BIM requirements in a public tender: what a client should set

Does your project need BIM at all?

A new third-group building paid for by a public-law legal person does, for construction intentions initiated from 1 January 2025: Regulation No. 529 puts a model in its design. The annotation to the rule names municipalities among those covered, and EU money doesn't take a building out of it if the municipality co-finances it. Third group includes, for example, a public building with a total area over 1,000 m².

Everywhere else the choice is yours. The 2023 guidelines on the most economically advantageous tender say BIM suits a contract where the client has the need, the opportunity and the ability to use it, and suggest scoring it at first on complex second or third-group structures.

Either way, the regulation says nothing about the model's quality, so what you get depends on what your tender documents say.

What is the minimum to ask for?

The annotation says the client has to define minimum requirements for model quality, in line with what the models are for, and it lists six. An annotation explains a regulation rather than adding to it, so they reach a supplier only through your documents. Each one leaves you something to decide:

The annotation's minimum	What your tender has to settle
Models at LOD 300 or equivalent	Which level for which model at which control point. VNĪ's filled-in example has most design parts at LOD 200 at the Interim control point and LOD 300 from the Detailed one
Every element of the design part in the model	Which elements can stay out. The annotation lets client and contractor agree on that
A federated model and clash checks	How often. VNĪ sets information exchanges and coordination meetings at least every two weeks from the Interim control point, with the clash report uploaded a day before each meeting
Work in a common data environment	Which kind, and who provides it
Elements modelled with suitable tools	What counts as suitable. VNĪ wants each element modelled with the tool meant for it in the BIM software, and buildingSMART-certified software, named with its version, with no version change without agreement
2D documentation produced from the models	What may be drawn elsewhere. VNĪ's exceptions include junctions and schematics at scales above 1:20, tables the model can't supply, and the geotechnical, topographic and general-plan parts

For BIS the regulation adds an open file format, and the annotation names IFC as the example. VNĪ asks for IFC and the native file of each model.

Which document should you start from?

You don't have to write the requirements from nothing. Latvia has two ready-made bases, and the tender should say which one applies:

VNĪ's BIM requirements, version 2.0 (the sample-model annexes are at version 2.1). The annotation and the 2023 guidelines both point clients to them. They are written to go into the contract as an annex and to be adapted to the project, and they don't replace the technical specification. They carry a notice that republishing or commercial use without VNĪ's agreement is forbidden, so ask VNĪ before copying them into your own documents.
LVS 1095:2026. The Latvian standard built on VNĪ's documents, voluntary until a tender or contract names it. LVS sells it, and a client can add project-specific requirements to it. Section 20 of the Public Procurement Law requires the words “or equivalent” with every reference to a standard in a technical specification.

VNĪ's requirements leave the decisions below to the client. The standard's text was not read for this article, so check which of them it fixes.

What else does the tender have to settle?

VNĪ's project-specific requirements template (annex 1) fits on one page and works as a checklist even if you use nothing else from VNĪ:

Delivery route: design and build, design followed by a separate works tender, or design only.
Control points and deadlines: Conceptual, Interim, Detailed and Approved BIM, Construction, as-built model and asset information model, with design deadlines in months from signing. Regulation No. 529 asks for neither a construction-stage model nor an as-built one, so these columns are where you say you want them.
Level of detail: for each design part at each control point.
Other deliverables: a tick list that runs from photogrammetry and laser scanning through 4D, analyses and simulations to visualisations and cost management.
Data groups: what information the models must carry, for example windows and doors, finishes, room IDs, structures, engineering systems and asset information.
Common data environment: split-cycle or full-cycle and, for full-cycle, who is responsible.
Laser scanning: who provides it and, if it is the client, to what technical parameters.

Two more things are not in the template:

Later use. VNĪ's requirements treat BIM deliverables as copyright works, governed by the copyright terms in the contract. If you mean to use the models to run the building or for later works, make sure those terms allow it.
A separate works contract. If design and works are tendered separately, VNĪ's requirements apply to the designer, and the client has to make sure the works contractor knows the BIM process and must hand over information on time and in the required scope and format. So that belongs in the works tender too.

