Fixed fee, named set
Quoted before the work starts, never hourly, with the delivery clock running from the day the documents arrive.
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An owner side construction advisory firm, and the work we turn down
We read construction contracts for the party paying for the building. The work we decline is as much a part of that as the work we take.
Why it happens
Why an owner side construction advisory firm turns work down
A reading is only independent if the reader has nothing to gain from what it says.
We never act for the build side
No contractors, no construction managers bidding work, no trade contractors, no estimating firms. Not occasionally, not ever.
We do not price work
A competing estimate is not what is wrong with most guaranteed maximum prices. What is wrong is usually in the exhibits.
No fee depends on the finding
We are paid the same when the memo says the price is sound as when it lists thirty exposures. That is what makes the first memo worth having.
The firm
One question, asked properly, before the number is locked
A guaranteed maximum price arrives as a single figure at the end of a long process, and the owner is asked to accept it as a ceiling. Almost nobody outside the contractor’s own team has read what sits behind it.
That is the gap we work in. We read the price, the program, the package scopes and the change machinery from the owner’s side, put money against what we find, and write it down in language the owner can take into a negotiation.
We do this and nothing else. We are not a construction manager, we are not a cost consultancy taking owner work between contractor jobs, and we are not a law firm. Corven & Ashby LLC is not a licensed engineering practice and does not present itself as one.
How we work
Three rules that decide everything else
They sound obvious written down. They are unusual in practice, and each one costs us work we could otherwise take.
Read the documents
Every finding points to a page in a document you already hold. If it is not in the set, it does not go in the register. An opinion without a reference is just a consultant being confident.
Rank by money
Findings come back sorted by exposure, not by document order and not by how interesting they are. Three items usually carry most of the value, and your negotiating time is finite.
Write for the reader
The memo has to survive being read by your partner, your board or your lender. Construction language that only a builder can follow is a memo that cannot do its job.
Independence
What we will not do
Independence is not a value statement. It is a list of work we turn down, and it only means something if the list is written where clients can see it.
We do not price work
We produce no estimate and no competing number. A firm that prices work has a view on what the work should cost, and that view contaminates the reading.
We do not bid
We do not tender for construction work in any form, on your project or on anybody else’s.
We do not act for contractors
Not on your project and not on a different one. A reviewer who works both sides is not independent on either.
We do not give legal advice
We say what a clause is likely to cost. What it means, and whether it is enforceable, is a question for your counsel.
Questions we get asked
The awkward ones first
If something here reads as a limitation, that is because it is one. A firm that claims no limitations has simply not written them down.
Why are there no client names on this site?
Because engagements are confidential and we would rather be trusted for how we work than for whose name we can print. A review that becomes marketing material is a review the next client has to think twice about.
Why no case studies?
Same reason. A case study describes a real project, a real contractor and a real negotiation. Every figure on this site is illustrative and labelled as such, which is less impressive and more honest.
Who actually reads my documents?
The person who takes your engagement reads your set and writes your memo, and that is the person on the call. The reading is not handed to somebody junior and the call is not handed to somebody senior who did not read it.
Are you licensed or certified?
We do not hold ourselves out as a licensed engineering practice, a law firm or a registered cost consultancy in any state, and we do not claim certifications we do not have. What we offer is a method and a set of documents you can check.
What if you find nothing worth reporting?
Then the memo says the price is sound, in writing, and you sign with that on file. We are paid the same either way, which is the only condition under which that outcome is believable.
What you end up with
What that means for you
A document you can put in front of a partner, a client or a committee without a conflict question.
Every finding sourced
Every line traceable to the document it came from, so the register can be defended without us in the room.
A reader with no other interest
The only party on the project whose sole task is to read the price from your side of the table.
Independence is a list of work you turn down
The line that defines us
Owner
Who we work for
We do not price work, we do not bid, and we do not act for contractors. There is no version of this service where that changes.
The work itself
Four modules, one set of documents
Send the documents and we will say which module we would run first, and whether there is time for it before your signing date.