The landlord's job, listed
Owning a let commercial building carries a standing list of legal, statutory and management work. Most of it has a date attached and a consequence for missing it. Here is the list as it applies to a single let building, followed by what a syndicate participant does and does not do personally.
Written by Edward Harrowsmith, Director, Investments. Last reviewed September 2026.
The list
Security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. A business tenancy within the Act continues after the contractual expiry date until it is ended by the statutory procedure. Ending it, or agreeing a new lease, runs on prescribed notices and time limits, and opposing a renewal is only possible on the statutory grounds. Leases are often excluded from the Act by agreement before completion, which changes the position entirely.
Rent review. Serving or responding to review notices, assembling comparable evidence, negotiating the reviewed rent, and referring the review to a third party where the parties do not agree. Missing a review date can cost the increase for the remainder of the term.
Break clauses and their conditions. Monitoring when a tenant break can be operated, checking the notice for validity, and checking whether the conditions attached to it have been satisfied. Conditions on payment of rent, vacant possession and state of repair are frequently the point on which a break turns.
Service charge management and the RICS code. Setting the budget, consulting occupiers, apportioning between demises, issuing demands and certificates on time, reconciling to actual expenditure, and holding sinking or reserve funds where the lease allows. The RICS professional statement on service charges sets out how this is expected to be run.
Insurance and reinstatement. Placing cover for the reinstatement cost, loss of rent and property owners' liability, obtaining reinstatement cost assessments, recovering the premium where the lease permits, and administering a claim and the reinstatement works if the building is damaged.
Repair and the FRI position. Under a full repairing and insuring lease the tenant carries repair and the owner recovers insurance. The owner still has to inspect, enforce the covenant, and cover anything outside the demise or outside the tenant's obligation, which on older buildings can include structure, roof and shared parts.
Dilapidations, at and before expiry. Serving interim schedules during the term where the lease allows, preparing a terminal schedule with a surveyor, quantifying the claim, negotiating settlement, and deciding whether to take money or works.
Arrears and recovery. Monitoring rent, service charge and insurance payments quarterly, chasing late payment, and choosing a recovery route where it persists. Options include commercial rent arrears recovery, drawing on a rent deposit, pursuing a guarantor, court proceedings, forfeiture and insolvency processes.
EPC and MEES. A valid energy performance certificate is needed to let, and the minimum energy efficiency standard restricts letting and continued letting below the required rating unless an exemption is registered.
Fire safety and asbestos duties. A fire risk assessment for the parts the owner controls, kept under review, with the resulting actions carried out. An asbestos management survey and register for non-domestic premises, with a management plan and disclosure to contractors before works.
Statutory compliance generally. Gas, electrical and water hygiene testing on plant within the owner's control, lift and lifting equipment inspection, licences and consents, planning and building control on works, and the health and safety duties that attach to an owner instructing contractors.
Empty rates on a vacant unit. Once the empty property relief period expires, rates on the vacant unit fall to the owner, and remain payable until the unit is relet.
VAT and the option to tax. Whether an option to tax has been exercised over the building affects the VAT treatment of rent, service charge and a future sale, and it affects recovery on costs. The treatment depends on the owner's own circumstances. Take it up with your own adviser and your pension provider where a SIPP or SSAS holds the stake.
What a syndicate participant does not do personally
None of the work above is done by a participant. Helmsley manages the building, serves and answers the notices, runs the service charge, places the insurance, deals with arrears, instructs surveyors and solicitors, and holds the compliance records. Participants vote on major decisions by a 75% majority, and an independent valuation of the property is obtained annually.
It is still paid for out of the rent
Management is not free. Rental income is distributed quarterly net of management costs, so professional fees, compliance spend and irrecoverable outgoings reduce the distribution before it reaches a participant. Fees, and any share of uplift in value on sale, are set out in the offer document for the individual syndicate. A participant delegates the work and keeps the cost.