Corporate Occupiers' Handbook

Citation

Warren, C.M.J. (2012), "Corporate Occupiers' Handbook", Property Management, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 104-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2012.30.1.104.1

Although this book may have been published a few years ago I definitely think it should be revisited, and is worthwhile reviewing for subscribers to Property Management. The Corporate Occupiers' Handbook was written by two practitioners as a practical guide for those involved in the day‐to‐day management of corporate property, either as an internal corporate property manager, or as an external advisor. Howard Cooke has over 25 years of practical experience in corporate occupier related issues and is a Director at GVA Grimley, while Simon Woodhead is a qualified Barrister and has over 16 years of experience, specialising in landlord and tenant litigation.

As the title suggests, this is a handbook, and so is designed more as a reference text than a book to pick up and read cover‐to‐cover. Having said that, however, a thorough reading would give anyone involved in day‐to‐day management issues an excellent understanding of the legal implications of dealing with property.

The interesting structure of the book is set around the lifecycle of a lease, from the initial decision making processes of corporate occupiers, through the general dealings with service charges, rent reviews and tenant alterations, to dilapidations and lease renewals. As with any good legal text it commences with a list of cases and statutes cited, to allow for easy referencing.

Chapters One to Three deal with the commencement of a property relationship, discussing in the first chapter the decision making process and methods of evaluating different ownership and leasing scenarios using a discounted cash flow approach. It also raises the decisions needed regarding the length of lease, rent reviews and capital costs, along with considerations relating to international accounting standards. The second and third chapters build on the decision process and evaluate portfolio level transactions and the process of lease negotiations, concluding with some very useful suggested wording for correspondence between the parties to a lease agreement.

The following Chapters, Four through to Ten, discuss various aspects of dealing with a leasehold agreement throughout the term. Issues relating to alterations, service charges and insolvency are covered, and once again, some useful precedent notices are provided at the end of each chapter as a very useful guide. I found Chapter Seven on rent reviews provided a particularly beneficial evaluation of the valuation and negotiation process. It also discusses the relevance of various covenants within a lease when seeking to arrive at a market rent review. As any property manager knows negotiations around rent reviews are always a delicate matter, and made all the more difficult when the lease clauses are not well constructed. This chapter certainly provides some very useful insight into resolving some of the issues.

The book then progresses to deal with the end of the lease term, discussing issues relating to lease termination and dilapidations. This latter is one which, in my experience, often comes as an unpleasant surprise to many corporate occupiers and, perhaps, for that reason alone, this chapter ought to be one of the first to be read, rather than leaving it to the time when the lease is at an end. Again some very useful tips are provided in order to pre‐empt some of the more obvious pitfalls that face corporate occupiers at the end of a lease.

The main limitation of the book is that it is a UK‐based text, and when discussing the legal aspects of property management, obviously has to make reference to UK statutes and cases. Thus, it has limited direct application outside the UK. However, it does provide some very useful general guidance – particularly for those operating in regions like my own in Australia – were the legal basis of property transactions is closely aligned with that of the UK.

To any practitioner, therefore, this is a very useful reference handbook. I would also recommend it to any student of property management, as a comprehensive analysis of the issues faced in dealing with leasehold property for a corporate occupier. It is both rare and refreshing to read a legal text that is well structured and presented for everyday use by property management practitioners.