FAQs

Serviced offices are also known as Business Centres- where the offices are fully furnished including telephones and broadband facilities.

They are ready for immediate occupation and include reception staff that can answer calls in your company name and greet your visitors.

Other administrative facilities such as post, fax, copying are also available at additional costs.

Meeting room facilities with catering are available at our Business Centres.

The monthly rent includes rent, rates, service charge, utilities and services of reception plus beverage supply.

The minimum terms are usually 3-6 months with licence agreements and rentals are paid on a monthly basis with one month deposit required.

All costs are subject to VAT.

Managed and all inclusive office suites are often used to describe the same thing. An all inclusive or managed office is usually smaller office suites up to around 10 persons, although it is possible for these terms to apply to larger spaces.

The all inclusive rate usually means that the rental, service charge, business rates, building insurance and quite often, electricity is included within the price quoted. Where parking is available, this is usually an additional cost.  All prices exclude VAT.

Managed and all inclusive offices usually require rentals to be paid monthly with a one-month deposit held for the duration of the agreement.

These suites are usually let on a 12 month licence agreement which is a short form legal document usually 5 or 6 pages in length and usually agreed between the parties without the need to instruct solicitors. These are usually for a fixed 12 month period with no notice periods. If you wish to renew at the end of the term both parties discuss any changes to the terms and pricing and proceed accordingly.

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Most commercial property is let on what is described as a conventional lease basis. This means that a full lease is negotiated between both parties with the use of solicitors (in most occasions). Conventional leases are usually used for any tenancies over 12 months in length, for an agreed period of time, with tenants break options to terminate the lease after a certain length of time.

The lease document outlines the obligations of both the landlord and the tenant during the period when the space is let and also provides details of the service charge and landlords responsibilities under this.

Heads of Terms is the document that is produced which confirms what has been negotiated and agreed between both parties and details the main points that will constitute the lease document. It will include information such as; the two parties, their representatives, the length of lease, any agreements made during the negotiation period, the amount of rent due, details of the service charge, the tenants ability to assign and sublet the property and any other salient information that should be agreed prior to the instruction of solicitors.

(Heads of Terms are not a legally binding document but it is normal not to seek to renegotiate these once they have been agreed.)  Solicitors will take the Heads of Terms and use the information within these to and reflect them in the full lease document.

A licence is an alternative form of occupational agreement which is more flexible and less formal that a lease whilst still forming a legally binding document. Usually a few pages in length, a licence contains the main pertinent information in relation to the landlord and tenants obligations during the term of the licence. Licences are ordinarily used for short term occupation for instance no longer than 12 months and in managed or service space.

A break option is a provision within a lease at a fixed point within the term of the lease when either the landlord or tenant (or both) has the ability to end the lease on a given date subject to certain criteria.

It is quite common for breaks to be included at agreed points within the term of a lease although the presence of breaks may reduce incentives available to the incoming tenant or may require penalties if exercised usually in the form of a one off payment to the landlord for a fixed pre-agreed sum.

It is usual in multi-occupied buildings for tenants to pay a service charge. The service charge is usually managed and assessed by the landlords management agents, Emerson Management Services, and covers items incurred by the landlord in primarily repairing, maintaining, cleansing and renewing the structure, exterior, common parts, plant and equipment and providing any other services as set out in the lease. A landlord cannot make a profit from a service charge and it is purely the cost of maintaining the property over the course of a 12 month period and is budgeted 12 months in advance and reconciled at the end of the financial year.

A service charge is usually quoted per square foot and is usually payable on the March and September quarter dates and can vary from building to building as to the amount per square foot.

If the building is self-contained, therefore occupied by a single company, there may only be an estate charge applicable which is similar to a service charge but usually only covers the external items that are dealt with by the landlord.  It is usually lower than a full service charge as it covers fewer items but gives the single occupier of the property the flexibility and ability to decide when and what works are carried out, as and when required and to seek comfort from knowing they are sourcing maintenance contracts etc and achieving the best possible price.

Subletting and assignment are often referred to as the alienation clause and relate to the ability of the tenant to transfer the lease on a property onto another company either temporarily or completely.

