Schedule of
condition.
At every stage
of an asset's life.
A defensible, fully-evidenced record of a site, building or asset at any point in its life — built for solar developers, contractors, asset owners and managing agents. Drone-led capture for what ground teams can't reach, indexed for what law needs to see.
Same evidence
discipline.
Different
triggers.
A schedule of condition (SOC) is a contemporaneous, defensible record of an asset's exact state at a moment in time. The methodology stays the same whether the trigger is a solar farm about to break ground, a contractor about to work next to a sensitive building, an owner taking on a lease, or an asset manager establishing a portfolio-wide baseline.
What changes is the asset type, the access strategy, the level of internal detail and the long-term retention requirements. Our drone-led methodology combines aerial photography of what ground teams can't reach with detailed ground capture of everything they can, indexed against a numbered location plan and signed off with an admissible methodology statement.
Four scopes.
One methodology.
Solar pre-development is where we have the deepest connection — but the same SOC discipline lands across the built environment, at every stage of an asset's life.
Solar farm
pre-development.
For developers, EPC contractors and asset owners. Pre-construction site evidence at 5 ha to 500 ha — boundary walls, hedgerows, drainage, ground levels, neighbouring assets, rights-of-way.
Solar workflow → Pre-worksNew-build &
construction.
For contractors and main developers. Adjacent-asset and neighbouring-property condition records before piling, demolition or major works. Party wall awards.
Pre-works workflow → Existing assetsExisting assets
& portfolios.
For landlords, managing agents, asset managers and FM teams. Baseline condition records of operational buildings — one-off, lease-event triggered, or as a periodic re-survey programme.
Existing-asset workflow → Refurb / demoPre-refurbishment
& pre-demolition.
For heritage owners, refurb contractors and demolition principals. Forensic, high-resolution capture of what is about to change — admissible evidence of pre-state for insurance, claims and heritage records.
Refurb workflow →Across the
asset lifecycle.
SOCs are most commonly thought of as pre-works documents. In practice the discipline applies across the full life of an asset — each stage triggers a different scope, a different deliverable, and a different evidentiary retention period.
Before
plant arrives.
Solar farms, ground-up construction, infrastructure projects. The last clean window to capture the site baseline before earthworks alter the record.
Before
the hammer falls.
Adjacent demolition, piling, major works on neighbouring property. Party wall awards. The standard built-environment SOC scope.
Operational
baseline.
One-off or lease-triggered condition records of buildings already in service. Periodic re-surveys for portfolio asset management.
Before
change.
Forensic capture of what is about to be altered or removed. Heritage records, insurance baselines, end-of-lease dilapidations.
Before
it's gone.
High-fidelity 3D + 2D capture of an asset whose existence is about to end. Permanent record for archaeology, heritage and legal hold.
Evidence before
the first piling rig.
From site optioning through planning conditions, pre-construction surveys and onto handover — the SOC protects margin against future claims.
Solar farm development moves through a sequence of expensive, hard-to-reverse stages: land option, planning permission, grid connection, pre-construction surveys, EPC mobilisation, piling, panel install, energisation. The SOC sits at the moment immediately before mobilisation — the last window where the site's baseline can still be captured cleanly.
Once piles go in, hedges are cut back, tracks are laid and ground levels start to shift, the record of "how it was" is gone. From that point on, every claim from a neighbouring landowner, every grazing-rights dispute, every public-footpath complaint, every drainage challenge from the LPA, lands on a developer who can't prove the prior state.
A drone-led SOC freezes the baseline. Aerial orthophotography of the full red-line boundary at sub-cm GSD. Detailed capture of every gate, fence line, hedgerow, watercourse, footpath, neighbouring asset and rights-of-way intersection. Geo-tagged, indexed, signed, archived for the lifetime of the asset.
Brief us on a solar site →What we capture on a typical solar pre-development survey
Full red-line orthophoto
Sub-cm GSD aerial mosaic of the entire site boundary, geo-referenced and downloadable as GeoTIFF for design teams.
Topographic / DTM capture
Ground-level surface model for piling design, drainage modelling and earthworks volume reference.
Boundary & field-edge condition
Detailed capture of every gate, fence, hedgerow, wall, drainage ditch and stile — the assets neighbours will dispute first.
Watercourses & drainage
Existing ditches, culverts, ponds and runoff routes recorded before earthworks alter the hydrology.
Public rights of way
Footpaths, bridleways and permissive routes — line, surface condition, signage, gates — captured to defend against access disputes.
Neighbouring assets
Adjoining property boundaries, buildings, outbuildings and any structures within potential vibration / settlement zones.
Existing ground & vegetation
Mature trees, hedgerow heights, grass condition, archaeological earthworks — the ecology baseline a planning condition will reference.
Access routes & haul roads
Existing condition of access lanes, gateways, verges and adjacent highway interfaces before construction traffic begins.
New-build & construction pre-works.
For main contractors and developers, the SOC is the document that decides who pays for what when works progress next to existing structures. Piling, demolition, deep excavation and heavy plant operations all generate vibration, settlement and access risk for adjoining buildings — and every defect that appears on a neighbour's facade during your works will be claimed against you unless you can prove it was already there.
Typical trigger events
- Demolition of an adjoining structure
- Piling, dewatering or basement excavation near sensitive buildings
- Party wall award — Building Owner or Adjoining Owner instruction
- Major refurbishment or change-of-use planning condition
- Adjacent highway, rail or utility works programme
What we capture
- Aerial and ground photography of adjoining properties in full
- High-level masonry, gables, parapets, rear elevations — the parts ground-only surveys miss
- Shared structures: party walls, boundary walls, roofs, valleys
- Existing crack patterns, render condition, openings, finishes
- Internal record of principal rooms where access permits
Existing assets
& portfolios.
