"Must have" of the project or why do we need technical expertise of commercial real estate?

– How to avoid unpleasant surprises from life support systems in the new office?

– Before entering into the contract, conduct a technical examination.

Technical expertise provides an answer to one of the key questions of the lease: how suitable the office is for the full life of the company.

Who and how conducts technical expertise and whether it can affect the project budget?

Technical expertise is carried out before the conclusion of the lease agreement

What is technical expertise?

Technical expertise-a set of activities carried out by technical specialists in order to obtain information about the technical condition of the object and the quality of its engineering communications. On the basis of the information received, an expert opinion is drawn up on the compliance of the premises with the needs of the tenant.

The task of technical expertise is to study the current state of the object and its communications, to assess and forecast their work under the load of the tenant.

Technical expertise is carried out before signing the lease agreement. As soon as your signature appears on the contract, all the technical features of the object will become part of your daily life. Heat, air, water, ventilation, air conditioning, window fittings, alarm and warning systems only at first glance do not seem to be the main issues.

I never tire of repeating: we spend 8-10 hours a day in the office. So the quality of our business office life is not only the view from the window and transport infrastructure. This is also a very mundane household questions: how the Sewerage works, whether the batteries heat well, whether there is enough electricity to conduct daily activities.

Unpleasant smell in the office or stuffiness due to poor ventilation can seriously reduce business efficiency. And after all it is the most harmless of possible problems.

So if you do not want to be in a situation where the full work prevents a lot of annoying household problems with air, electricity, water, ventilation, the technical expertise should be for you what is called mast have.

The quality of the office depends on the state of life support systems

Who conducts technical expertise

Technical expertise of commercial real estate is a separate type of work. It should not be the responsibility of the designer, designer, lawyer or General contractor. Expertise is a special service prescribed in the list of competencies of the company. People with engineering education and specialized experience can make it .

The result of the examination is made in the form of a detailed report on the technical condition of the object, its performance and capabilities. Based on this report, the tenant makes important decisions, including financial ones. For example, is it worth investing in improving the technical condition of the office, if there are problems with it.

Therefore, the report should be prepared by practitioners who know what and how to check on what aspects to pay special attention. They should be able not only to assess the condition of the premises, but also to give recommendations on a possible solution to the problem, so that the tenant can see how much it will cost "restoring order".

What we study within the technical expertise

In our company, technical expertise is a separate service, and we definitely recommend it to tenants who are planning to move.

The simplest example: you, as a tenant, found a good office, the office is renovated. The landlord painted the walls and even redid the floors. The location and price you arranged, you sign a contract, and after moving it turns out that the air conditioners can not cope with the load, ventilation does not work, the water flows badly, the level of illumination of the office is insufficient. And as a result, you have to spend serious money to ensure at least some satisfactory condition of the office. Such examples in my practice are much more common than we would like. It is very easy to avoid these problems if you make a technical examination. It will give an objective picture of the condition of the object and its suitability for use by your company.

Technical expertise should be carried out by experienced specialists

What do we usually include in technical expertise?

• Site visit and visual assessment of the facility and communications.
• Contacts with the landlord to provide the necessary documentation on the object: plans, calculations, operation logs, reports on the planned and preventive maintenance and inspections.
• Studying of the documentation on the object.
• Checking the functionality of communications.
• If necessary – interviews with representatives of technical and operational services of the lessor.
• Verification of regulatory compliance with the characteristics of the object.
• Preparation of a detailed expert report.

We draw up the results of the examination in the form of a detailed report, we include information about the state of the object, as well as calculations and recommendations to bring it in accordance with the needs of the tenant. If our experts have come to the conclusion that the object does not meet the requirements for some parameter, we calculate the cost of solving this problem.

Now a potential tenant can go to the landlord with a proposal to reduce the rent, if the technical condition of the object requires improvement.

Technical expertise: cost or savings?

There is a natural question: if technical expertise is so useful/necessary/relevant, why it is not bought by all moving tenants?

There are several reasons besides the age-old hope for the best.

• Lack of experts. It is not always possible to quickly find a company of suitable qualification, which will undertake technical expertise. In addition, one of the conditions for the quality of such services is the independence of experts. They should not be associated with developers or landlords, to their conclusions were objective.
• False economy. Many tenants believe that technical expertise is a waste of money, especially if we are talking about new buildings. Their logic is: the building is new, what could be wrong? Technical expertise in the new building will help to determine the amount of technical resources for the life support of the future office. Whether there is enough air, power supply capacity, whether there will be enough space in the Central system to fire sensors and so on. All these questions directly affect the viability of the office and require an answer.

Technical expertise will allow you to choose and equip the office with maximum comfort within the budget.

So, technical expertise is needed:

• to avoid unexpected costs of correcting the technical conditions of the office;
• to know what kind of living environment your business will have to work in;
• to make the best choice when moving from the available options.

If the room will require any additional measures to improve the technical condition, then, firstly, you will know about it in advance, and secondly, you will be able to choose the best solution together with experts.

I will surely include technical expertise to the investment costs. It is the key to comfort, safety, saving the budget for repairs and relocation.