Independent Oversight · Kenya
Diaspora Construction Project Management
Professional oversight of a project someone else is building — inspections, measured valuations and written reporting, from a firm appointed by you rather than by the contractor.
- Engineering disciplines in-house
- 3
- Incorporated in Kenya
- Est. 2017
- Combined team experience
- 10+ yrs
Get an independent review
Four fields. You'll hear back within one business day, from someone who can answer technical questions.
Registered and compliant with
When you already have a builder
You do not need another contractor. You need someone on your side of the table
A lot of people reach this page mid-project. There is a contractor, there is a plot with something on it, and there is a growing sense that the cost and the programme are not what they were supposed to be — but no way to establish that from four thousand miles away, and no obvious person to ask who does not have an interest in the answer.
The instinct is often to replace the contractor. That is usually the most expensive available option and frequently unnecessary. What is missing is not a different builder but an independent professional appointed by you: someone qualified to inspect the work, measure what has actually been done, and tell you the real position.
TopHall Group provides project management on projects we are not building, precisely because that independence is the point. We have no valuation of our own to defend and no reason to soften a report.
What you cannot see from abroad
Five things only an independent inspection establishes
All five require somebody qualified standing on the site.
What has actually been built
Photographs chosen by the person being paid tell you what they show. A measured inspection tells you what exists against what was designed.
What it has actually cost
Measured work valued against a bill gives you a real position. Payments-to-date against a verbal estimate of progress gives you nothing.
Whether the structure was done correctly
Reinforcement and cover are checkable before a pour and only inferable after. An independent engineer knows what to look for in what remains visible.
Whether the programme is recoverable
There is a difference between a project that is late and one that has stopped. Establishing which you have determines what you should do next.
Whether the variations are legitimate
Some are genuine. Some are scope that was always in the original price. Measuring against the bill separates them.
What the appointment covers
Acting as your representative in Kenya
Scoped from a single review visit to full ongoing management.
Independent Position Review
A one-off assessment of what has been built, what it has cost, and where the programme really stands.
Ongoing Site Supervision
Scheduled inspections at the stages that get covered up, with written reports on a fixed cycle.
Valuation & Variation Checking
Payment certified against measured work, and variation claims checked against the original bill.
Structural Review
Independent checking of the design and of what has been built against it, by engineers.
Compliance Check
Whether the approvals and any environmental conditions the project needs are actually in place.
How it starts
Six steps to knowing where you stand
The first report usually arrives within a fortnight of appointment.
Tell us the situation
Where the site is, who is building, what stage it has reached and what is worrying you.
Document review
Contract, drawings, bill, programme and payments made to date, examined before we attend.
Site inspection
What physically exists, measured and photographed, checked against the drawings.
Position report
An honest written account of built work, real spend and actual programme position, with photographs.
Recommendation
What to do next — continue with controls in place, renegotiate, or in some cases change contractor.
Ongoing oversight
If you want it: scheduled inspections, measured valuations and reporting through to completion.
Why TopHall
Independence is the service
Everything else follows from it.
We are not bidding for the construction
On an oversight appointment we have no interest in the contractor being replaced, or in any particular number appearing in the report.
Engineers doing the inspecting
Structural, environmental and water engineering in-house, so the report can tell you whether something matters rather than only that it is there.
Measurement, not impressions
Quantity surveying is one of our services, so valuations and variation checks are measured against a document.
Written so you can act on it
Findings with significance, cost consequence and a recommendation — not a list of observations for you to interpret from abroad.
A one-off review is a legitimate appointment
You are not required to sign up for ongoing management. Sometimes one honest report is all a project needs.
Our work
What an inspection examines
Photographs from TopHall sites showing the stages an independent review looks at. Each is labelled for what it is.
Site photographSlab reinforcement — checkable before the pour, and after that only inferable from what remains visible.
Site photographSubstructure: line, level and coursing, inspected before backfill covers the evidence.
Site photographSuperstructure measured against the drawings and the programme.
Before you call
What diaspora clients ask about oversight
Will my contractor object to you inspecting?
A competent contractor generally does not, and reacts to independent supervision as a normal part of a properly run project. Strong resistance to an inspection is itself a finding worth paying attention to. We would write to the contractor as your representative, set out what access is needed, and conduct ourselves professionally — the aim is an accurate picture, not a confrontation.
Can you tell me if I am being overcharged?
We can tell you what has been built and what that work is worth measured against a bill of quantities, and compare that with what has been paid. That is a factual position rather than an accusation, and it is what you need in order to have a productive conversation. Where no bill of quantities exists we can measure the work independently, which takes longer but still gives you a defensible number.
What if the report says the work is bad?
Then you will have found out at a point where you can still do something about it, which is the entire value of the appointment. The report sets out what is wrong, how serious it is, what remediation would involve and roughly what it would cost. Sometimes the answer is to continue with controls in place; occasionally it is to stop. We will give you our honest recommendation and the reasoning, and the decision stays yours.
Worried about a project you cannot see?
Tell us where it is and what stage it has reached. One independent visit will tell you more than another round of phone calls.
Prefer to talk now? Call +254 742 147 558.