Three variables, and only three
Every facade survey budget reduces to:
- Facade surface area (m²) — the multiplier
- Contract structure — multi-year contract or single survey
- Contingency — a reserve for re-surveying after a typhoon or earthquake
Get those three right and the number follows. Get the first one wrong and everything downstream is wrong with it.
Variable 1 — Facade surface area
This is the one committees most often estimate badly.
Facade surface area is not floor area, and it is not footprint perimeter × height. It counts every exterior elevation, including setbacks, light wells, recessed balconies and articulation. On a heavily modelled building, the real figure can be considerably higher than a simple perimeter calculation suggests.
Two ways to get it:
- From the architectural drawings, if the community holds them — elevation areas can be taken off directly.
- From the provider during scoping — but insist on receiving the calculation in writing, because it is the basis of every quote you will compare.
A quote that does not state the area it was calculated from is not comparable with anything.
Variable 2 — Contract structure
| Structure | Rate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Three-year contract | NT$35/m² | Three surveys across the term |
| Single survey | NT$25/m² | One survey, no contract |
Worked example for a mid-sized community with 3,000 m² of facade:
- Three-year contract: 3,000 × NT$35 = NT$105,000 total, ~NT$35,000/year
- Single survey: 3,000 × NT$25 = NT$75,000, once
The single survey is cheaper on the day and more expensive over the cycle — and it produces a snapshot rather than a trend. Two surveys a year apart on the same flight path tell you the rate at which defects are spreading, which is the number a repair budget is actually built from. One survey tells you only that they exist.
Variable 3 — Contingency
Taiwan sees three to five typhoons a year. A community that surveys in June and takes a direct hit in September wants to know what changed, and wants to know it without renegotiating.
Budget a post-event re-survey reserve. Contract clients get preferential terms on additional surveys within the term — NT$20/m² on a three-year contract — so the reserve for a 3,000 m² community is around NT$60,000 held against the possibility rather than spent.
Structuring the budget in three layers
This structure exists because of how owners' meetings actually behave: a single large number invites opposition, while a layered proposal invites amendment. Amendment passes; opposition does not.
Layer 1 — Main contract. The three-year facade health contract. Fixed, known, amortised.
Layer 2 — Post-event reserve. Held, not spent. Released only on a qualifying event.
Layer 3 — Repair reserve. Sized proportionally from the health score risk grade (A–F) once the first survey is in. Note the important sequencing: you cannot size this layer before the first survey, and saying so explicitly in the proposal is what stops the meeting demanding a repair number nobody can yet produce.
Fund all three from the monthly public fund contribution, amortised across the contract term. The single most common reason a facade proposal fails is that it arrives as one large one-off ask.
Resolution wording you can use
Adapt and drop into the agenda:
Under Article 77(3) of the Building Act and the Taipei City regulations governing building facade safety diagnosis, inspection and declaration, this community is required to carry out and file a facade safety inspection.
It is proposed to engage General Drone Service under a three-year contract. Facade surface area ______ m² × NT$35 = total NT$, amortised from the public fund across three years at NT$ per year.
A post-event re-survey reserve of NT$______ is additionally proposed, to be held against typhoon or earthquake damage assessment.
A repair reserve will be proposed at the next meeting, sized from the risk grade in the first survey report.
Under Article 31 of the Condominium Administration Act, the general resolution principle is attendance by two-thirds of owners holding two-thirds of the ownership share, and approval by three-quarters of those attending holding three-quarters of the attending share. Check your own charter — it may set different thresholds for particular expenditure categories.
What to file with the minutes
Whatever the meeting decides, minute it with the evidence attached. A documented decision to phase work across three years is a reasonable exercise of committee judgement. The same decision taken informally and unrecorded looks, after an incident, like nothing was done.
Before the meeting
Two things are worth having in hand: your building's register status, and your facade surface area in writing.
We can provide the second during scoping. Book an asset assessment or call +886-2-7733-7678 — and see what a missed filing costs for the penalty side of the arithmetic.