How do you check bidders?

VNĪ's requirements and the 2023 guidelines give three tools, and the guidelines place them in the procedure like this:

Tool	What it shows	Where the guidelines place it
Competence questionnaire	Basic BIM competence and capacity	Qualification
Pre-contract BIM execution plan with responsibility matrix	That the bidder has read the requirements, and how it will run the project	Qualification
Sample models	That the team can really meet the technical requirements	Award criterion

Since 2023 a design or design-and-build contract can't be awarded on price alone, and the use of BIM is one of the law's examples of what else to assess (section 51). The guidelines, which are advisory, recommend 5 to 10% for the BIM criterion, possibly more in design tenders, and add limits:

BIM can be scored only if it will be used on that contract, and the experience scored is that of the specialists, not of the bidder as a company.
Sample models should test what the contract will really need and no more, and their parameters should change from tender to tender.

VNĪ adds that a client asking for sample models must be able to check them properly. The Latvian Architects' Union's recommendations add that BIM criteria can't be used to narrow the field of bidders.

Who checks the deliveries on your side?

For a municipality without BIM staff, this is the first question. VNĪ's requirements, the 2023 guidelines and the Architects' Union all say a client needs BIM competence on its own side, to do its part of the process and check what is delivered. VNĪ adds that this can be a consultant.

Role on the client's side	What it does	In VNĪ's requirements
Project manager	Represents the client and checks each control point's results	Can be combined with any role
Information manager	Reviews the BIM execution plan, checks deliveries against the requirements, attends BIM meetings, publishes and archives deliveries	Part of the minimum
BIM coordinator	Checks model quality, coordination and clashes, and follows the fixes	Recommended; can be combined with the information manager
CDE manager	Runs access and data structure in the common data environment	Only if the client provides it; can be combined with any role

Under VNĪ's requirements the client's information manager approves or rejects each delivery within 10 working days, so this is work throughout the project, not a signature at the end.

If nobody in-house can do it, buy it in. VNĪ also publishes requirements for a BIM specialist, written as a base for tendering that service, with five groups of duties to choose from: adapting the BIM requirements, helping in the procurement, information management, quality control and running the common data environment.

What should you not ask for?

The 2023 guidelines warn against asking too much. BIM takes considerable extra work on both sides, and deliverables nobody uses mean paying for an expensive product with no return. Their examples are high detail in engineering models that won't be used in operation, and 4D or 5D models given extra points. The guidelines predate the rule and use LOD 200 as their example of a minimum, so on a project under the rule start from the annotation's LOD 300 and put any lower level in writing. VNĪ's requirements say the minimum list can be as short as 3D models and the non-graphic information attached to them. Our test for each line: who will open this, when and for what? If there is no answer, leave it out.

Don't name a software product either. Unless it is decisive for the subject of the contract, the Public Procurement Law bars technical specifications from naming a brand that favours some suppliers. As an exception a name can be used only where the subject can't otherwise be described precisely and clearly, and then with the words “or equivalent” (section 20). The annotation explains the open-format rule by the need to stay independent of any one software maker.

What is this article based on?

The regulation's BIM points, the annotation, VNĪ's documents and the guidelines' BIM criterion are public and were read for this article. VNĪ's documents are summarised here, not reproduced. The text of LVS 1095:2026 is sold by LVS and was not read, so check the standard itself if your tender names it. Have your procurement specialist check the final wording against the Public Procurement Law.

How Digitalyse can help

For public clients we write BIM requirements for tender documents and run BIM management on the client's side. If your information requirements are in an IDS file, IFC Checker, our own tool, validates delivered IFC files against them. See BIM management.

Sources

Checked on 4 November 2026.

Author

Madars Siksna

Lead BIM specialist, Digitalyse

11 years in construction, from modelling for fabrication and structural design to BIM management and coordination on Rail Baltica. 2022–2023: BIM Project Manager at VAS “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi” (State Real Estate), with BIM requirements (EIR, BEP) for the state property portfolio and client-side BIM management on the New Riga Theatre and Riga Castle.

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