Rauch Safety & Engineering

A standing engineer on the owner's side of the table.

The Standing Owner’s Engineer Program gives asset owners a continuing engineering position for their building maintenance unit, façade access, and permanent fall-protection systems. Rather than retaining engineering only when an inspection raises a question, a repair proposal arrives, or a system becomes restricted, the owner maintains an engineering relationship across the operating life of the asset — with the system history, current record, and engineering context already established when a decision has to be made.

THE STANDING FORM OF THE RECORDS REVIEW

The Service Agreement & Records Review establishes where the owner stands. The Standing Owner's Engineer Program keeps that engineering position current as the asset and its record change. The two address different conditions: uncertainty about the present is resolved once, by the Review; continuity over time is maintained by the Program, with the completed Review as its baseline.

THE POSITION

Every other party on these systems is retained continuously. The owner's engineer usually isn't.

BMU, façade access, and fall-protection systems are serviced, inspected, tested, and certified throughout their operating lives. Those functions answer different questions and serve different responsibilities. What is often absent is a continuing engineering position maintained for the owner: someone who understands the systems and their history, maintains the engineering record, reads inspection and certification output in context, and is already retained when a material decision reaches the owner’s desk.

Owners retain counsel on standing arrangements for the same reason this program exists: the questions recur, the stakes compound, and the value of representation is greatest before the moment that requires it. The program does not replace the service contractor, inspector, certifier, or manufacturer. It gives the owner its own continuing engineering representation alongside them.

THE PROGRAM

One annual engagement. Four defined workstreams.

Records continuity.

The completed Records Review is the program’s baseline. From it, RSE maintains a current working engineering record for the term of the engagement, incorporating each year’s inspection, certification, modification, and project records as the owner provides them. Where the baseline identified missing records, RSE makes reasonable requests for them from sources known to hold them; recovery requiring substantial investigation, reconstruction, field verification, or third-party coordination is separately scoped. The owner remains custodian of its official records; RSE maintains the working record used in performing the program — the file that supports the owner’s response when an underwriter, authority, or transaction counterparty asks.

Annual engineering review.

Once each engagement year, an owner’s-side engineering review of the inspection, testing, certification, modification, and other material system records produced during the year — read in the context of the maintained system history and the applicable identified standards and requirements within the agreed scope. Delivered as the Annual Owner’s Report: what was reviewed, what the current records establish, material baseline issues that remain open, material changes during the year, and matters warranting the owner’s attention. Prepared to support the owner’s administration of the asset — maintenance and capital planning, risk reporting, and preparation for insurance or transaction inquiries.

Decision Reviews.

Material decisions arrive on their own schedule: a repair is proposed, an inspection produces a material observation, a component approaches obsolescence, a service agreement approaches renewal. Each engagement year includes up to two defined Decision Reviews — engineering evaluation, on engineering substance, of a material repair proposal, modification, repair-versus-replace recommendation, or comparable system decision, before the owner commits. Where useful, RSE provides order-of-magnitude budgetary context as planning guidance. A Decision Review evaluates a defined decision from the existing record and information reasonably available to RSE; matters requiring design engineering, calculations, field investigation, specifications, or project execution are separately scoped. Additional Decision Reviews are available under the engagement’s standing terms.

Standing engineering access.

The engagement includes 10 hours of standing engineering access per engagement year for the questions that arise between defined reviews — an inspection observation, an operational restriction, an insurer inquiry, a record question, a contractor recommendation, or initial engineering involvement following an incident. The standing response standard is acknowledgment and initial engagement within one business day during normal business operations — not a commitment that an engineering determination, opinion, or completed deliverable will be produced in that time. Allowance usage is tracked and reported quarterly; unused allowance does not carry forward. Services beyond the allowance proceed only with the owner’s authorization, under the engagement’s standing terms or a separate proposal.

WHEN THE SYSTEM NEEDS WORK

The owner is not left holding a report.

A review may establish that further investigation, corrective work, modernization, or replacement should be considered. The owner is always free to take RSE’s work to any qualified party it chooses. Where the owner wants continuity, RSE can be separately engaged to carry the matter forward — from further engineering and definition through procurement support, project management, retrofit engineering, and delivery oversight as appropriate to the project. Any such work is a separate engagement: the program does not obligate the owner to retain RSE for resulting work, and the possibility of a subsequent engagement does not change the engineering basis on which the standing review is performed.

WHAT THE PROGRAM IS NOT

Boundaries that keep the owner's engineering position clear.

Not a maintenance or service contract.

RSE does not perform routine equipment maintenance under the standing program.

Not a substitute for inspection, testing, or certification.

Required inspections, testing, certifications, and other regulatory obligations remain separate and remain the owner’s to maintain with the appropriate parties.

Not unlimited consulting.

The annual engagement contains defined deliverables, defined Decision Reviews, and a defined access allowance. Work outside those boundaries is separately authorized — always at the owner’s election.

Not an attribution exercise.

Program deliverables describe records and engineering conditions relevant to the owner’s decisions. Their purpose is not to assign fault or responsibility to any party.

Not an expert or dispute engagement.

Deliverables are prepared to assist the owner in administering the asset. Any requested participation outside that purpose requires a separate engagement. The program is governed by the Standing Owner’s Engineer Program Policy.

FEE & ENGAGEMENT

Two numbers. One ladder.

Entry to the program is the Service Agreement & Records Review — $8,500, a complete engagement in itself that establishes the owner’s records baseline. Owners who have already completed the Review enroll with the baseline in place; owners entering the program directly have the Review performed as the first step.

The Standing Owner’s Engineer Program starts at $18,000 per asset, per year, covering the four workstreams: maintenance of the working record, one Annual Owner’s Report, up to two Decision Reviews, and 10 hours of standing engineering access. The annual fee is established at proposal after scoping the asset’s systems, records, and expected standing requirements; more complex assets, multiple systems, or materially greater review demands are priced accordingly. Additional engineering services beyond the included scope are available at the engagement letter’s standing rates or by separate proposal, at the owner’s election. Travel and project-specific third-party expenses, where required, are reimbursable under the engagement terms. Portfolio owners may engage multiple assets under one program with per-asset schedules. Renewal is by mutual election at each annual term.

HOW THE ENGAGEMENT BEGINS

A defined entry point.

The standing form of the lifecycle.

Design-stage diagnostics, the Installed Systems Engineering Review™, and retrofit engagements address moments in an asset’s life. The Standing Owner’s Engineer Program is the continuous form of the same discipline — the engagement owners elect when they want the position maintained, the record current, and their engineer already retained when the moment arrives. Each stage stands alone; none obligates another.