On the 14th of September Property Industry Alliance and CoreNet Global announced the results of the 5th annual survey measuring occupiers’ satisfaction in the UK commercial property sector. The average score for the year 2011, although marginally higher than the last year’s score, could hardly be described as satisfactory (5.4 out of possible 10). The results suggest that many aspects of tenant/landlord relationship continue to cause concern, which is reflected by the highest score in the table being 6.2…

Yet again, service charge arrangements and interaction on environmental issues scores were disappointing (4.3 and 4.0 respectively). And if environmental issues could still be regarded as a relatively new topic by certain landlords, the same does not apply to service charges.  According to the survey, 71% of the tenants challenged their service charge accounts in the past 12 months.

The level of communication between tenants and landlords (5.3 out of 10) could shed some light on this perpetual state of not meeting occupiers’ expectations. Landlords generally communicate with tenants via managing agents. Thus, the approach used by the latter inevitably shapes reputation of the former. In order to improve occupiers’ satisfaction score landlords need to make sure that their managing agents recognise the importance of continuous dialogue, timely delivery and transparency of financial information as well as other aspects of service charge management highlighted in the Service Charge Code of Practice.