Property Management L2 & 3

Question 1

Level 1
Manage a variety of multi-let office & retail in London and Regional areas.

Answer 1

London

Question 2

What duties does PM encompass?

The breadth of the property management sector and the range of duties it encompasses has taught me the importance of clear tenant liaison and flexibility to adapt to varying client requirements, both in meetings and via reporting.

Answer 2

Health and safety and ensuring the building is compliant i.e. with FRA & GRA & Asbestos

Ensure we are in line with regulation i.e. Building Safety Act

Honest and frequent reporting to clients

Question 3

I have attended a CPD seminar which discusses the RICS Service Charges in Commercial Property RICS PROFESSIONAL STANDARD (2018) and how it applies to drafting a budget.

Answer 3

Provides mandatory obligations that RICS members and regulated firms engaged in this area must comply with. (No specific legislation.)

1. Must all be in accordance with the lease

Apportionment:
- Fixed %
- Floor area
- Rateable value
- Weighted floor area

Question 4

AIMS - RICS Service Charges in Commercial Property RICS PROFESSIONAL STANDARD (2018)

Answer 4

Aims to
- improve general standards
- promote best practice
ensure timely issue of budgets and YE cert
- uniformity, fairness, transparency
- reduce the causes of disputes and provides guidance on resolution

Question 5

RE-CATEGORISATION - Professional Statement –> PROFESSIONAL STANDARD

RICS Service Charges in Commercial Property RICS PROFESSIONAL STANDARD (2018)

Answer 5

This document was reissued in September 2023 as a professional standard. It had previously been published in September 2018 as a professional statement.

The regulatory requirements remain the same and no material changes have been made to the document.

Question 6

Principles - summarised

Answer 6

1. All expenditure must be in accordance with the terms of the lease.

2 must seek to recover no more than 100% of the proper and actual costs.

3 must include appropriate explanatory commentary.

4 Must ensure that an approved set of service charge accounts showing a true and accurate record of the actual expenditure constituting the service charge are provided annually to all tenants.

5 Must ensure that a service charge apportionment matrix for their property is provided annually to all tenants.

6 Service charge monies (including reserve and sinking funds) must be held in one or more discrete (or virtual) bank accounts.

7 Where acting on behalf of a tenant, practitioners must advise their clients that if a dispute exists any service charge payment withheld by the tenant should reflect only the actual sums in dispute.

Question 7

LEVEL 2

Answer 7

LEVEL 2

Question 8

Fire Safety Regulations - Office Wigmore Street

Answer 8

Summary - Fire safety (Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022) Fact sheet: Secure information box (regulation 4)

To aid my CPD and professional learning I checked the gov website and

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 have made it a legal requirement since 23 January 2023, for existing high-rise residential buildings in England to have a secure premises information box installed on the premises.

The regulations require responsible persons to install a suitably secure information box in or on their high-rise building.

Question 9

Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022

Answer 9

Post the 2017, Grenfell Tower Fire which killed 72 residents, the Government immediately ordered a Public Inquiry into the fire.

The findings included important recommendations to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. These regulations take the form of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022

Question 10

This building includes residential hence why the box is needing to be installed

Answer 10

A residential building is to be considered as high-rise if:

• the building is at least 18 metres above ground level
• the building is seven storeys or more

Question 11

Why PIB / Secure Information Box

Answer 11

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report highlighted that the lack of on-site information available to London Fire Brigade on the night could have further hampered their response had the layout of the building been more complex.

The Inquiry recommended that the owner and manager of all high-rise residential buildings be required by law to ensure that the building contains a secure information box

Question 12

What is a Secure information boxe (PIB)

Answer 12

Secure information boxes are easily identifiable repositories for documents intended for use by the fire and rescue service during a fire.

It is a legal requirement from 23 January 2023 for existing high-rise residential buildings in England to have a secure information box installed on the premises.

Question 13

Secure information box must contain:

Answer 13

– The name, address and telephone number of the Responsible Person

– The name and contact information of such other persons with facilities to, and are permitted to, access the building on behalf of the Responsible Person

– Copy of the floor plans and building plan

The responsible person must inspect the secure information box at least annually and ensure that it continues to meet the requirements

Question 14

Advised the client that the box will have to form part of the building’s fire risk assessment.

Answer 14

Legal obligation. would be flagged on FRA & GRA as a risk/hazard.

Question 15

As per the Building Safety Act 2022

Answer 15

• Buildings with at least 7 floors (upper not below) or over 18m in height containing two or more residential units

As such Wigmore Street qualifies with x4 residential units and 7 floors and is over 18m.

Question 16

Deadline and penalties

Answer 16

Had to meet appropriate deadlines such as registering building in April 2023 (closing Oct 2023) & Structure and Safety information questionnaire completed.

Up to a 2-year prison sentence for breaches of the Building
Safety Act 2022.

Question 17

Principal Accountable Person (PAP):

Answer 17

FROGMORE (Client) authorised Tandem to register the building for them on their behalf - authorisation was provided in writing in an email for the record.

• The ‘organisation’ responsible for the structure/external
  walls of the building. There will then need to be a single
  point of contact for the Building Safety Regulator to liaise
  with –> FROGMORE
• The PAP can authorise someone else to register the building
  for them on their behalf. The authorisation must be in
  writing e.g. in an email, letter or written contract.

