Who May Conduct a Technical Inspection of Buildings and Structures

What DSTU 9273:2024 is

DSTU 9273:2024 “Guidelines for inspecting buildings and structures to determine and assess their technical condition. Mechanical resistance and stability” is the current national standard that sets the technical part of an inspection: the method for determining and assessing the technical condition of structures by mechanical resistance and stability criteria.

Who may conduct an inspection

The right to conduct a technical inspection belongs to certified specialists — responsible executors of specific types of construction work — holding a qualification certificate. This is set by the Law of Ukraine “On the Regulation of Urban Development” and Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 257 of 12.04.2017 “Procedure for Inspecting Construction Objects Accepted for Operation”.

The qualification certificate must match the object’s consequence (responsibility) class:

• CC1 — minor consequences;
• CC2 — medium consequences;
• CC3 — major consequences.

A specialist certified for class CC3 may inspect objects of that class and lower (CC2, CC1); a specialist certified only for CC1 may not inspect CC2 or CC3 objects.

What this means for the client

Before ordering a technical inspection, check that the executor holds a valid responsible-executor qualification certificate matching your specific object’s consequence class — otherwise the inspection report may not be legally valid.

When an inspection is needed and how often it is repeated

Resolution No. 257 requires a mandatory inspection of the objects listed in Article 39-2 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Regulation of Urban Development”, in particular educational, cultural, sports, medical and health facilities, administrative buildings, and engineering, transport and energy infrastructure that the design documentation places in class CC2 or CC3. The decision to inspect is taken by the owner or manager of the object; for objects damaged by emergencies, hostilities or terrorist acts, it may also be taken by an authorised body: the executive body of a village, settlement or city council or, in cases provided for by law, a military administration. The grounds for an inspection are:

• the date of a scheduled inspection has come;
• defects, damage or deformations found during routine surveys and technical maintenance;
• impacts the design did not foresee, such as an emergency event, after which it must be decided whether to keep operating the object or to dismantle it;
• a check of technical condition for a major repair, reconstruction or restoration;
• a check that the needs of people with disabilities and other people with limited mobility have been taken into account.

The first inspection and the recommended frequency are set by the designer in the design documentation, but the first one must take place no later than the end of the warranty period, and the interval between inspections may not exceed 10 years. Example: if the first inspection was carried out in October 2026 and the design does not require a shorter interval, the next one is scheduled no later than October 2036; the date is entered in the object’s passport.

Example: choosing an executor by certificate class

The design of the object states class CC2. Three executors have sent proposals; we check each one against the rule “the certificate class is not lower than the object class”:

If the design does not state the class and the object was accepted for operation before 10 June 2017, the class is determined during the inspection and entered in the object’s passport. In that case it is sensible to choose an executor certified for a higher class, so that the class found does not fall outside their competence.

How to check an executor: five steps

1. Find out the consequence class from the design documentation or the object’s passport.

2. Ask for a copy of the responsible executor’s qualification certificate for the right to carry out inspection work, not just a diploma or a professional development certificate.

3. Compare the class in the certificate with the object’s class using the table above.

4. Make sure the certificate belongs to the specialist who will actually carry out the inspection: an organisation may bring in such specialists, but it is they who hold the qualification.

5. Record in the contract the object’s class, the scope of work in the technical specification and the result: the object’s passport for a scheduled inspection (the executor draws it up), or a report with recommendations on further operation or on major repair, reconstruction or restoration work for an unscheduled one.

How the inspection runs and what the report and the passport contain is set out in Inspection Procedure and Passportisation; for what drives the price, see Cost of a technical building inspection.

Typical mistakes of the client

• choosing an executor purely on the lowest price without asking about the class in the certificate;
• confusing the object’s class with the certificate’s class: a CC2 object cannot be inspected by a CC1 specialist;
• naming only the company in the contract, with no name of the certified specialist;
• not providing the design and the passport, so the consequence class and earlier results are unknown and part of the data has to be taken by measurement;
• postponing the inspection until cracks or deformations appear, although the date of the scheduled one can be taken from the passport.

Where to look up executors

The Procedure names the source itself: information on the executors who may be engaged to inspect objects of a given consequence class is held in the Register of Construction Activity, part of the Unified State Electronic System in the Field of Construction. The owner or manager arranges the inspection by engaging qualified specialists, so checking the certificate is up to the customer: check the copy you ask the executor for against the register where you can.

Martial law: who else may inspect damaged objects

While martial law is in force, and for 90 days after it ends or is lifted, damaged objects may be inspected not only by executors holding a qualification certificate for inspecting objects of the relevant consequence class. A design engineer and a construction expert with a certificate in a specialisation covering mechanical resistance and stability, and also a consulting engineer (construction), all at the “leading” or “first category” level, may do it as well.

For individual stages of the inspection of damaged objects that the Procedure defines (checking the condition for capital repair, reconstruction or restoration design), other specialists may be brought in, but only under the direction of those listed; the decision is taken by the authorised body. This exception does not apply to the inspection of undamaged objects.