Avoid Disaster With Regular Maintenance

If you’re a Landlord of commercial property or office complex, you know that keeping up a regular electrical maintenance program can be difficult. There is always so much to do and time can speed by. Before you know it, things get out of hand and something breaks down and you’re up for replacing it instead of simply maintaining it. This is particularly important when you have commercial property that you lease to businesses.

Tenants expect you to have everything under control and safety regulations mean that if anything happens to them, their staff and any other people entering the premises, you are liable for any injury or fatality that occurs. Australian Standards set out clearly what your compliance responsibilities are but you can put these to the back of your mind when you’re dealing with day-to-day matters.

Unfortunately breakdowns and emergencies happen and even simple problems can balloon into huge cost and inconvenience. Worst of all, it fire damage occurs, you have to repair and rebuild and during that period, you’re not earning any rent.

One of the biggest threats in relation to causing fire is the electrical equipment and wiring in your property. Faulty wires and lighting may not be obvious and cause ongoing damage that’s out of sight until one day, things go too far and fire breaks out. When you’re dealing with fire, you don’t have any control. It can rip through the property in minutes. In an office complex, multiple businesses can be affected and you end up with huge costs and a months of work before things can be restored to an operable level.

In an office complex, tenants can store flammable materials such as paper. If this the case, the fire can get so far out of control, even the emergency fire services struggle to contain it.

People talk about insurance as if having that saves you from the trauma and shock when your property is destroyed by fire. Insurance may help with some of the repairs and rebuilding costs but if the lives of your tenants has been put at risk and it can be proven that you have failed to maintain the property sufficiently then you can be facing massive fines and possible jail sentences.

While maintenance may seem a bit of a burden on your time and money, the cost of not doing it can be enormous. You don’t just lose money, you can damage your reputation as a responsible Landlord and have a record against your name that never goes away.