It was the second event organised by an international company managing and counselling in real estate sector Knight Frank and a law firm Kuczek Maruta Chamber of Legal Advisers. The previous ones were devoted to office space tenants.
This year’s seminar aimed to provide investors with issues related to the practical management of office buildings and information how to conclude legally binding rental agreements.
The first part of the thematic block introduced by Grażyna Czerwonka from Knight Frank gave participants the opportunity to get acquainted with the general terms connected with exploitation costs. The speaker, in response to the participants’ questions, defined payment, the difference between payment in advance made by tenants and expenses incurred in connection with the use or exploitation of a building. In the next part, the speaker raised the following subjects: the exploitation costs settlement and the methods of providing tenants with settlement of accounts. The speaker paid particular attention to the perpetual usufruct payments, which are the component parts of exploitation costs. Due to the fact that after the updating of real estate value the perpetual usufruct payments usually increases rapidly, this issue is often thoroughly discussed with tenants during the presentation of yearly settlement. Therefore, according to Grażyna Czerwonka, it is worth to account clients for real costs rather than for flat rate. The final part of the block was about cost optimisation of the building and clauses in rental agreements from a property manager’s perspective, which also generated considerable excitement among the participants.
The topic of agreement conclusion was a good introduction to the next section led by a legal adviser Beata Kuczek Maruta, from the law firm Kuczek Maruta Chamber of Legal Advisers. “Accounting for the maintenance costs of an office complex.” This block’s subject matter was also connected with the exploitation costs, but from a lawyer’s perspective. The speaker briefly discussed the most important factors which should be noticed by tenants in the moment of agreement conclusion. “An office block’s owner when creating a rental agreement shall focus on 5 elementary points, which are essential from the legal point of view,” said Beata Kuczek Maruta. Exemplarily, the tenant’s commandments should contain the exact description of tenants involvement costs, the strict rules of yearly settlement. Thanks to the proper clauses in rental agreements, the conditions will be understood by both parties, without unnecessary misunderstandings in the future.
The penultimate speeches were given by Magdalena Oksańska, Key Account Manager and Bartłomiej Łepkowski, Head of Property Management from Knight Frank. The speakers discussed a property manager’s role in an office building and in contacts between an owner and a tenant. Those speeches were mainly about the precise definition of services provided by property managers. According to the speakers, the property manager’s main responsibilities include: services related to the acquisition of property management, financial services, technical operations, logistic services, standard daily duties and preparation of the building for possible sale. The professional property manager shall inform an owner about the issues connected with the costs of the building and whether the building is fully commercialised. Whereas the tenants who are present in the managed building shall be aware of the real purpose of their maintenance fees. Signu FM platform, which enables direct and easy contact between a tenant and a manager, for instance with the aim of notifying some defects, turned out to be an interesting solution for office block’s owners, tenants, and property managers.
The meeting was finished by Katarzyna Pabian, a legal adviser in the law firm Kuczek Maruta Chamber of Legal Advisers. The speaker focused on a practical approach to the rent payment security included in a rental agreement. She discussed also issues connected with advance payment or bank guarantee, and highlighted the significance of the proper contract clauses relating to the currency in which tenants shall pay in advance or lessors shall repay the advance. She provided information about the lessor’s right to a possession of the tenant’s specific items based on the principles of statutory lien. The training course “An office block’s owner - profits, dilemmas, risk” was directed not only to people who wanted to amass and systematise their knowledge, but mostly to market players who intend to maximally benefit from real estate commercialisation.
Management and law experts shared their years of experience and conducted the analysis on specific cases. The participants in turn learned how to effectively protect their interests and got to know the practical management of an office building.