Nine areas of checks, 154 individual questions — before a single opportunity reaches you.
Before a single opportunity reaches you, it goes through a structured due-diligence process across nine areas — the developer, the funding, the building, fire and building-safety compliance, the numbers, the legal position, tax and regulatory exposure, wider compliance, and insurance. If a deal fails on any of them, it never leaves our desk. This is what “fully vetted” actually means at BlackRidge.
Property sourcing is only as good as the checks behind it. Plenty of deals look excellent on a one-page flyer and fall apart the moment you interrogate the developer’s accounts, the funding structure or the build specification. We do that interrogation for you — and we do it before you’ve committed a penny.
Who is actually building this — and have they delivered before?
Companies House review — full filing history, incorporation date, years actively trading and any change of name or registered office.
Trading records & accounts — filed accounts, net asset position, and financial standing assessed for a business of this size and stage.
Delivery track record — previous schemes identified, visited where possible, and checked for on-time, on-spec completion.
Director history — the people behind the SPV, their prior companies, and any resignations, dissolutions or disqualifications.
Solvency & risk flags — county court judgments, winding-up history, charges registered against the company and its group.
Group & SPV structure — how the development company sits within the wider group, and who ultimately controls it.
Professional team — the architect, structural engineer and principal contractor identified and checked for relevant experience at this scale.
Parent company guarantee — where the SPV is thinly capitalised, whether a parent company guarantee or performance bond sits behind it.
Litigation & dispute history — any active or historic litigation, adjudication or arbitration involving the developer or its directors.
2
Funding & deal structure
How the scheme is paid for — and where your money sits until you own the asset.
Funding structure — how the development is capitalised: senior development debt, equity, forward-funding or forward-sale.
Development lender & security — who is funding the build, the facility in place, and the security held over the site.
Title & the SPV — which entity holds legal title, and how your purchase is protected within that structure.
Build contract — the JCT / design-and-build contract, the main contractor, and retention held against defects.
Payment structure — the reservation fee, exchange deposit and any staged payments — and the schedule they follow.
Deposit protection — whether deposits are held by stakeholder solicitors, in escrow, or protected by insurance or a warranty scheme.
Exchange & longstop — the exchange mechanics, the completion trigger, and the longstop date that protects you if the build overruns.
Loan-to-GDV & drawdown — the facility’s loan-to-gross-development-value ratio, and how funds are drawn down against certified stages of work.
Independent monitoring surveyor — whether an IMS reports to the funder on progress and cost — an independent check on the developer’s own reporting.
Priority of charges — how your interest ranks against the development lender’s charge, and what happens to your deposit if the developer fails.
3
The building & specification
Is it built to standard — with materials and warranties that stand up?
Build specification — the full spec and finishes schedule reviewed against what is being marketed and priced.
Materials to standard — structural and finishing materials checked as compliant with current British Standards and Building Regulations.
Structural warranty — a 10-year NHBC, ICW, LABC or Advantage warranty confirmed — not assumed.
Certificates — Building Regulations completion, EPC rating, and gas/electrical certification on handover.
M&E, thermal & acoustic — mechanical & electrical spec, insulation, sound-proofing and energy performance to standard.
Snagging & handover — the inspection and snagging process before you accept the keys, and how defects are put right.
Structural engineer’s certificate — a certificate of structural adequacy issued by a qualified engineer, not just a warranty provider’s inspection.
Party wall & rights of light — party wall awards and any rights-of-light issues resolved before you exchange, not left as a post-completion risk.
4
Fire, safety & the building-safety regime
The post-Grenfell checks that decide whether a building is mortgageable and insurable at all.
EWS1 form — the External Wall System form obtained where the building’s height or cladding type requires it, and its rating understood before you commit.
Building Safety Act 2022 status — whether the building falls within scope as a “higher-risk building,” and what that means for ongoing duties and cost.
Fire risk assessment — a current, suitably qualified fire risk assessment in place, with any actions closed out — not outstanding.
Means of escape & compartmentation — escape routes, fire doors and compartmentation checked against the approved Building Regulations design, not just the marketing plans.
Waking watch & interim measures — confirmation there is no waking watch or costly interim fire-safety measure in place that leaseholders are funding.
Remediation liability & funding schemes — where relevant, whether the building or developer is covered by a government or developer-funded cladding remediation scheme, so the cost doesn’t fall on you.
5
The numbers
Modelled net of every cost — never on a flattering headline yield.
Independent rental evidence — real comparables and letting-agent demand data, not the developer’s projection taken at face value.
Net-of-costs modelling — voids, management, service charge, ground rent, maintenance, insurance and (where relevant) HMO licensing and bills.
True purchase cost — stamp duty including the additional-property and non-resident surcharges, legal fees and all buying costs.
