QA - BREEAM Knowledge Base

Compliance: Conflicts of interest for the BREEAM assessor - KBCN0107

The assessor can be someone within the design team or work for the same company as the design team member(s) but the assessor must identify and manage any potential conflicts of interest. The assessor should also make BRE Global aware of the situation so that, should it prove appropriate, the certification report can be escalated to a more detailed level of quality assurance checking. If the assessor is a member of the company who are producing evidence to demonstrate compliance, there must be clear separation of the roles and the BREEAM/HQM assessor must not be personally responsible for producing such evidence. BREEAM/HQM is a 3rd party certification scheme. Therefore, it is important to avoid any conflicts of interest between those producing evidence and those awarding credits to ensure the robustness of the certification process.

Evidence: Final design/’as-built’ drawings as evidence - KBCN0393

Where drawings are not clearly marked to indicate their 'as-built' status, additional evidence would need to be provided by the design team to confirm the drawings represent the completed development and that there have been no changes relevant to the BREEAM/HQM assessment. This could, for example, be a written confirmation from the architect or the contractor, as appropriate.

Evidence: Photographs not permitted for security reasons - KBCN0389

Where photographs are not permitted during a post-construction site visit for security reasons, in addition to any alternative evidence requirements listed in the Schedule of Evidence for each issue, the assessor will also need to provide a detailed site inspection report and/or as-built drawings (where permitted by the client). If following this approach, full justification and documentary evidence from the client will be required for QA purposes.

Evidence: Post construction assessment evidence - KBCN0407

For the purposes of robustness and completeness, both design AND post-construction stage evidence is required for a post construction assessment. However, it is possible to provide only post construction stage (PCS) evidence where it is clear that this completely supersedes the design stage (DS) evidence and renders it unnecessary.

Quality Assurance Failure Charge for BREEAM USA assessments - KBCN1467

Assessments should only be submitted for QA when the assessor is confident that the information in them is, to the best of their knowledge, 100% accurate and it contains detailed assessor notes identifying how the issue has been assessed and referring to specific criteria and compliance notes, as well as including locational referencing. Therefore, where an QA audit identifies a high number of Non-Conformances (NCs), or continued lack of improvement our halting process and charges will come into effect. Halting Process & QA Failure Charge When an assessment reaches 12 NCs, the audit will be halted, with no further issues being audited during that submission. This applies to both re-submissions and first submissions. What does this mean? For first submissions, it will mean that some issues within the audit which have been selected for audit have not yet been reviewed. For re-submission where the previous submission had 12 NCs or more, it will mean that some issues within the audit which previously received feedback will not have been re-audited due to the halt being applied within the current submission. Any issues which have not yet been re-audited, will include the following note ‘This issue has not been re-audited within this submission due to 12 NCs halt being applied.’ When the assessment is resubmitted, it is expected that all of the QA feedback is actioned and implemented throughout the assessment, including for issues which have not currently been reviewed. If this means resubmitting updated evidence for the assessed issues and also for the issues that are still to be assessed then please do so. What happens when resubmitting? For first submissions, the 12 issues with NCs raised will be re-audited. If the total number of NCs have reduced, the remaining issues selected for audit will now also be audited, however if the assessment reaches 12 NCs again, the assessment will once again be halted, and this will trigger the QA Audit Failure charge to be applied and invoiced on the next submission. For third submissions and onward, upon receipt, the QA Audit Failure charge (specified in the program’s fee sheet) will be invoiced and the 12 issues with NCs raised will be re-audited. If the total number of NCs have reduced, the remaining issues selected for audit will now also be audited, however if the assessment reaches 12 NCs again, the assessment will once again be halted. Exceptions We recognize that a newly licensed assessor’s first assessment under that program requires a higher level of support. As such, the halting process will not be applied for them, until their second submission of that assessment. Following that submission, the above process will apply. Multiple submission with the same NCs & QA Failure Re-submission Charge When QA feedback is issued, it is expected that the assessor makes sufficient updates to the assessment and/or supporting documentation to ensure that the NCs raised are reduced. Where the assessor feels there is a lack of clarity with the QA feedback, a query should be raised and resolved prior to formally resubmitting. A full review of the issues should be completed prior to resubmitting to ensure that the QA feedback has been fully addressed, and the assessor comments clearly clarifying how this has been done. Therefore, when an assessment is submitted three or more times, with each audit resulting in the same number of NCs being identified, the QA Failure Re-submission charge will be applied. Please refer to the below graphic highlighting the process which is applicable for an audit carried out from 1 April 2023.

The current prices for charges mentioned above are included in the BREEAM USA Fee Sheet (FS130) which are available on the BREEAM USA Portal (licensed Assessors and credentialed APs access only).

Shell & core project: Completing as fully-fitted - KBCN0394

It is possible to complete an assessment as fully fitted following a design stage certification as a shell & core project. Whilst the assessment will reference much of the same evidence gathered for design stage, it must be re-registered and may be submitted as a fully-fitted Post-construction assessment.

17/04/18 Wording clarified

Simple Buildings – Quality Assurance (QA) - KBCN0459

The process and rigor of quality assurance does not change for Simple Building assessments. As with any assessment, the correct classification of the development will be checked. Where a project is incorrectly classified, the project will require re-assessment against the correct BREEAM criteria before the QA and certification process can progress. There may be additional charges associated with this process. Due to Simple Buildings not being a separate scheme, the audit level assigned to the assessment (Admin, Partial or Full) will follow the standard approach, i.e. previous audit records for that building type will be reviewed. Also, QA response times are the same as for other assessments of the same building type.

4 Operational /