Expert Witness & Insurance Reports

When an independent racking report is needed

After a collapse or partial failure, where the question is what failed, in what order, and why. After an injury or a near-miss involving racking, where an insurer or an enforcing authority needs an independent account. After significant stock loss, where a claim turns on whether the installation was being maintained and inspected as it should have been.

Also in less dramatic circumstances: disputes over the condition of racking taken on with a leased building, disagreements between an operator and an installer or supplier about workmanship or component compatibility, and dilapidations questions at the end of a lease.

In every case, the value of the report comes from independence. It is written on what the evidence supports, whether or not that helps the party commissioning it.

What the examination covers

The physical installation first: the failed or damaged area in detail — uprights front and rear over their full height, beams and end connectors, safety clips, bracing, baseplates, floor anchors and the slab around them — and the surrounding runs, because racking is a connected structure and load redistributes through shared frames when one component is compromised.

Then the installation as a system: configuration against design intent, beam pitch, evidence of reconfiguration or mixed-manufacturer components, previous repairs and their quality, protection at pinch points, aisle widths against the MHE in use, and the load notices in place at the time.

Then the paper trail: previous expert inspection reports and whether red and amber items were closed out; weekly PRRS records and whether they reflect what is visible; impact reports and the actions taken; PRRS training records; and configuration or reconfiguration documentation. In most investigations the records are as informative as the steel, because they establish what was known and when.

How the opinion is formed

Findings are assessed against the recognised framework rather than against opinion: BS EN 15635 for damage tolerances and operator duties, HSE guidance HSG76 for the inspection regime expected of a warehouse operator, the SEMA codes of practice for use and inspection of storage equipment, and PUWER 1998 — regulation 5 on maintenance, regulation 6 on inspection at suitable intervals and after exceptional circumstances, regulation 8 on information and load notices, and regulation 9 on training.

Where a failure has occurred, the report addresses mechanism as far as the evidence allows: what the initiating damage was, whether it was of a type that should have been identified by a competent weekly inspection or an annual expert inspection, and how load redistribution propagated the failure into adjacent bays or runs.

Where the evidence does not support a firm conclusion, the report says so and explains what would be needed to reach one. An expert report that overstates certainty is of no use to anyone who has to rely on it.

What you receive

A written report setting out the instructions, what was examined and when, the documents reviewed, the findings with photographic evidence and location references, the standards and regulations applied, and the opinion reached with the reasoning behind it.

It is written to be read by claims handlers, solicitors, insurers and managers rather than only by racking specialists — plain language on the technical points, with the standards cited so a technical reader can follow the same reasoning.

Timescales matter in this work. Sites need to be examined before evidence is disturbed by clearance and reinstatement, and CCTV is frequently overwritten within days. Where an incident has just occurred, contact us early, secure the area, and preserve footage and records before anything is moved. For the routine regime that prevents most of these cases, see the annual expert inspection and after-impact inspections.

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