Subletting is when a company may sublet part of their premises or all of the premises to another company but the main company continue to pay the rent and observe the requirements of the tenant under the terms of the lease but the subtenant is allowed to occupy the premises, pay rent to the original tenant and trade from there.

Assignment differs in that this is a more permanent transfer from one company to another of the remaining liability under the lease and provides the original tenant with greater ability to dispose of the liability permanently.

All commercial property requires a planning use to permit specific uses of the premises. The main ones are outlined below and it is a legal requirement that the correct use for the premises is secured, prior to use of the premises.

Business rates are the commercial property equivalent of council tax and are payable to and set by the local Authority in conjunction with the valuation office.

Full details of all properties business rates can be found at the valuation office agencies website www.voa.gov.uk

The business rates an occupier will pay are based on the open market rental value of the space which is determined by the Valuation Office.  This is then used to apply a standard rate in the £ to provide the amount paid each year. Rates are assessed by the VOA taking into consideration the location, size and quality of the space and therefore it is possible for suites within the same building to vary primarily on size and specification.

Small businesses may be able to benefit from small business rates relief, if applicable. Further details can be found on the business link website and can greatly assist smaller companies in ensuring occupational costs are kept to a minimum.

A lease will often specify that the rent is payable on 'the usual quarter days'. The usual quarter days are: 25^th March, 24^th June, 29^th September and 25^th December.

Comfort cooling describes office space which has a combination of perimeter hot water radiators but also has either ceiling or wall mounted units which provide cooling into the space when the weather is hot outside.  It is quite common to find comfort cooling in accommodation which has been refurbished or where the original system was a perimeter radiator system and either the Landlord or a previous occupier have installed separate comfort cooling units.

Office space that is air conditioned will benefit from an integrated system to provide heating and cooling which combines to provide a comfortable working temperature within the office environment.

This means that the space will not have any perimeter radiators but will have duct work or a ceiling mounted cassette system through which air of the desired temperature is circulated usually with the provision to control the temperature across different zones within the office space.

LPHW stands for Low Pressure Hot Water system and, in effect, this is what everyone would know as central heating.  This is usually provided by perimeter radiators fed by hot water pipes linked to a central heating boiler.  Buildings with a LPHW heating system and no air conditioning or comfort cooling are still very common and the systems are very efficient and effective.

Cat 2 light fittings were introduced into commercial office space to provide a less reflective source of lighting where there is high use of computer VDU's or laptops etc.

LG3 and LG7 compliant lighting really only means a change in the design of the luminaries or diffusers which in conjunction with the overall occupiers fitting out provides a more pleasant lighting environment.

LG3/LG7 light fittings are an altered design from standard Cat 2 light fittings so that they perform better in spaces where there is high use of VDU/laptops.

A raised floor provides a way in which a void is created between the floor slab of the building itself and the carpeted finished level which allows occupiers to install cabling for computer use, power distribution and telecoms.

It gives great levels of flexibility as connections for power, telecoms and data can be moved to suit an individual occupier's desking layout.

Perimeter trunking is an alternative to a raised floor where data, telecoms and power cabling is fed through, usually, a three compartment trunking system either along the floor (skirting trunking) or approximately 1 metre higher up the wall (dado trunking) to, again, provide flexible connections for desking and computers etc.

Some office space will not provide either perimeter trunking or a raised floor but will provide a ducting system within the solid concrete floor.  This still provides a good way in which to manage the distribution of power, data and telecoms cabling and can be supplemented by perimeter trunking if required.

A lot of office space has suspended ceilings which provide a clear and efficient ceiling in which light fittings can be incorporated.  They hide unsightly things such as cable connections and can also be used to allow distribution of data and telecoms cabling.

DDA compliancy usually means that a building has either been constructed or altered to ensure that it meets the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2005.  In essence, this means that a building which is compliant will have safe access routes into the building including ramps, powered access doors, sufficiently wide external/internal doors and access to lifts as well as the provision of toilets designed for disabled access.

The ability to conduct your business on a 24 hour basis usually by the provision of access control systems into either a self contained building or the shared access points within a larger multi-occupied building.