We're paying against photographs we can't verify

The application arrives with photographs and a marked-up schedule, and the only record to test it against is more of the applicant's own paperwork. Certification becomes negotiation with yourself: the shots are real but undated and unlocated, the schedule says complete, and nothing you hold independently says otherwise. Over-certification creeps in one benefit-of-the-doubt at a time - and clawing it back later, once the money is out, is far harder than not paying it out.

Assessment needs its own eyes: site walks on valuation dates, progress records kept by the paying side, deliveries logged, a photographic record with dates and locations that belongs to you. That, plus applications measured rather than accepted, is the substance of the assessment service - the applicant's evidence tested against records you control, and the certificate defensible because of it.