One of the most important functions of a property manager is the supervision of property maintenance. A manager must learn to balance services provided with their costs that is, to satisfy tenants’ needs while minimizing operating expenses.
To maintain the property efficiently, the manager must be able to assess the building’s needs and how best to meet them. In some cases, the best plan may be to operate a low-rental property with minimal expenditures for services and maintenance. Another property may be more lucrative if kept in top condition and operated with all possible tenant services. A well-maintained, high-service property can command premium rental rates.
A primary maintenance objective is to protect the physical integrity of the property over the long term. For example, preserving the property by repainting the exterior or replacing the heating system helps decrease long-term maintenance costs. Keeping the property in good condition involves the following four types of maintenance:
- Preventive maintenance
- Repair or corrective maintenance
- Routine maintenance
- Construction
Preventive maintenance
This includes regularly scheduled activities such as painting and seasonal servicing of appliances and systems. Preventive maintenance preserves the long-range value and physical integrity of the building. This is both the most critical and the most neglected maintenance responsibility. Failure to perform preventive maintenance invariably leads to greater expense in other areas of maintenance.
Repair or corrective maintenance
This involves the actual repairs that keep the building’s equipment, utilities, and amenities functioning. Repairing a boiler, fixing a leaky faucet, or mending a broken air-conditioning unit are acts of corrective maintenance.
Routine maintenance.
Routine maintenance includes such day-to-day duties as cleaning common areas, performing minor carpentry and plumbing adjustments, and providing regularly scheduled upkeep of landscaping. Good routine maintenance is similar to good preventive maintenance. Both head off problems before they become expensive.
One of the major decisions a property manager faces is whether to contract for maintenance services from an outside firm or hire on-site employees to perform such tasks. This decision should be based on a number of factors, including:
- size of the building,
- complexity of the tenants’ requirements, and
- availability of suitable labor.
A commercial or an industrial property manager often is called on to make tenant improvements (sometimes referred to as TI). These are alterations to the interior of the building to meet a tenant’s particular space needs. Such construction alterations range from simply repainting or recarpeting to completely gutting the interior and redesigning the space by erecting new walls, adding partitions, and revamping electrical systems.
In new construction, especially, the interiors are usually left incomplete so that they can be adapted to the needs of individual tenants. One matter that must be clarified is which improvements will be considered trade fixtures (personal property belonging to the tenant) and which will belong to the owner of the real estate.
Modernization or renovation of buildings that have become functionally obsolete and thus unsuited to today’s building needs is also important. The renovation of a building often enhances marketability and potential income.
Handling Environmental Concerns
Managers may manage structures containing asbestos or radon or be called on to arrange an environmental audit of a property. Managers must see that any hazardous wastes produced by their employers or tenants are properly disposed of. Even nonhazardous waste of an office building must be controlled to avoid violation of laws requiring segregation and recycling of types of wastes.
Air quality issues are a key concern for those involved in property management and design. Building related illness (BRI) and sick building syndrome (SBS) are illnesses that are more prevalent today because of energy and efficiency standards used in construction that make buildings more airtight with less ventilation. SBS is more typical in an office building.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Title I of the ADA provides for the employment of qualified job applicants regardless of their disability. Any employer with 15 or more employees must adopt nondiscriminatory employment procedures. In addition, employers must make reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.
Title III of the ADA, prohibits discrimination in commercial properties and public accommodations. The ADA requires that managers ensure that people with disabilities have full and equal access to facilities and services.
The ADA recommends reasonably achievable accommodations to provide access to the facilities and services. New construction and remodeling, however, must meet higher standards because new design costs less than retrofitting. An unexpected benefit to new owners is that many of the accessible design features and accommodations benefit everyone.
Existing barriers must be removed when this can be accomplished in a readily achievable manner that is, with little difficulty and at low cost.
The following are typical examples of readily achievable modifications:
- Ramping or removing an obstacle from an otherwise accessible entrance
- Lowering wall-mounted public telephones
- Adding raised letters and Braille markings on elevator buttons
- Installing auditory signals in elevators
- Reversing the direction in which doors open (for wheelchair accessibility)
- Providing doors that have mechanisms that will open and close the doors automatically
