Building & Condition Surveys
Structural condition, defect diagnosis and dilapidations to chartered professional standards, in places other practices decline.
SIGHTMARK.
Expeditionary Chartered Surveying
Chartered building, damage and reconstruction surveys in conflict affected, post disaster and remote locations.
[ 01 / The proposition ]
// What SightMark is
Two disciplines.
One deliverable.
SightMark is a chartered surveying practice that works where conventional firms will not: in conflict affected, post disaster, remote and otherwise hard to reach locations. It returns with reporting that insurers, lenders, courts and counterparties accept and act upon.
Our advantage is an intersection almost no one else occupies: the professional authority of chartered surveying, carried by people with the operational background to reach the ground and work on it safely.
// The profession
Chartered authority
Every engagement is delivered to recognised chartered professional standards and, where valuation is required, to recognised global valuation standards. The output carries the recognition lenders, insurers, arbitrators and courts expect of any UK practice. The difference is where we produce it.
// The ground
Operational competence
Our surveyors are former British Army. We plan a deployment into difficult ground, covering route study, threat and risk assessment, communications and contingency, then bring in and work alongside the right security and local specialists. We do not provide the security ourselves; we make sure it is there, and that the survey is delivered safely within it. Access is the problem we are built to solve.
Most who can reach the site cannot certify it. Most who can certify it will not reach the site. SightMark does both.
[ 02 / The value we unlock ]
// Why it matters
We release value
that is otherwise frozen.
In these environments the asset is rarely the problem. The building, the plant, the infrastructure all still exist. What is missing is a report that someone with capital at stake will accept, and until that report exists, the value is stranded. SightMark produces the key.
The scale of that stranded value is now enormous, and most of it sits in reconstruction: capital that flows from development banks and donors and, increasingly, from private investors and lenders. Every tranche of it waits on the same thing before it can move: damaged assets assessed, reconstruction costs estimated to a standard that holds, and completed works independently verified.
Scenario / 01
Insurance claim
LockedA major loss in a hostile region no adjuster will attend; assessment defaults to satellite imagery and remote estimate, and the claim cannot be properly quantified or paid.
ReleasedAn independent, on site damage and reinstatement assessment the insurer can settle and reinstate against.
Scenario / 02
Acquisition & sale
LockedA transaction stalled because no party will rely on an asset they cannot inspect, and access opens only in narrow windows.
ReleasedA rapid early look chartered review, delivered the moment access opens, that lets the deal price and complete ahead of the field.
Scenario / 03
Finance & drawdown
LockedA facility or disbursement held because a lender or DFI has no acceptable verification of works or security.
ReleasedIndependent monitoring and reporting that allows funds to be released.
Satellites estimate. We certify.
// The point
The obstacle is almost never the asset. It is the absence of a report anyone will accept.
A claim that will not settle, a deal that will not close, a facility that will not draw down. Each waits on the same thing: an independent, professionally credible report from ground that cannot otherwise produce one. That report is what SightMark exists to provide, and the independence behind it is what makes insurers, lenders and courts act on it.
Where the market goes remote, we go in.
[ 03 / Capabilities ]
// What we deliver
Capabilities
C·01
C·02
Damage & Loss Assessment
Independent post conflict and post disaster damage assessment for insurers, reinsurers and loss adjusters, fully evidenced.
C·03
Reconstruction Cost Estimating
Quantity surveying and feasibility for reconstruction and infrastructure, suited to development bank and donor requirements.
C·04
Monitoring & Verification
Independent third party monitoring of works and disbursement milestones for lenders and DFIs in fragile states.
Every output is built to be relied upon downstream, by an insurer settling a claim, a lender releasing funds or a board approving a transaction. We scope each engagement to the use it must withstand.
[ 04 / Standards & conduct ]
// Governance
Standards & conduct
We hold our work to the standards of our profession and align our operations to the recognised frameworks for organisations working in conflict affected and high risk environments, covering the survey, the safety of our people, and our conduct on the ground.
