Competent Person for Facade Inspection in Singapore — Role, Requirements & Process

What Is a Competent Person in Facade Inspection?

In the context of Singapore's facade inspection regime, the competent person is the qualified professional who is legally required to supervise and sign off a Periodic Facade Inspection (PFI) under the Building Control Act. The law does not simply require that a building's facade be looked at — it requires that the inspection be conducted under the direction of a named professional who accepts responsibility for the assessment and reports its outcome to the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

This matters because a facade inspection is not just a photographic survey. Deciding whether a hairline crack is cosmetic or structural, whether a spalling render patch is a falling-debris risk, or whether a corroded anchor threatens a cladding panel, calls for engineering and architectural judgement. The competent person is the person the law entrusts with that judgement. Everyone else involved — including a drone inspection provider like us — supports that role by supplying the evidence on which the competent person's decisions rest.

In short: the competent person is the professional accountable to BCA for the facade assessment. Understanding the boundary of that role is the key to appointing the right people and running a compliant inspection.

Who Qualifies as a Competent Person?

Two categories of professional are recognised to act as the competent person for facade inspection work in Singapore:

The common thread is formal registration with the relevant professional board and recognition for facade inspection. The building owner or management corporation (MCST) appoints this individual directly. A drone operator, a facade contractor or an access company cannot substitute for the competent person, no matter how capable their survey work — only a registered PE or RA can hold the professional responsibility that BCA requires.

The Competent Person's Responsibilities

Once appointed, the competent person owns the inspection from planning through to submission. Their duties across a full PFI cycle include:

• Plan and supervise the inspection — set the scope, choose the inspection method appropriate to the building, and direct the survey so that every elevation and detail is properly examined.
• Ensure the methodology meets requirements — including compliance with BCA's TR 78 technical reference where drones are used for the visual inspection, so the data is captured to an accepted standard.
• Personally review the data and findings — examine the captured imagery and each recorded defect, rather than relying on an unchecked automated output.
• Classify each defect — grade findings as Category 1, 2 or 3 according to BCA's severity framework, distinguishing cosmetic issues from progressive faults and from immediate safety hazards.
• Recommend remedial works — specify what must be repaired, and within what timeframe, for each category of defect.
• Prepare and submit the PFI report to BCA — compile the assessment into the required facade inspection report and lodge it with the authority.
• Advise immediate safety measures — where a facade is found to be unsafe, direct interim protection such as hoardings or covered walkways and flag the urgency to the owner.

Throughout, the competent person carries the professional responsibility for the assessment. Their name and registration stand behind the conclusions reported to BCA, which is precisely why the quality of the underlying inspection data matters so much — it is the foundation their professional judgement is built on.

How the Roles Divide: Data Partner and Competent Person

A modern facade inspection is a partnership between two distinct roles. Confusing them leads to gaps in compliance; keeping them clear makes the process straightforward.

The two roles are complementary, not competing. We supply complete, accurate data; the competent person supplies judgement and sign-off. Neither is a substitute for the other. A perfect data set does not become a compliant inspection until a competent person has assessed and reported it — and even the most experienced PE cannot assess defects they were never shown. Working together, one role removes the coverage and safety limitations of physical access, and the other applies the professional responsibility the law requires. This is exactly how we position ourselves: as the reliable data partner behind the competent person, not a replacement for them.

How Building Owners Appoint a Competent Person

The building owner or MCST engages the competent person directly. For a strata-titled development this is usually a decision of the management council, often on the recommendation of the managing agent; for a single-owner commercial building it sits with the owner or their facilities team. The competent person is retained for the professional assessment and BCA submission, while the drone inspection provider is engaged — either by the owner or coordinated alongside the competent person — for the data capture.

Owners sometimes come to us before they have appointed a PE or RA. If you are in that position, we can point you to registered professionals experienced in facade and PFI work so you can appoint a competent person with confidence. You engage them directly; we then deliver the inspection data into their assessment. Getting both roles in place early is the surest way to meet a BCA facade inspection deadline without last-minute pressure.

Why Competent Persons Increasingly Prefer Drone Data

Because the competent person is professionally accountable for the assessment, the quality and completeness of the inspection data directly affects the confidence — and the defensibility — of their report. That is why many PEs and RAs now favour drone-captured facade data over partial rope-access surveys:

• Complete coverage — a drone images every panel on every elevation, giving the competent person the whole facade to assess rather than the limited drop-lines an abseiler can reach on each descent.
• Traceable, geo-tagged evidence — each finding is located to a facade grid reference, producing an auditable record the competent person can defend in the BCA submission and revisit at the next cycle.
• TR 78 compliance — capture that follows BCA's technical reference for drone facade inspection keeps the data set aligned to an accepted standard, so the competent person can rely on it without reservation.
• Hidden-defect detection — pairing high-resolution visual capture with radiometric thermal imaging surfaces moisture and seal defects a visual-only survey would miss, widening the evidence base for the assessment.

The result is that the competent person spends their time where their expertise adds most value — assessing and classifying defects — instead of managing the limitations of physical access. Complete data in, sound judgement out.

Responsibilities at a Glance

The competent person's core duties across a periodic facade inspection reduce to four functions:

Why Work With SG Drone Inspections

We are a specialist drone facade inspection provider in Singapore, focused on being the dependable data partner behind the competent person — not on replacing the role.

Frequently Asked Questions