Commercial Insurance Repairs, Make Good and Building Maintenance

Built for trading premises

AxisPro’s project background is fit-out and remediation in live environments — trading restaurants, operating medical suites and occupied apartment towers. Staged works, out-of-hours programming, protected access routes, dust and noise control, and one point of contact for the manager. Project sizes from 70 m² tenancies to 3,500 m² commercial buildings.

The ten steps

1. 01Step 01

   Step 1: The Incident and Its Effect on Trading

   The first question in a commercial claim is not what was damaged — it is whether the business can keep operating, and what that is costing.

   Record first

   Dated photographs of the damage and its extent before anything is cleared, including affected stock, fitout and services.

   Trading impact

   Note what has stopped, what is running at reduced capacity, and from when. Business interruption cover depends on it.

   Keep together

   Contractor attendance reports, service isolation records and any centre management or landlord correspondence.

   What we watch for: Premises cleaned up and reopened before the damage was recorded. Trading pressure is understandable, but it removes the evidence the claim depends on.

2. 02Step 02

   Step 2: Establish Who Is Responsible — Lease and Policy

   Commercial damage sits across a lease as well as a policy. Which party claims, and for what, has to be settled before scoping.

   Landlord or tenant

   The lease usually splits structure and base building from the tenant’s fitout and stock. That split drives who lodges.

   Two policies, often

   Building cover and the tenant’s own contents, fitout and business interruption cover frequently both respond.

   Where we help

   We scope base building and tenancy works separately so each party claims what is theirs.

   What we watch for: One combined scope across landlord and tenant responsibility. It stalls both claims and puts the parties in dispute with each other.

3. 03Step 03

   Step 3: Lodge the Claim

   Each responsible party lodges on its own policy, with the record assembled in step 1.

   What is lodged

   Policy details, date and cause, photographs, the trading impact, and any contractor reports.

   Assessment

   Commercial losses of any size are usually adjuster-managed. Expect a loss adjuster rather than an in-house assessor.

   Coordinate

   Where two policies respond, keep both insurers informed of the other. It prevents duplicated scoping.

   What we watch for: Lodging without the trading impact quantified. It is the part of a commercial claim most often under-recorded and hardest to reconstruct later.

4. 04Step 04

   Step 4: We Assess and Document

   A builder inspects the premises, identifies concealed and consequential damage, and records what the adjuster will need.

   What we do

   Dated photography, moisture readings where relevant, and a written condition report covering base building and tenancy separately.

   Services and compliance

   Mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services checked — in commercial premises these drive both cost and reoccupation.

   Access

   Inspections timed around trading, including after hours where required.

   What we watch for: Assessments that stop at finishes. In commercial premises the services behind them usually decide whether the tenancy can reopen.

5. 05Step 05

   Step 5: Scope, Price and Program Around Trading

   We produce a line-item scope and a program built around the operating hours of the business, not around ours.

   The scope

   Base building and tenancy separated, in the adjuster’s required format.

   The program

   Staged so trading continues where possible, with the works that must close the premises grouped into the shortest possible window.

   Compliance

   Reinstatement priced to current code where the works trigger it, and that difference identified explicitly.

   What we watch for: Programs priced for an empty building. A scope that ignores trading hours will be re-priced once, and the claim loses weeks.

6. 06Step 06

   Step 6: Approvals — Insurer, Landlord and Centre Management

   Commercial works usually need more than the insurer’s approval.

   Insurer or adjuster

   Approves the scope and the estimate.

   Landlord

   Approves works affecting base building, structure or services, and any change to the tenancy condition.

   Centre or building management

   Approves access, hours, dock bookings, hot works and contractor inductions.

   What we watch for: Insurer approval treated as the only approval. Landlord and centre sign-off is where commercial programs most often lose time.

7. 07Step 07

   Step 7: Contract, Permits, Practitioners and Inductions

   Contract executed, permits obtained, practitioners engaged, and every access requirement satisfied before mobilisation.

   Permits

   Structural and most reinstatement works need a building permit. Change of use or code upgrades may add planning requirements.

   Site access

   Inductions, site rules, after-hours permits, hot works permits and loading access confirmed in writing.

   Insurances

   Certificates of currency to the landlord and centre management before starting.

   What we watch for: Arriving without a hot works permit or an induction. In a managed centre it stops the job at the dock.

8. 08Step 08

   Step 8: Staged Delivery

   One supervisor, our own trusted trade partners, a published program with milestone dates, and progress reporting at agreed intervals.

   Trading premises

   Hoarding and protected access, dust and noise control, and out-of-hours works where trading cannot be interrupted.

   Neighbouring tenancies

   Kept informed where works affect shared walls, services or access.

   Reporting

   Photographic progress updates suitable for the landlord, the adjuster and the tenant.

   What we watch for: Works that spill into trading hours. It costs the tenant revenue and it costs the builder the relationship.

9. 09Step 09

   Step 9: Concealed Damage and Variations

   Opening up a commercial tenancy routinely reveals more than the scope allowed for — particularly in premises fitted out by successive tenants.

   How we handle it

   Documented with photographic substantiation and submitted for approval before the work proceeds.

   Common finds

   Unpermitted previous alterations, non-compliant services, and damage extending into base building elements.

   Code upgrades

   Where a variation triggers a compliance upgrade, we identify it separately so the insured and uninsured portions stay clear.

   What we watch for: Compliance upgrades absorbed silently into a variation. They are usually not insured damage, and the distinction has to be made in writing.

10. 10Step 10

    Step 10: Handover, Make Good and Ongoing Maintenance

    Defect close-out, compliance certificates, warranties and an as-completed record — and, where it applies, the make good position at end of lease.

    The handover pack

    Certificates, warranties, updated services documentation and the full photographic record.

    Make good

    Where the repair changes the tenancy condition, we document what the reinstated condition now is, so the end-of-lease obligation is assessed against fact rather than memory.

    Ongoing maintenance

    Planned and reactive maintenance can continue under the same supervisor, which keeps the building’s history with one contractor.

    What we watch for: Reinstated premises handed back without the condition documented. Two years later the make good negotiation has no baseline.