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Verification and GFA in Maryland

Maryland verification, scheduled early and done properly.

Maryland benchmarking carries a third-party verification requirement for covered buildings, and square footage verification is the piece that moves every other number.

No obligation. We will tell you if you do not need us.
What is involved
Data verification Required A qualified third party reviews the benchmarking record for covered buildings.
GFA verification High leverage Independent confirmation of gross floor area against drawings, plats or surveys.
Who may verify Confirm first Independence rules differ by jurisdiction. We check before anyone is engaged.
Timing Well before June Verification capacity tightens near the deadline every single year.

Dates and thresholds change. We confirm the current requirement for your specific building before anyone acts on it.

Verification is a scheduling problem before it is a technical one.

The technical work is manageable. What catches buildings out is timing. Verification capacity is finite, deadlines are the same date for everybody, and the buildings that call in the final weeks are the ones paying for a rush or missing the date.

Square footage is the other half. Maryland grades on intensity, which is energy divided by floor area, so an incorrect area figure produces an incorrect compliance position in both directions. We have seen buildings that were reporting themselves as worse performers than they actually were, purely on a bad denominator.

Before quoting anything we screen your documents. If your drawings are good enough, we say so and the job is short. If they are not, we draft the request for better documents rather than measuring around the problem.

Send us these
Drawings with a scale
Dimension callouts and a scale bar. Marketing floor plans do not qualify.
Recorded property data
Assessor area, plats, prior verifications. Contradictions are useful.
Your deadline
So we can tell you honestly whether the timeline still works.
The services behind this page

How it runs

Screening first, then scope, then the filing.

1
Document screening
Per-document verdicts against the acceptance test, and the ask-for-better-documents email if needed.
2
Scope and quote
Priced on building complexity, not a flat rate.
3
Verification
Area verified, data reviewed, differences documented.
4
Record correction
The verified figures go into Portfolio Manager, where they start affecting the metrics.
5
File on time
Verified filing submitted ahead of the deadline with documentation attached.
If verification slips

A filing that needed verification and did not get it is not complete.

Where verification is required, the submission is not finished without it, no matter what the portal shows. Discovering that after the deadline is expensive because the fix needs data and access that may no longer be easy to get.

The quieter cost is negotiating from numbers you cannot defend in a program where every threshold and target is per square foot.

Received a letter?

What an MDE letter usually means.

Maryland enforces benchmarking through notices, and they are already going out.

Send us the letter
Notice of Required Action
The building is on the state Covered Building List with a filing outstanding. There is a defined route back into compliance, and a partial submission can sometimes stop the clock while the rest is assembled.
Covered Building List confirmation
You have been identified as covered. If the building is under threshold or in Montgomery County, the correct response is to have the list corrected and the notice vacated, not to ask for an exemption.

Send us the letter itself, not a summary. We read it for the six things that decide the response: who sent it, which building and identifier it names, what period it covers, what it says you failed to do, the cure date, and whether it is a first notice or an escalation. We never quote a running penalty total, and we cure first, then talk to the regulator.

Why verification sits with us

It is a core service here, not an add-on, and we run it across jurisdictions with different rules about who may verify.

Credentialed
Certified Energy Manager on staff, Portfolio Manager specialists, and the credentials the verification work requires.
Actually local
We are based in the DMV and sit in the stakeholder meetings where these rules get written, not on a national help desk.
One accountable partner
We are not engineers and we do not pretend to be. We manage the process, coordinate the right vendors, and own the outcome.
Built for boards
Most of our clients are condo and co-op boards and the managers who serve them. We present in plain English, on your meeting schedule.
Owners and managers we work with
FirstService Residential Legum & Norman EJF Real Estate Services Comsource Management Barkan Management Howard University Regency Centers Montgomery County Green Bank

Maryland verification questions

Earlier than feels necessary. Verification capacity is the constraint, and buildings that begin a few months out get better scheduling and better pricing than buildings that begin a few weeks out.

That depends on the independence rule that applies. In some jurisdictions it is allowed if the verifier was not the benchmarking company, in others it is prohibited. We confirm it in writing before engaging anyone.

Then we tell you that before you pay for anything. Document screening exists precisely so you are not buying a verification that cannot be completed with what you have.

It can change it materially, because the metrics are per square foot. It is the first thing we check and the cheapest lever in the program.

Keep reading

The pages that usually matter next for a Maryland building.

Annual filing Benchmarking in Maryland The annual filing, what is reported, and how we keep the record clean. Performance standard BEPS in Maryland The performance standard, the pathways, and what the exposure really is. Everything we do here Full services in Maryland Everything Honeydew manages here, compliance and energy services together.
What is BEPS? All Honeydew services Every region we serve Latest rule changes on the blog

Screen your documents before you book anything.

Send the drawings and we will tell you what is usable, what is missing, and what the job actually is.

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Start with the building

Tell us what is on your plate. We will help you sort it out.

A notice, a deadline, a portfolio, or simply a question. You do not need to have it organized before you call.

202-670-9625
Monday to Friday, and yes, a person answers.

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