// Professional
How we survey
Chartered professional standards & rules of conduct
Recognised global valuation standards
Defined methodology & evidence standards
// Risk & duty of care
How we protect our people
Travel risk managementISO 31030:2021
Risk management principlesISO 31000:2018
Occupational health & safetyISO 45001
Hostile Environment & First Aid TrainingHEFAT
// Human rights & conduct
How we conduct ourselves
The standards of our professional body (honesty, integrity, competence, service, respect and responsibility)
UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human RightsUNGPs
Voluntary Principles on Security & Human RightsVPSHR
OECD Guidelines for Multinational EnterprisesOECD
// Security
How we manage security
SightMark is a surveying practice, not a security company. Where protective security is required we engage ICoCA member companies certified to the relevant standards, alongside trusted local guides. We do not provide armed security ourselves.
International Code of Conduct AssociationICoCA
Security operations management systemISO 18788
// Insurance & cover
Insurance arranged for each engagement
Cover is placed appropriate to the client, the territory and the task, and confirmed in writing before any deployment. Depending on the engagement, it can include:
Professional indemnityCover for our professional advice and reporting, extended to include war & terrorism.
Public & employers’ liabilityThird party injury and property cover on site, and statutory cover for our people.
War, terrorism & political violenceSpecialist cover for operating in conflict affected, high threat and politically unstable territories.
Personal accident & travelDeployed personnel cover including war and terrorism, for high risk travel and work on the ground.
Medical & emergency evacuationEmergency medical treatment, evacuation from theatre and repatriation.
Kidnap, ransom & crisis responseSpecial risks cover with access to professional crisis response and negotiation support.
Insurance, alignment and certification status confirmed per engagement, against the relevant framework, prior to deployment.
[ 05 / Operating model ]
// The sequence
How we operate
A disciplined, repeatable sequence. Nobody deploys until access and risk are understood, and every deployment ends in a deliverable built to be relied upon.
01
Recce
Country and route study, access feasibility, permissions and local liaison, with a defined statement of work agreed before anyone deploys.
02
Risk Plan
Threat and risk assessment, insurance confirmation, communications, medical and extraction planning, with the duty of care fully documented and evidenced.
03
Deploy
A veteran survey team executes on the ground, capturing measured, photographic and instrument data to an evidential standard with a clear chain of custody.
04
Report
A chartered, professional standard deliverable, bankable, insurable and admissible, with full methodology and a defensible evidence trail.
We lead the survey. We do not provide the security.
SightMark is the chartered survey lead on every engagement. For protective security we integrate vetted private security companies; for access, movement and local knowledge we work with trusted local guides, fixers and interpreters. We coordinate that team under one managed engagement, so you deal with a single accountable professional, and each part of the job is handled by specialists in their own field, not by a surveyor working outside theirs.
[ 06 / Sectors ]
// Who we work with
Who we work with
Our clients share one thing: a high value decision that hinges on a credible report from ground that is hard to reach.
S / 01
Development Banks & DFIs
Independent monitoring and verification of infrastructure and disbursement in fragile and frontier states.
S / 02
Insurers & Reinsurers
Claims quantification and loss assessment for risks situated in conflict and disaster zones.
S / 03
Humanitarian & Reconstruction
Damage assessment and feasibility for recovery and rebuilding programmes.
S / 04
Energy, Mining & Extractives
Site and asset survey across remote and high threat regions.
S / 05
Government & Defence
Infrastructure assessment and estate survey on overseas and contested ground.
S / 06
Investors & Due Diligence
Frontier market asset verification underpinning capital and acquisition decisions.
[ 07 / Why SightMark ]
// The difference
Veteran led.
Chartered throughout.
SightMark was founded by a chartered surveyor and British Army veteran, and is staffed by surveyors drawn from the forces. The discipline that made us effective in service, planning for the worst, briefing thoroughly, never cutting corners on safety, is the same discipline that produces a reliable survey under pressure.
We hold ourselves to two standards at once: the professional obligations of chartered membership, and the operational standards expected of any team working in a hostile or austere environment. We will decline work we cannot do safely and to standard, and we will tell you so plainly. That judgement is part of what you are engaging.
“If we can’t do it properly, we won’t do it, and the brief comes back to you straight.”
Chartered surveying practice
Insurance arranged per engagementincl. war & terr