The Plymouth office of Stratton Creber Commercial have recently been appointed by the developers of a large mixed use scheme to advise on the structure of the management of the building, service charge budgets and responsibilities for the day to day and statutory aspects of running the property going forward.

Unfortunately, the approach came very late in the process with the scheme nearing practical completion and some deals with tenants already in solicitors hands. Consequently a number of factors that hadn’t been considered, (or had been forgotten about during the long process of site formulation, planning, design, development etc) had to be resolved and agreed in a relatively short period of time. A number of these items appear mundane (and indeed often are) and understandably slip the mind when a multi-million pound scheme is being proposed and built, however, the impact on asset management and asset values going forward if not done correctly can be significant as best rents might not be achieved and/or full recovery of the running costs might not be achieved.

The list below is clearly not exhaustive but illustrates some of the points that might get forgotten or glossed over:

1) Fire alarms systems – Do the practicalities of its operation suit the future uses of the building?

2) Bin stores – Are the size and access arrangements satisfactory for the end users?

3) Common parts W.C’s – Management of bearing in mind possibility of differing hours of opening for some occupants.

4) Utilities provision – Who uses what? Practicalities of metering and sub-metering?

5) PV Cells – How is the electricity generated reflected in costs/credits in the budget?

6) Management fees – Are these recoverable through the service charge account?

7) Accurate budgeting – Incoming tenants will want to know what their occupational costs are likely to be, are draft budget figures that are provided to them accurate and realistic?

If the above raises any questions or concerns please contact either Ian Le Grice or Chris Reed on 01752 670700