Our supermarket client occupies a large distribution centre under a single lease beginning in 1996.
The insurance premium increased to £359,000 following a 38% uplift in the Buildings Declared Value.
Our insurance team requested a copy of the Reinstatement Cost Assessment for further investigation…
First things first, when we are referring to an Audit, we mean a Certified or Chartered Accountants Audit. Their role is designed to protect the payers of the service charge, the Tenants. They should verify and certify expenditure by completing a full review and appropriate checks, providing the Tenant’s with the assurance that things have been handled properly…
Our client occupies 49,000 sqft in a recently redeveloped office building of 69,000 sqft under a single lease beginning in 2017 for a term of twenty years.
The reconciled accounts for the service charge year ending 31 March 2019 were received, accompanied by a balancing demand of £368,000. Our client had received no prior notification from the managing agent regarding the size of the balancing demand..
From our internal research, based on renewals that have taken place over the past three months, landlords insurance recharges are rising. We are seeing average increases of 13.5% feeding through at renewal. This is a combination of rising declared values (4%) and escalating premium rates (9.5%). In many cases the increases are far greater, with Landlords extending their cover as well as taking a more active role in the identification of risks…
According to our research, Tenants are begining to protect their position to a far greater extent, with many more service charge caps and all-inclusive rents. If this trend continues, it is Landlords that will suffer the fluctuations. In turn, this directly impacts the net rent (after deducting service charge shortfalls) that they are able to secure across the let parts of their scheme…
For us to understand what will happen to Service Charge budgets in 2022, we need to look back. In 2021 service charge budgets reduced by 9% for Shopping Centres and 4% for Retail/Leisure Parks. This was mainly due to the withdrawal of major works and reduced marketing throughout the lockdown periods. There was relatively little in the way of reduced manpower costs, despite Furlough, so that’s one to look out for as we await the final reconciled service charge accounts…