Interest-rate stress test — the deal re-run at higher borrowing costs to confirm it still holds together.
Capital-growth basis — any growth figure grounded in a defensible source, and clearly flagged as illustrative, not promised.
Exit & liquidity — how and to whom you could sell, and how quickly, before you ever commit.
Land Registry sold-price comparables — actual completed sale prices for comparable units, not just current asking prices, which run ahead of what the market will pay.
Sensitivity analysis — the model re-run against a range of rent, void and cost assumptions — not a single best-case scenario.
Sinking fund & major-works exposure — the service charge reserve fund reviewed for any known or likely major works that could mean a one-off bill.
6
Legal & title
The paperwork that decides what you actually own.
Tenure & lease terms — lease length, ground rent, service charge and any escalation clauses read in full.
Title register & restrictions — the registered title, covenants, easements and restrictions that run with the property.
Planning & conditions — planning consent, any conditions still to be discharged, and permitted use.
Searches — local authority, environmental, drainage and flood-risk searches reviewed.
Management & estate charges — the managing agent, the service-charge budget, and how future costs are controlled.
Ground rent compliance — lease terms checked against the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which caps ground rent on new long residential leases at a peppercorn.
Section 106 & CIL — any Section 106 planning obligations or Community Infrastructure Levy liability that could affect the site or future costs.
Title indemnity insurance — where a title defect can’t be resolved before completion, whether defective-title indemnity insurance is available and who bears the cost.
7
Tax & regulatory position
The rules that changed recently — and the ones changing next.
Stamp Duty Land Tax modelling — SDLT calculated correctly for your specific position, including the 5% additional-property and 2% non-resident surcharges where they apply.
Non-Resident Landlord Scheme — for overseas investors, registration under the NRLS explained so rental income isn’t taxed at source in error.
Capital Gains Tax exposure — a plain-English flag of the CGT position on eventual sale, with the direction to take proper tax advice — never treated as a footnote.
Renters’ Rights Act implications — how the abolition of Section 21 and the move to periodic tenancies affects the letting strategy for this specific property.
ATED & corporate ownership — where a property is held through a company, whether the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings applies, and what it would cost.
8
Compliance & your protection
The checks that keep the transaction clean and you covered.
AML & source of funds — anti-money-laundering and know-your-client checks completed before any money moves.
Independent solicitors — you are represented by your own conveyancer — panel-recommended, never ours to instruct on your behalf.
Reservation terms — the reservation agreement, what it commits you to, and any cooling-off period explained up front.
Full disclosure — every figure, fee and assumption put in front of you in writing before you decide.
Sanctions & PEP screening — checks against UK sanctions lists and politically exposed persons screening, run before funds are accepted.
Data handling — how your personal and financial information is stored and who it is shared with, under UK GDPR.
Complaints & redress route — a clear, written complaints procedure, and the redress route available if something goes wrong.
9
Insurance & risk transfer
What actually happens if something goes wrong after you own it.
Buildings insurance — confirmation the building is insured to full reinstatement value from the point of legal completion, and by whom.
Warranty scope & exclusions — exactly what a 10-year structural warranty does and doesn’t cover, read in full rather than taken as blanket protection.
Professional indemnity cover — the architect’s and engineer’s professional indemnity insurance confirmed as current, so there’s recourse if their design work is at fault.
Latent defects insurance — where available, whether a latent (inherent) defects policy sits alongside the structural warranty for additional protection.
What makes us walk away
We would rather bring you nothing than bring you the wrong thing. A deal is rejected outright if we find:
A developer with a thin trading record or a history of delayed or undelivered schemes
Accounts or director history that don’t stand up to scrutiny
An opaque funding structure, or deposits that aren’t properly protected
A build specification or warranty position that falls short of standard
An unresolved EWS1 rating, or any sign of a waking watch or cladding remediation cost
Rents or yields that only work on the developer’s optimistic figures
Lease terms, ground rent or service charges that erode the return
Ground rent that doesn’t comply with the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022
No confirmed buildings insurance in place from the point of legal completion
Sanctions, PEP or AML screening not completed before funds are due to move
Anything that can’t be evidenced in writing
Want to see the process applied to a live deal?
Ask us for a current opportunity and we’ll walk you through exactly what we checked, and what we found.
Our due-diligence process is thorough but does not replace your own professional advisers. You should always take independent legal, tax and, where relevant, financial and surveying advice before purchasing. BlackRidge Global provides property sourcing services and does not offer regulated financial advice. Property values and rents can fall as well as rise and your capital is at risk.
Why it matters
“Most of this you’ll never have to think about — and that’s the point. By the time a deal reaches you, the hard questions have already been asked, and answered.”
See what a vetted deal looks like.
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