Our “Lessee Building Audits” provide quality commercial building related information to a prospective lessee prior to making the final commitment of signing the deed of lease. Deeds of Lease are a major commitment for any party, often over a 6-year, 9-year, 12-year or 15-year time frame. Once signed, obtaining recourse or cost resolution from a Lessor to an issue overlooked can be challenging if not unsuccessful.
Lessee’s can often be unaware of significant issues relating to the quality, suitability, costs and time frames relating to the premises and the building services.
A Lessee Building Audit provides information, knowledge and negotiation strength to any lessee, be it for office floors, industrial, accommodation, institutional, medical, or manufacturing buildings.
A few examples of issues raised by our team recently are.
- Existing Lessor building works completed without a code compliance certificate (A Lessor issue to resolve)
- Electrical capacity insufficient for Lessees load requirements (Negotiate prior to lease commitment)
- Lessee works requiring a building consent – time and cost (Time frames in the Deed of Lease to suit the Lessee)
- Lift speeds and waiting times unsuitable for Lessee reasonable expectations and standards (Lessor to resolve, negotiate with Lessor)
- Lack of seismic restraints in suspended ceilings and building services equipment. (Negotiate with the Lessor to resolve)
- Non-compliant passive fire features (Negotiate with the Lessor to resolve)
- Proposed occupancy numbers exceed existing calculated occupancy numbers for fire and sanitary facilities. (Negotiate with the Lessor and or resolve prior to signing a lease.)
- Potential retrospective upgrading due to both fire safety design and accessibility design features at building consent stage. (Identify risk and negotiate with the Lessor)
- The premises leak (Lessor to resolve)
We are of the view Lessors will acquiesce to fair and reasonable requests relating to their premises when on the cusp of securing a stable long-term commercial lessee. Our advice to lessees is to never underestimate the strength of a willing commercial tenant.
To discuss this service please call or email Peter Bamford, MRICS, Director, on 029 520 9592 or peter.bamford@covekinloch.co.nz
