"a good building surveyor can be the difference between a defective lead flashing that costs £250 to repair now or the rotten timber frame that costs £250,000 to replace a few years later."
As most commercial building owners / occupiers would tell you, reactive maintenance can be extremely costly and an unnecessary with a bit of foresight. A facilities manager can keep a building ticking over, however, they will require instruction on how and when to undertake repairs or replacement of some elements of a property.
A carefully drafted planned and preventative maintenance report can be used to ensure that any significant repairs and associated expenditure is properly planned for. A planned and preventative maintenance report can be especially useful when preparing a service charge budget or forecast for a multi-let commercial property.
Regular Maintenance Can Prevent Unnecessary Overspend
By undertaking an inspection of your commercial property on a regular basis a good building surveyor can be the difference between a defective lead flashing that costs £250 to repair or the rotten timber frame that costs £250,000 to replace a few years later. Tenants will too be grateful for a suitably maintained building, which means less aggravation towards the managing agent or facilities managers.
Commercial awareness is also a key point to consider for any building surveyor preparing a planned maintenance report. Attention must be paid to the leases of the tenants in order to ascertain whether the proposed works form part of the service charge, and consider the impact of discrepancies both in the lease and between the leases. We regularly come across Full Repairing leases in which the tenant is demised the structure and fabric, yet it remains the landlord's responsibility to repair these elements.
There may be requirements by a superior landlord, or the client's business plan may call for things like energy efficient improvements. Allowance for new or pending legislation, which requires building to comply with certain standards, for example the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES).
A carefully drafted planned & preventative maintenance report can help property managers and facilities managers adopt a new attitude towards undertaking maintenance work. The report should essentially form an instruction manual for repairing and maintaining the building, thus limiting the amount of unforeseen catastrophes and expensive call-outs.