Commercial Property Maintenance for Owners and Managers

Commercial property maintenance is judged by three audiences at once. Tenants judge the lobby, the elevators and the temperature in their suite. Lenders and insurers judge inspection reports, open deficiencies and the condition of the roof and life safety systems. The owner judges operating cost and value at refinancing or sale.

A typical portfolio mixes building types, and each fails in its own way:

• Multi-tenant office towers run on a central plant of chillers, boilers, cooling towers and air handlers, with elevator banks, sprinklers on every floor and water risers serving every suite.
• Suburban office parks usually rely on rooftop units, one or two elevators, large surface lots and grounds.
• Flex and light industrial buildings combine office space with warehouse bays, overhead doors and loading docks.
• Strip centers and mixed-use buildings add ground-floor tenants with their own storefronts, signage and waste needs.

The work orders that come up most often are consistent across these buildings:

• Comfort complaints. A suite too warm or too cold, usually from a failed rooftop unit, a stuck damper, a thermostat out of calibration or a central plant fault.
• Elevators. A car out of service at morning arrival affects every tenant above the ground floor.
• Water. A roof leak, a failed riser valve, a blocked condensate line or an upper-floor overflow can reach the suites below.
• Fire and life safety deficiencies. Failed emergency lights, impaired sprinkler zones and alarm trouble signals found at inspection stay open on the report until they are corrected and documented.
• Parking lots and garages. Potholes, worn striping, dark light poles and damaged gates, often the first thing a visitor sees.
• Vacant suites. Space between tenants still needs checks for leaks, pests and lighting before it is shown.

The cost is operational: a tenant without cooling on a hot afternoon, an elevator bank down during morning arrival, a closed section of the parking lot, or an insurer report listing open life safety deficiencies.

Commercial buildings are inspected under the building, fire and plumbing codes adopted where each one stands, and the authority having jurisdiction decides which code and edition apply and how often systems are inspected. Lenders, insurers and leases can add their own requirements. The points below are U.S. requirements or U.S. guidance; other countries set their own. This is general information, not legal advice.

• Fire sprinklers. NFPA 25 (2011 edition, as summarized by the Minnesota Department of Health) calls for monthly visual inspection of wet system gauges and control valves, quarterly inspection of waterflow alarm devices, an annual main drain test, an annual inspection of sprinklers from floor level and an internal assessment of piping every five years. The same edition calls for a fire watch or evacuation when a system is out of service for more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period.
• Emergency lighting. For battery-operated emergency lights, NFPA 101, Section 7.9.3.1 (2012 edition, as summarized by the Minnesota Department of Health) calls for a monthly functional test of at least 30 seconds and an annual test of at least 90 minutes, with written records kept for the authority having jurisdiction.
• Elevators. Requirements are set locally. In New York City, for example, the Department of Buildings requires an annual periodic inspection and an annual Category 1 test, and a Category 5 test every five years, performed by approved agencies that the owner hires.
• Facades. Some cities require periodic facade inspections. New York City’s Facade Inspection and Safety Program requires buildings higher than six stories to have exterior walls inspected every five years by a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector, and unsafe conditions repaired within 90 days of filing the report.
• Backflow prevention. Testing rules are set by the state and the local water utility. In Portland, Oregon, for example, state law and city code require backflow prevention assemblies to be tested at least once a year by a state-certified tester, and property owners are responsible for scheduling the test.
• Building water and Legionella. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that large buildings and those with complex water systems may need a water management program, as may cooling towers and decorative fountains in smaller buildings.
• Accessibility. Under 28 CFR 36.211, a public accommodation must keep accessible features in operable working condition, with isolated or temporary interruptions for repairs allowed.

A program starts with the building list, each building’s equipment, contractors of record, inspection calendar, tenant contacts and the people who approve spend. Approval limits, or not-to-exceed amounts, are set by building, region or type of work, so a building engineer or property manager can approve a routine repair while a roof replacement or chiller overhaul goes to the asset manager or owner. See What Does NTE Mean.

Tenant requests, recurring inspections and preventive maintenance run on the same platform, and each job is coded to the building, the suite and the system. Where a lease makes an item the tenant’s responsibility, the work can be marked for chargeback so it is invoiced to the right party.

Work is planned around building hours. Noisy work, core drilling, water shutdowns and work inside occupied suites are scheduled after hours or on weekends with notice to tenants. Sprinkler and fire alarm impairments are planned with the fire protection provider and the building’s impairment procedure.

After-hours calls for leaks, power loss, alarm trouble and storm damage are handled as emergencies: the provider makes the area safe, the property manager is informed, and any permanent repair above the approval limit waits for approval.

Every job closes with photographs and notes. Each building keeps one record of work orders, inspection reports, certificates and invoices for lender and insurer reporting, budgeting and due diligence. A facility condition assessment can set the starting point for a newly acquired building. See How It Works for the process and Technology for records and reporting.

• Corporate Offices
• Shopping Centers and Malls
• Residential and High-Rise
• Elevators and Escalators
• Deferred Maintenance