About us
Building Forensics provide independent un biased reports based on investigation and supported by scientific evidence and repeatable and proven protocols.
We have been providing appraisals for over 10 years for insurers, solicitors, builders, homeowners and tenants. A measure of our success may be that we have never been called to court as our presented evidence has always been accepted by all parties prior to court action.
The reason we have been so successful is that we have specifically trained in water and fire damage, decontamination including asbestos and then spent 10 years in USA training in mould related issues including litigation aspects.
Despite being faced with many UK recognised often conflicting experts our advanced investigation, analytical and reporting techniques have provided unequivocal evidence to support our findings and clients interest.
These findings have sometimes overthrown insurance policy exclusions, builders and landlords contract terms and resulted in 6 figure settlements.
Apart from qualifications and experience Building forensics use the services of some of the most advanced government approved and or internationally certified laboratories in USA where accurate results are provided quickly and at a lower cost than those in UK. Overnight carriage and 48 hour lab turn around time sees results within days of sampling.
Principle consultant
Jeff Charlton principle consultant at Building Forensics provides "Sole Joint Expert" witness appraisal under the Civil Procedure Rules. Jeff has over 25years world wide experience in disaster recovery and restoration which has involved fire, flood, explosion and general decontamination and sanitation, winning two disaster recovery of the year awards.Jeff has been involved in mould health issues for more than 10 years and intially studied and certified in USA
.See CV Biography at bottom of this page.
Health and Evidence Issues
We do not possess medical competence but can assist the medical profession with the identification of moulds and possible toxins or pathogens which can be used by them in the treatment of people who may suffer health effects caused by contamination including mould within their environment.
We also assist the legal profession in health claims where flood or water damage and general mould related illness can be linked to damage events and where medical conditions were not previously recorded.
Areas of expertise
- Construction defect concerning heat and water including condensation
- Mould and biological contamination
- Indoor Air Quality including investigation into respiratory triggers CFS etc.
- Water damage, mould, and latent damage
- Flood and fire restoration and latent damage defect
- Fire residual chemical contamination, specifically VOCs
- Contractor negligence, specifically water damage related
Some of the equipment used for investigation purposes
Solicitors Questions and Answers
Mould and its growth in litigation
Mould in properties is not new but the health effects and damage it causes is rapidly becoming a major issue in litigation and the broad spread of mould related issues provides the legal profession with many new revenue streams.Most importantly the provision and substantiation of accurate evidence by scientific process can now support genuine claims.
Mould Outbreak
The quest for tighter, greener homes has resulted in less ventilation which reduces moisture removal and this increase in moisture retention is exasperated by the use of building materials which absorb moisture and support mould growth. Couple these two issues to poor architectural design and construction defect and we see the reason why so many properties are affected.
What is the basis of claim?
Whether a property is old or newly built, someone will have responsibility for its compliance to health and safety of occupants or material decay. Mould is now proven to affect the health of susceptible people exposed to it and this often revolves around dose, age, state of immune system and genetics. Dead or live, mould and the chemicals it contains can cause a variety of symptoms ranging from flu like symptoms to the trigger of asthma, Chronic Fatigue and a host of infections some of which are known and proven to be fatal. Many diseases can be identified by blood and sputum and causation can be linked to medical records against specific buildings and time frame. Innovations in mould identification can often match exposure or contamination within buildings to health effects.
Who is the claimant?
The homeowner, employer, employee, tenant and landlord have different objectives in litigation.
Each has different objectives and these range from holding builders or their insurers responsible for both health issues and material damage to employees holding their employers responsible for proven exposure to hazardous chemicals, (released by mould), usually the result of poor ventilation or moisture issues. Tenants may claim against landlords for the unhealthy housing provided. The hundreds of thousand flood victims who´s properties were dried over months can expect mould and its residue to be present years after the property was said to be dry by insurers nominated contractors as mould usually grows within 3 days of a building being flooded, yet few if any flood victims recognise their current health issues could be the result of a flood 10 years ago.
What defence against a claim?
