Matthew Mears MRICS Chartered Surveyor
CASE STUDIES
Service Charge Consultancy
Below are examples of consultancy instructions which I have been involved with over my career and demonstrates the experience which can be brought to benefit future clients.
Brighton Marina Management Company
Involvement started in 2010 when acting on behalf of the management company, undertook an in depth review of the cost allocations in response to an application to third party resolution. This resulted in consolation with all the stakeholders and reaching an acceptable revised basis of apportionment which was agreeable to all parties and settled the action.
Moving forward an ongoing consultancy role has continued acting as the Landlord's Surveyor for the company. This includes coordinating further peer review meetings to consider such matters as the implementation of major breakwater repairs which included the formation and management of reserve funds to finance a 15-20 year rolling programme of works more details of which can be found by following this link:
https://www.brightonmarina.co.uk/breakwater-maintenance-work-in-progress/
Also we considered the treatment and allocation for development sites and the integration of completed new phases.
We have recently been instructed on a revised budget in response to Covid-19 restrictions and looking at further measures to support the commercial occupiers.
Royal MIlls, Manchester
Working in consultation with the block managers Zenith Management we undertook a review of the service charge allocations in order to take account of the completion of the final phases in the development and how this would impact the costs.
A revised recovery matrix was agreed but disputed by one of the tenants resulting in the matter being referred to independent expert.
Acting for Manchester City Council, the landlord of the commercial interests we prepared submissions in support of the basis of apportionment which had been agreed and against the alternative basis proposed. The outcome was that our submission was upheld and costs awarded to my client.
Towers, Manchester
During the management of Towers the basis of apportionment for the estates services was modified so as to be more fair and reasonably allocated across the site in accordance with the lease terms.
A dispute was also settled with long leasehold owners of the original hall and adjacent property with regard to the basis of their contributions. This involved negotiations with both parties, a remeasurement and subsequent adjustments which resolved the matter continued to ensure payment of arrears and full recovery of costs.
Hamilton Heath Estates, North West
Was retained to undertake a review of leases across the portfolio and advise on the recovery of utilities.
This included considering the opportunity to include administration fees and how the treatment of transmission losses should be approached. A summary of the current position for each estate was provided and recommended example recharge calculation.
Arena Mall, Budapest
Undertook the management of this 700,000 sq ft retail and leisure scheme which opened in November 2007 for clients aAIM and Lanebridge Investment Management.
In doing so it was evident that no metering had been installed to measure the consumption of HVAC which was separately recoverable from the 200 tenants.
Working with the facilities team a method of apportionment was devised which took into consideration the volume of each unit and hours of operations in order to devise a method of recovery for the circa ϵ600,000 annual expenditure incurred.