Existing-asset SOCs are commissioned not by a trigger event next door, but by the asset owner themselves — usually because they need a defensible baseline against future claims, end-of-tenure dilapidations, insurance positions or operational asset management. Once captured, the record sits in the document trail for years.
Common scenarios
- Commercial lease commencement — limits end-of-term dilapidations exposure
- Lease assignment, change of tenant or break-clause event
- Insurance baseline ahead of policy renewal or reinstatement valuation
- Acquisition due diligence on a building or portfolio
- Year-on-year periodic re-survey for asset management dashboards
- FM handover — baseline condition at the start of a managed-service contract
How it differs from pre-works
- Capture is driven by the asset, not an external trigger — scope is owner-defined
- Often single-property; sometimes portfolio-wide with standardised templates
- Interior detail is usually in scope; we coordinate with the FM team
- Retention windows align with the relevant document (lease, policy, contract)
- Easy to re-run on an annual or biennial cadence for change-detection reporting
Pre-refurbishment
& pre-demolition.
Some SOCs are commissioned to record an asset's existence at the moment immediately before it is permanently altered or removed. The output isn't just a document; it's an archive — for heritage, for insurance reinstatement, for archaeology, and for the owner's own permanent record.
When it applies
- Listed building refurbishment — heritage and statutory consent record
- Reinstatement-value insurance baselines on heritage assets
- Pre-demolition record at end-of-life
- End-of-lease dilapidations evidence by an outgoing tenant
- Major structural alterations to an existing facade
Higher-fidelity capture
- Photogrammetric 3D mesh of facades and external envelope
- Detailed close-range RGB capture of decorative features, masonry, joinery
- Comparison-grade orthophoto elevations for later overlay
- Extended evidentiary retention — often aligned to building lifetime
From instruction
to evidence pack.
The same four-stage delivery model regardless of trigger, asset type or audience. Designed around legal admissibility, repeatability and minimal disruption.
Instruction & site review
Understand the trigger event, parties involved, assets in scope and timeline. Review imagery and confirm airspace, permissions and access. Where applicable, coordinate with appointed surveyors, asset managers or planning consultants.
Outputs: scoping document, capture plan, fee proposal.
Capture day
Coordinated drone and ground capture. High-resolution aerial photography of the full extent. Detailed ground photography of accessible features. Each image GPS-tagged, timestamped and indexed against a numbered location plan.
Solar: ½–2 days. Single property: ½–1 day. Portfolio: per-property scoping.
Processing & indexing
Images reviewed, redacted where needed, organised against the location plan and assembled into a paginated, indexed PDF schedule. Significant features called out, captioned and cross-referenced.
Optional: 3D model, orthophoto export, GIS layer hand-off.
Delivery & archive
Hand-over: indexed PDF, raw image archive, location plan, methodology statement, operator credentials. Full archive retained for the agreed evidentiary period.
Format: PDF + ZIP archive · cloud-shared with audit trail.
What sits in
the evidence pack.
Everything needed to defend the record if it's ever challenged — and nothing you'd have to chase later.
Indexed PDF schedule
Paginated document with captioned photos, location references and key-feature call-outs.
Geo-tagged image archive
Full-resolution originals with embedded GPS, timestamp and direction-of-view metadata.
Annotated location plan
Numbered plan keying every image to its capture point and elevation / orientation.
Orthophoto + DTM (solar)
Sub-cm GSD aerial mosaic and surface model — GeoTIFF for design teams, PDF for the record.
3D mesh (heritage / refurb)
Photogrammetric facade mesh for spatial reference, comparison and dispute resolution.
Methodology statement
Signed record of capture method, equipment, operator credentials and conditions on the day.
Operator credentials
Pilot qualifications, insurance certificates, CAA permissions and risk assessments.
Audit-trail retention
7-year standard retention; extended retention for solar (asset-life) and heritage (open-ended) on request.
Asked & answered.
Common questions from developers, EPC contractors, surveyors, asset managers and property owners.
How big a solar site can you cover in one day?
For SOC-grade orthophoto + boundary capture: up to ~80 ha per capture day with PPK control. Larger sites (200 ha+) are typically planned as two-day mobilisations to allow coverage redundancy and weather contingency.
Can you produce an SOC for a building that's already in use?
Yes — existing-asset SOCs are commissioned by the owner rather than by an external trigger, and are common at lease events, insurance renewals, acquisition due diligence and on a periodic basis as part of asset management. Internal access tends to be in scope and is coordinated with your FM team.
Do you run SOCs as a programme across a property portfolio?
Yes. Portfolio SOCs use standardised templates, a consistent methodology across all properties, a master register and framework-aligned pricing. We offer a deployed-team option where the volume justifies it — useful for housing providers, public estates and corporate occupiers.
Is drone photography admissible as evidence?
Yes. A schedule produced by a CAA-aligned operator, with a documented methodology, geo-tagged originals and a signed statement, is admissible in the same way as any photographic evidence. The drone is the camera mount — the legal weight comes from how the record is captured, preserved and presented.
Do you need access inside the building?
Not for the aerial capture. For a complete SOC on an existing property we recommend internal photography of the principal rooms, common parts and any high-risk interfaces (party walls, structural openings, basement areas). This can be done by our team or supplied by the appointed surveyor.
How long is the archive retained?
Standard retention is 7 years (matching common limitation periods). For solar SOCs we recommend extended retention aligned with the operational asset life (typically 25–40 years). For heritage and listed-building SOCs we offer open-ended retention. All extended-retention archives ship with an integrity audit trail.
Have an asset
that needs recording?
Tell us the asset type, the trigger event and your timeline. Solar pre-development, construction pre-works, existing-asset baseline, pre-refurb or pre-demolition — we'll come back with a scoped fee proposal, usually within one working day.