Insurers often have policy mould exclusions but from experience these are often weak and cannot be substantiated or enforced and where limitations do exist subrogation may be considered.
Mould is invariably caused by incompetence in construction or failure to dry water damaged buildings promptly or properly.
Stakeholders invariably blame the claimant for lifestyle issues causing mould which invariably is found to be false and unsupported with the real reasons often ignored or not recognised by presumed experts.
The usual defence is ignorance of health effects or acceptance that just painting over mould affected areas will suffice, which it won´t.
Why Building Forensics has outstanding success in litigation
Building Forensics trained in USA over the past 10 years following both the growth of mould litigation and internationally accepted protocols in the investigation of water damage and mould and these methods comply to the World Health Organisation Guidelines on Damp & Mould 2009.Building Forensics use state of art equipment and measurement technology and use US laboratories who developed the most accurate and economic mould analysis.
The support provided by Building Forensics is quite simple. We identify and document the cause of mould which is usually building defect or failure to respond to a water damage event properly. We then measure the contamination present against comparison outside or ambient conditions. We then provide the legal or medical profession with details of mould genus and speciation for them to target blood and sputum analysis or comparison to known symptoms of specific mould exposure.
For more information on training or support, please call Jeff Charlton 08700 789 999
CV & Qualifications of principle Consultant Jeff Charlton
Jeff has worked extensively world wide and UK in disaster recovery/restoration for insurers, government agencies and major contractors/homeowners for over 25 years. Jeff specialised in economical, fast track solutions to drying and decontamination of property providing safe re occupation.
In the past 10 years Jeff has focused on the UK and its latent damage and water damage issues which involve construction or latent defect, mould and indoor health issues.
Winner of 2 disaster recovery of the year, 3 runner up awards.
American Qualifications ASCR (RIA)
- Certified Restorer
- Water Loss Specialist
- Certified Mechanical Hygienist
- Applied Microbial Remediation Specialist
- Applied Structural Drying (Hydro lab)
- Instructor status Fire and flood training IICR
- American Indoor Air Quality Council IAQ investigations
- Instructor NIDS and BRADI in Blood -Trauma, death scene, Crystal Meth and Cannabis drug labs, mould remediation generally Blood borne pathogens and crime scene clean up.
- Mold Remediation in Buildings
- OSHA 40 hour Hazwopper
- OSHA Confined space
Swedish Qualification
- Odour theory and Practice (Luktkkontoll i Teroi & Praksis)
- Indoor air Quality and Hygiene Management
German Qualifications Dolco Freiburg
- Drying of Cavity and sub floor with pressure systems
British Qualifications
- Cranfield Royal Military College Protecting Business from CBRN terrorist attack student and lecturer
- IOSH Health & Safety
- ITC Level 1 Thermographer
- BDMA Founder Chairman Hon Fellow, (Senior Tech (lapsed)
- Emergency Planning Society (CBRN professional working group qualified member)
- Business Continuity Institute member
- British Institute Occupational Health Management of Asbestos
- British Institute of Occupational Health Polarized Light Microscopy
- HSE Licensed Asbestos supervisor (lapsed)
- Confined Space Working USA & UK
- Academy of Experts Registered Expert Witness to CPR
Activities and Societies:
- Chairman BCI London Forum
- Founder member BANG business continuity group
- Founder chairman initial sponsor BDMA
- First UK chairman IICRC UK fire and flood committee
- USA Toxic Mould Task Force and IICRC S520 guidelines on mould
- SKY- BBC & ITV commentator on disaster , flooding/mould and CBRN terrorism BSI committees on disaster recovery, flooding and PSAS 64 EU standards and guidelines committees on terrorism CBRN defence.
Principle Instructor with CORGI in Mould, asbestos, flood and water damage.
Principle instructor
www.bradi.org
We do not possess medical competence but can assist the medical profession with the identification of moulds and possible toxins or pathogens. This information can be used by them in the treatment of people who may suffer health effects caused by contamination including mould within their environment.This information may also be used by the legal profession to support medical claims against historic medical records and developing illness associated with mould or flood event.