rather than the whole floor, doing the noisy and disruptive parts outside trading hours, sequencing so the front of house comes back before the storage does. It costs a little more in programme and it saves a great deal in lost trade.
What We Take On
- Retail premises — shopfronts, fitouts, glazing, and getting a store trading again
- Offices — including partitioning, ceilings, services and reinstating a fitout
- Warehousing and light industrial
- Hospitality — where kitchens, compliance and reopening dates all interact
- Multi-unit residential and apartment buildings
- Body corporate common property — see for property managers
- Care facilities — see residential care & rest homes
- Mixed-use buildings where residential sits above commercial
More Parties, More Coordination
A large loss usually has a crowd around it: the insurer, a loss adjuster, sometimes a loss assessor acting for the insured, the broker, the building owner, the tenant, a body corporate, and occasionally council. Everybody needs a slightly different thing.
Our job is to be the single point that all of them can ring, and to make sure nobody finds out about a change from somebody else. On larger claims we set up a regular reporting rhythm at the start so that the information flows without anyone having to chase it.
Where Large Loss Claims Actually Get Stuck
Rarely the building work. Usually one of three things: an incomplete initial scope that generates variations, a long wait for a specialist product, or consent. All three are more manageable if they are identified in week one, which is why the assessment stage on a big claim is worth doing thoroughly rather than quickly.
Business Interruption
We do not handle the business interruption side of a claim — that is between you, your broker and your insurer. What we can do is give you a realistic programme with dates, and tell you honestly when it changes, because that is what a business interruption calculation depends on.
Commercial Claims — Common Questions
Can we keep trading while you work?
Usually some of it, yes. It depends on the damage and on health and safety — we cannot have customers walking past open work. But hoarding, staging and out-of-hours work between them let most businesses keep operating in some form. It is the first thing we look at.
Can you work nights and weekends?
Out-of-hours work is often the right answer on a trading site — talk to us about what your operation needs.
Who is my point of contact on a big claim?
One project manager, for the whole job. On larger losses they will set up a regular reporting cycle with whoever needs to be on it — you, the adjuster, the broker, the body corporate. You should never be finding things out second hand.
Do you deal with the loss adjuster directly?
Yes, routinely, and it is generally faster for everybody if we do. You are welcome to be in every conversation, or to leave us to it and read the summary — whichever suits how you want to spend your week.
What about consent?
Like-for-like reinstatement often does not need it; structural change, fire rating and change of use often do. We will tell you at scoping stage whether consent is in play, because it affects the programme more than almost anything else.
When It Can't Wait Until Morning.
Answered and managed by our own team — not an outsourced answering service. We get there, make it safe and stop the damage getting worse.