NEW PORTFOLIO SERVICES TEAM FROM PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

Commercial service charge consultants, Property Solutions Ltd (PSL), has launched a new team designed to assist both landlords and tenants with portfolios of property in the administration and control of service charges.

Tenants can benefit from support with audits, administration of service charges and a payment service option.  For landlords the team offers certification, sub-tenant recovery, collection of charges and service charge accounting.  There is particular expertise in assisting companies which are non specialist landlords and which may only have tenants due to surplus space requirements from their principal operational business.

The team is drawn from a variety of backgrounds, including Property Management, Accounting, Credit Management, Financial Services and Customer Services.  This breadth of skills and experience allows the team to offer clients exceptional service.
For tenants, the services offered by the Portfolio Services team include:

• Audits - tenants very often need an independent audit to establish that the service charges they are paying are both in compliance with the terms of their lease and are fair and reasonable.
• Administration of service charges – PSL reviews all demands, budgets and certificates to ensure that the charges made are correct and reasonable, providing advice to tenants regarding payments to be made.
• Payments services – PSL takes on the process of making payments to landlords and ensure that service charges are not overpaid.

For Landlord, the services are:

• Certification – PSL draws on clients’ account and property administration records to gather evidence to support the production of service charge certificates
• Sub tenant recovery – when a direct landlord sublets part or a whole of a space, PSL is able to identify situations where there is potential recovery by interrogation of payable and receivable databases.
• Service charge collection/accounting – PSL offers a comprehensive collection service, issuing demand and collecting funds, including credit control procedures

Portfolio Services manager, Richard Bacon, comments: “The Portfolio Services team allows tenants and landlords to have a single point of contact which provides them with access to PSL’s specialist Building Services and Building Consultancy teams.   We take away the administration from our clients and apply processes which often produce direct financial benefits.
“This might especially appeal to companies with busy estate management teams, for whom providing the required level of attention to service charge issues is often not top priority.”

October 2007