Building Consulting

Decisions about buildings should be based on evidence.

Craig MacDonald FRICS brings over 20 years of experience to every engagement. With a deep understanding of construction technology, and a passion for innovative solutions, Craig excels at clearly and concisely communicating technical subjects, making them widely accessible.

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What we do best.

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Built Asset Auditing

At-scale, on-site collection of asset condition data for corporate and government portfolios — condition rating, remaining life, replacement cost, maintenance forecasts, and compliance shortfalls across NCC, DDA, WHS and fire safety.

Data lands in the exact structure your asset management system needs, ready for ISO 55001-aligned frameworks — captured in the field with CamReport, the platform we built for precisely this work. The surveyor and the software were made for each other.

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By The Building Detective

Building Pathology

Buildings fail in patterns. Diagnosing the cause of a defect — not just its symptoms — takes deep knowledge of construction technology and materials behaviour, applied through a structured diagnostic method: ODEC — Observations, Deductions, Elimination, Conclusion.

It’s the discipline Craig wrote the book on — The Building Detective — refined over two decades of investigations, from a single failing balcony to building performance failures across a multi-screen cinema complex.

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Tell us where you’re standing.

Every building problem feels different from the inside. Pick the one that fits — we’ll show you exactly how we help.

You can't fund what you can't see. We make your portfolio visible.

For corporate, institutional and government estates, we capture reliable, structured asset-condition data at scale — condition, remaining life, replacement cost, maintenance forecasts, and compliance shortfalls — delivered in the exact format your asset management system needs, so your team analyses and decides instead of re-keying.

Built Asset AuditingLifecycle & CapEx forecastingCompliance audits
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Your committee has to set levies without nasty surprises later.

A sinking fund forecast isn't just a legislative box — it's the backbone of good governance. We tailor forecasts to your building's real age, construction and history, diagnose defects before they balloon, and run compliant procurement so owners can trust the numbers.

Sinking Fund ForecastDefect InvestigationProcurement Advisory
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You're not afraid defects exist. You're afraid of the one you didn't price in.

Before you commit capital, you need to know what you're really buying. We lead the technical due diligence — structure, services, fire, compliance and the capital you'll actually spend — with insights upfront and plainspoken, not buried in a RAG table. Fit-for-purpose reporting for institutional teams and private purchasers alike, including SMSFs.

Technical Due DiligenceVendor / Sell-side ReportCapital forecast
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The trusted independent expert behind your buildings.

Schedules of condition at lease commencement, make good assessments at lease end, and defect investigations when something isn't behaving — documented properly the first time, so you can manage tenants, owners and contractors from facts rather than opinions.

Schedule of ConditionLease Make GoodDefect Investigation
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A make-good claim shouldn't be whatever the other side says it is.

Whether you're the tenant, the landlord, or need an independent mediator, we document the real obligation under the lease, price it fairly, and can negotiate the settlement — interim schedules for forecasting liability, terminal schedules at expiry. Get it early and you control the exit, not the clock.

Lease Make Good AssessmentTerminal Schedule of DilapidationsNegotiation
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Sometimes the most valuable thing you can show a client is independence.

When you're over-resourced, conflicted out, or need a holistic building report to sit beside your structural or legal work, we're the discreet specialist behind you. Engineers, project managers, lawyers and advisors bring us in to scope work independently, diagnose defects they won't touch, and act as subject-matter expert.

Expert reportsIndependent scopesBuilding PathologySubconsulting
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Document the neighbours before the excavator does.

Third-party, detailed, unbiased dilapidation reports that record pre-existing conditions before works begin — and independent defect investigations when a dispute needs an expert who wasn't involved in the build.

Dilapidation reportsSchedule of ConditionDefect Investigation
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When a contractor walks away, you shouldn't have to face it alone.

A failing floor, water ingress nobody will own, a tree threatening the house. We act as your agent: we establish the facts on site, document everything, translate the codes into plain language, and manage the process — QBCC, QCAT, or council — speaking the regulator's language and staying the course.

Acting as your agentQBCC / QCAT supportBuilding & Pest review
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The full suite.

Technical Due Diligence

Impartial review of a commercial asset’s condition before you acquire, refinance or develop.

Vendor / Sell-side Report

Get ahead of buyer concerns: fix the small things, price the big ones, control the narrative.

Lease Make Good

Fair, documented end-of-lease obligations for tenants, landlords or as independent mediator.

Schedule of Condition

A photographic record at a fixed point in time — lease commencement, or a builder’s dilapidation.

Sinking Fund Forecast

Tailored, long-range funding forecasts so bodies corporate can set levies with confidence.

Procurement Advisory

Principal’s Requirements, tender processes, and evaluation where technical complexity matters.

Loss Adjuster Support

Independent expert evaluation of insured damage — rectification, cost to complete, and peril.

Acting as Agent

We represent your interests through QBCC, QCAT and council when something’s gone wrong.

Services, shown as the work.

Steel columns and stormwater channels beneath a sub-regional shopping centre
Technical Due Diligence

The “structural failure” that wasn’t

Visible corrosion and silt under the centre looked like a critical defect. Root-cause analysis reframed it as a deliberate stormwater design with a maintenance backlog.

Outcome: The client proceeded to settlement with a defined capital strategy.
 Defective engineered floorboards lifted, exposing failed adhesive
Acting as agent · QBCC

$15k floor, denied by the installer

When the supplier walked away, we lodged and managed the QBCC complaint — facts on site, documented, and represented at every inspection.

Outcome: Direction to Rectify — full replacement ordered.
 Trafalgar Towers, a 16-storey residential building
Procurement · Strata

A fire-maintenance tender done right

We prepared and ran a compliant Request for Tender against the right Australian Standards, with a full fire-asset register so contractors priced the real scope.

Outcome: 3-year fixed contract with clear KPIs and accountability.
Craig MacDonald FRICS

Backed by the gold standard,
led by The Building Detective.

Every report is prepared under Craig MacDonald — Chartered Building Surveyor, Fellow of RICS, and author of The Building Detective. Beyond Condition is an RICS-regulated firm (Reg. 908448): impartial advice, rigorous standards, global accountability.

  • BSc (Hons) Building Surveying
  • Fellow of RICS
  • Chair, RICS Membership Engagement Group (QLD)
  • Chair, RICS Strata Inspection Panel (NSW)
  • Registered RICS Assessor
  • 20+ years, all 8 states & territories
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