1.1 This practice covers standard-of-care for evaluation and classification of the financial risks from earthquake damage to real estate improvements for use in financial mortgage transactions and capital investment evaluation. As such, this practice permits a user to satisfy, in part, their real estate transaction due-diligence requirements with respect to assessing and characterizing a property''s potential losses from earthquakes. This practice is intended to address only physical damage to the property from site and building response.

1.1.1 Hazards addressed in this practice include earthquake ground shaking, earthquake-caused site instability, including faulting, subsidence, settlement landslides and soil liquefaction, earthquake-caused tsunamis and seiches, and earthquake-caused flooding from dam or dike failures.

1.1.2 Earthquake-caused fires and toxic materials releases are not hazards considered in this practice.

1.1.3 This practice does not purport to provide for the preservation of life safety, or prevention of building damage associated with its use, or both.

1.1.3.1 This practice does not address requirements of any federal, state, or local laws and regulations of building construction or maintenance. Users are cautioned that current federal, state, and local laws and regulations may differ from those in effect at the times of construction or modification of the building(s), or both.

1.1.3.2 This practice does not address the contractual and legal obligations between prior and subsequent Users of seismic risk assessment reports or between providers who prepared the report and those who would like to use such prior reports.

1.1.3.3 This practice does not address the contractual and legal obligations between a provider and a user, and other parties, if any.

1.1.4 It is the responsibility of the owner of the building(s) to establish appropriate life-safety and damage prevention practices and determine the applicability of current regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.2 Considerations not included in the scope: the impacts of damage to contents, loss of income(s), rents, or other economic benefits of use of the property, or from legal judgments, fire sprinkler water-induced damage or fire.

1.3 The values stated in inch-pound units are to be regarded as standard. The values given in parentheses are mathematical conversions to SI units that are provided for information only and are not considered standard.

1.4 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.