A planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedule is essential for maintaining the value, efficiency, and long-term performance of commercial property assets. Proactive maintenance helps landlords protect investment value, improve tenant satisfaction, ensure regulatory compliance, reduce operational disruptions, and enhance energy efficiency. By supporting sustainability goals and enabling effective long-term budgeting, a structured maintenance strategy safeguards property performance while maximising rental appeal and profitability.

Commercial property valuations provide essential insight for landlords, tenants, and investors navigating today’s economic climate. Accurate valuations help businesses manage rental costs, support effective portfolio management, prevent landlord-tenant disputes, and ensure compliance with RICS Red Book requirements for SIPP and SSAS pension schemes. Understanding a property’s true market value enables informed financial planning and confident long-term investment decisions.

A Red Book valuation is not a guess at a properties’ value, it’s a fully researched professional valuation of the property, undertaken by a qualified surveyor.  If you require a legally sound property valuation, an online estimate is not sufficient. You will require a visit from a RICS registered surveyor, who understands the property industry extremely well and can provide supporting evidence and a working methodology  to calculate the true valuation of your property.

This article outlines ten essential tips for selecting an excellent commercial property management company, helping landlords protect their investments while saving time and reducing risk. It explains the difference between basic property management services—such as rent collection, maintenance coordination, inspections, and dilapidations—and a proactive, value-adding management approach.

Key considerations include choosing a local, experienced, and RICS-accredited team, ensuring transparency through clear reporting and real-time communication, and working with a forward-thinking company that understands changing legislation, sustainability requirements, and long-term asset strategy. The article also highlights the benefits of in-house surveying, valuation, and building consultancy expertise, which can deliver cost efficiencies, stronger compliance, and better decision-making.

Ultimately, the right commercial property management company should maximise occupancy, enhance asset value, and give landlords confidence and peace of mind. The article concludes by explaining how GJS Dillon, an award-winning, multi-disciplinary property consultancy, supports commercial property owners across Worcestershire and the wider West Midlands throughout the entire property lifecycle.

John Dillon, Managing Director, GJS Dillon discusses the top 15 things that he has learnt in business.

This article explains the importance of a Schedule of Condition when entering into a commercial lease and highlights the growing risks for tenants who fail to commission one. It outlines how a professionally prepared Schedule of Condition provides a clear, legally defensible record of a property’s condition at lease commencement, helping to limit repairing obligations and avoid costly dilapidations disputes. The article compares photographic and full Schedules of Condition, explains what they typically include—such as written descriptions, photographs, plans, and drone roof inspections—and emphasises why informal or DIY records are insufficient. Ultimately, it reinforces that investing in a robust Schedule of Condition is essential for protecting landlords, tenants, and property owners from future liability, with professional advice available from GJS Dillon.

This article explains the key differences between a commercial property valuation and a Reinstatement Cost Assessment (RCA)—two reports that are often confused but serve very different purposes.

A RICS commercial valuation provides an evidence-based assessment of a property’s current market value, typically required for lending, tax, asset management, or buying and selling. In contrast, an RCA is an insurance-based assessment, calculating the full cost of rebuilding a property to its current condition following damage or destruction, taking into account construction costs, labour, materials, professional fees, and regulatory requirements.

The article highlights that rebuild costs can be significantly higher than market value, meaning relying on a valuation alone can lead to underinsurance or overpayment on premiums. It explains why insurers increasingly request RCAs and why both valuations and RCAs should be reviewed regularly, typically every three years, due to changing market conditions and construction costs.

The piece concludes by reinforcing the importance of having the correct professional advice to protect commercial property assets and business continuity, and outlines how GJS Dillon can assist with valuations, RCAs, or both.