Before demolition, excavation or piling next door, before the strip-out after damage, before building parts are covered up: we record the existing condition (Beweissicherung) so that it can still be traced years later by courts and insurers – cracks with their width, every photo with a reference, the report with a date.
You are building in a Berlin perimeter block, digging a basement next to an old building or driving sheet piles. Without a record, every old crack next door becomes yours. With it you have the condition record under § 3(4) VOB/B and an answer to claims for loss of support under § 909 BGB.
A construction site is starting next door. You want the condition of your building on record before the first vibrations – whether or not the developer commissions a survey.
Before repairing damage, before acceptance, before building parts are closed up (§ 4(10) VOB/B): the evidence has to be secured before contractors remove it.
A report with instruction, date, attendees, scope, method, findings and the limits of the inspection: site plan with compass directions, room-by-room sketches with numbered walls, every finding with the same reference in plan, text and photo, overview and detail photos, and a signature box for owner and neighbour. Digital and on paper. The final survey compares both conditions.
A condition survey records a condition, not a cause – establishing causes is a separate service. Neither you nor we have a right of access to other people's buildings; the client organises access and we support with a letter template. Questions of liability and compensation are for a lawyer.
Fixed prices per building after a short call; travel within Berlin included. Condition surveys are mostly commissioned by companies – prices are therefore net; private clients add 19 % VAT.
from €690 per building · plus VAT
final survey 60 % of the initial price
from €1,290 per building · plus VAT
up to 6 flats; each further flat €90 · final survey 60 %
by quote, guide from €2,900 for three buildings · plus VAT
measurement equipment via specialist firms charged separately
A condition survey is read when there is a dispute – often years later, by people who were never on site. That is why every finding has a reference that is identical in plan, text and photo, and why the report states what we could not see. Condition surveys and reports for courts and insurers are part of our work.
Phone +49 176 23581339 · info@ing-bassam.de · reply within one working day
No, there is no right to that. In practice most neighbours agree, because the record protects them too: a crack recorded beforehand cannot later be blamed on anyone. We provide a letter template. If access is refused, we document what can be seen from publicly accessible areas and record the refusal in the report.
A condition survey is a private record, quick and without a court; independent evidence proceedings (selbständiges Beweisverfahren) under sections 485 et seq. of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) are court proceedings with a different procedural effect. Before construction starts, when nobody is in dispute yet, the private survey is the usual route. Which route suits your situation is for a lawyer to advise.
Before the first intervention: before demolition, excavation, shoring, piling or the strip-out after damage. Allow one to two weeks so that access to neighbouring buildings can be organised. Once works have started, the record is of limited use.
It puts it into practice. Section 3(4) VOB/B requires a record of the condition of roads, ground surface and structures in the construction area before work begins, to be acknowledged by client and contractor. Our report is structured so that both sides can sign it.
60 % of the price of the initial survey. It takes place after completion of the works with the same grid as the initial survey; the report compares both conditions and states changes with measurements.