Know what to expect long before one of our friendly appraisers comes knocking at your door. While every inspection with Normac is different (because each property we appraise is unique), we’ve done our best to keep our site inspections to a relatively predictable sequence for your convenience and peace of mind.
Normac to Resume Interior Site-Inspections as of August 1, 2021
All of Normac’s initial appraisal programs include an exterior and interior site inspection. That is, until COVID-19 hit, and we had to adapt our processes several times to protect the safety and well-being of our team members and clients.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we carried out exterior appraisal inspections without meeting a site contact in person. Information about the interior of the suites and common areas of the buildings were still reliably obtained through a combination of a questionnaire completed by the site contact, credible online sources, and via telephone consultation with one of our appraisers. By July of last year, we carefully went ahead with resuming interior common area site inspections on a voluntary basis, while still halting in-suite inspections.
Effective August 1, 2021, Normac will resume full interior site inspections for all properties in your province. The requirement for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during a site inspection is pursuant to current provincial health direction in your region at the time of inspection. For residential interior in-suite inspections, our appraisers will continue to wear masks. If site contacts accompany or interact with an appraiser during an interior in-suite inspection, they are asked to maintain a two-meter physical distance from our appraisers and wear a non-medical mask or facial covering at all times. If you prefer NOT to have an interior in-suite site inspection completed, please advise us immediately.
Scheduling a Site Inspection
A series of steps precede a Normac appraisal inspection:
1. Review and sign off on your Normac appraisal proposal. Ensure that you indicate who your site contact is and how to get in touch with them, what your Current Insurable Value is, and whether you have a copy of your property’s architectural blueprints. If this is your first time requesting an insurance appraisal from Normac, you may find this video tutorial useful.
2. Once we receive all supporting documentation, one of our client services administrators will reach out to your site contact to schedule a site inspection. The site contact will need to be available during business hours on a weekday. Our scheduling coordinators will ensure the time slot chosen is approved by your site contact prior to our appraisers visiting the site.
3. The assigned appraiser will review the blueprints and necessary property information, familiarizing themselves with your property prior to the scheduled site inspection.
Meeting Your Appraiser
On the day of the site inspection, a Normac appraiser will meet your site contact at the designated time and place. The site contact will need to give the appraiser access to an interior suite and common areas. Pro-tip: If ever in doubt, look for someone in a Normac-branded shirt wearing a face mask.
From here, you can expect the appraiser to take photographs of the property. If blueprints were not available to review prior to the inspection, the appraiser will spend some time taking manual measurements of the building(s). The appraiser will also have a tablet in hand to take inventory of the construction build and identify any special features.
To understand what our appraisers will be looking for during an inspection, it helps to understand how we determine Total Insurable Value (TIV). Assets included in our appraisal that are used to calculate TIV consist of structures, hard & soft landscaping, building code & municipal bylaw review, and demolition and removal costs.
The list of structures is not exhaustive and slightly varies by province. To give a general idea, our appraisals include all costs associated with replacement of: foundations, exterior framing, interior finishes, floor structure, roof structure, balconies, decks, fire protection equipment, and elevators among others. Structures do not include costs for furniture, contents & equipment. Individual tenant improvements (i.e. custom counters and display areas, extra wall partitioning, vaults, custom electrical work) will also not be included, unless otherwise stated.
Hard & soft landscaping includes all costs associated with replacement of paving, curbs, sidewalks, handicap ramps, trees, lawns, shrubs, and hedges among others. Building Code and Municipal Bylaw review refers to the estimated additional cost necessary in the event of a replacement, to bring the subject structures up to the current local Building Code and Municipal bylaw with respect to parking spaces, fire protection, and handicapped access. The national building code sets the bare minimum requirements; however, additional requirements vary by each province and municipality. Costs for demolition and removal are also added to this section.
Taking all this into consideration, a site inspection takes approximately 45 minutes to complete, but may take longer depending on the building, and if it needs to be manually measured.
Look Out for Any Follow-Up Emails
After the inspection is completed, the appraiser will have enough information to complete your Replacement Cost Report, which will be delivered approximately 4-6 weeks from your inspection date. To avoid further delays, look out for any follow-up emails from our appraisal team in case any additional information is required to finalize the report.