Question 18

Reviewed the headlease and contacted the council

Wigmore - what did the lease say about external modification?

Answer 18

No issues or restrictions for external modification or planning permission - checked for permitted development rights to install the PIB box.

Question 19

Liaised with Ark (health and safety advisors) and advised the client that the box will have to form part of the building’s fire risk assessment.

(As a result of its installation, the property is now 100% compliant on our health and safety Quooda platform.)

Answer 19

Would be flagged by assessor as a risk if not present

Question 20

Level 2 - Common area refurbishment works – Office, Bonhill Street, London

What happened

Answer 20

Common area refurbishment, the tenants expressed dissatisfaction and concern regarding the disruption this would cause their daily business operations.

I advised that arranging fortnightly tenant meetings would assist in keeping the occupiers satisfied /updated.

implementing agreed noisy hours to assist L&T relationship and avoid frequent disturbance to the occupiers as per the right to quiet enjoyment lease clause.

Project delayed from March –> October. Update, now December 2023 - to increase transparency and comm

Question 21

Quiet Enjoyment

Answer 21

NOISY HOURS HELPED MITIGATE ANY ISSUES - the tenants ere excited at the prospect of a new, sustainable building.

• The landlord must not do anything to prevent the tenant occupying and using the premises for the use permitted by the lease.
• The tenant must be able to “enjoy” (i.e. occupy) the property without interruption from the landlord (or their agent)

Question 22

Bonhill Street - What noisy hours did you agree and why?

Answer 22

Agreed: 8-10 am & 12-2 pm & 4-6 pm

This was to avoid disruption to occupiers

Agreed in writing with Client, Tandem, PM, Contractors & Tenants

Question 23

Bonhill Street - why is important to keep the occupiers informed with works?

Answer 23

• Essential to keep good communication, well informed parties
• Keep them satisfied
• Avoid any disputes
• Protect the L&T relationship

Question 24

Level 3

Answer 24

Level 3

Question 25

Reception and security refurbishment – Office, Piccadilly, London

Answer 25

Client concern about safety and security of embassy building due to the high-profile nature of the occupier.

Recommended options to make office more secure including altering reception (common areas only)

Options:
- Second set of bullet proof glass doors
- Installing more CCTV cameras
- altering the position of the reception desk.

ONLY options and ideas - so gathered costings and presented to client & ministry of foreign affairs –> TO GIVE THE CLIENT SOME INDICATION while the project was in it’s infancy.

Improvement so could not be put through the service charge and funding would have to be secured. –> Funding Secured owing to the nature of the tenant.

Approached my client’s lawyer to gain Crown Court. Kept tenant and client updated and worked alongside the architect to keep the project’s momentum going.

Question 26

Piccadilly - why would altering the reception desk increase security?

Answer 26

Better view of the outside street. Previously hidden behind the door with a limited view of street.

Plus more engaging and more of a security presences when right in front of door.

Question 27

Piccadilly - why did you recommend a second set of bullet proof glass doors should be installed?

Answer 27

Listened to brief from tenant, client, ministry. This subject was raised and option was debated. I said I would get estimated costs to assess the feasibility/ viability.

I advised this would be an expensive addition.

Question 28

Piccadilly - why could this not be put through the service charge?

Answer 28

At that point in time and the scope being discussed, the majority of works could not be put through SC because it would be an improvement.

Question 29

Piccadilly - why was Crown Court consent required?

Answer 29

The building superior landlord is the Crown Estate, my client has the head lease. Crown Consent is required (i.e. even for LTA & Wayleave agreements). Must be documented and approved.

Question 30

Service Charge Budget – Office, Wigmore Street, London

Answer 30

When preparing the service charge budget –> for the next SC year, I requested a copy of the expenditure to date to review what had been spent in this year’s budget.

These figures provided myself and my facilities manager with a useful cost indication on what should be included in the next year’s budget.

–> See what’s been spent, any under or overspending. Good guidance

I recognised my client’s request to keep the service charge budget similar to the previous years, however I advised that this may not be feasible.

1. the New Fire Regulations (2022), inspecting fire doors on quarterly basis, instead of 6 monthly and the subsequent cost that this would involve (Fire safety 2022)
2. Utilities –> Volatility of the utilities market was a significant contributor to the budget’s increase. I advised my client that we should not sign a fixed contract yet as the market was constantly evolving and my utilities advisor suggested waiting for a fall in price.

Question 31

Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022

Answer 31

Legal requirement from 23 January 2023 for all multi-occupied residential buildings in England with storeys over 11 metres in height to undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts.

Would get a qualified H&S assessor to complete works using our advisors Ark - to do all risk assessments. They can advise on any remedial works required.

Question 32

Office Wigmore Street - what are the legal requirements on checking fire doors?

Answer 32

Depends –> Usually once every six month but bc it’s high rise residential is it now quarterly

How much –> Overall budget for Fire alarms / systems and equ was £10K large increase from last year

Question 33

Utilities volatility –> Energy Management

Answer 33

Advise did not sign, wait for price to fall as at time the market was evolving.

ADVISE ON ENERGY MANAGEMENT AS PER THE RICS Guidance Note on Commercial Property Management, England & Wales 2011

Advise –> PM should be aware of new regulations relating to envir performance - such as EPC but also good to review as part of common area electricity consumption

Advise by Inteb RE rates/market dependant. Weekly updates which i advise my client accordingly. Price was expected to fall