​These days most organisations are aware of the role that property plays in supporting their business. However, a common mistake occurs when the choice of properties is presented as the final offer, without flexible solutions to address changing business needs. Many businesses believe that what they see is what they get without properly understanding a property’s potential.

​What are the steps we’re taking in 2020 to make the workplace more inclusive?
 
Across Australia workplaces are adopting practices and designs that celebrate the individual differences of the worker. Where diversity was once unique to the common workplace, it has now become a legal responsibility, with laws in place to ensure all types of workers are accepted. But these days, workplace design goes far beyond legislation. 

As with last year, people are the central focus in commercial property. Bricks and mortar matter less as the experience of the worker becomes everything. With tech disruption, political upheaval and climate anxiety on the rise, commercial landlords are beginning to hear what people want. Read on to see the key workplace elements that landlords have started to deliver.

A “Make Good” clause refers to the tenant’s obligation, when reaching the end of the lease term, to ensure that they ‘make good’ the premises before leaving. This is a standard clause of most commercial leases requiring the tenant to return the property to the landlord in either its original or existing, clean and tidy state. 

Make Goods exist to allow the tenant to exit the premises in a way that’s fair to both parties, by specifying works and obligations that should be undertaken by the tenant upon leaving. However, Make Good clauses are not always drawn up fairly. Sometimes they can be too ambiguous or irrelevant to the specific premises. In some cases, tenants will hurry to sign a lease after negotiating more pressing matters such as term and possession, pushing the Make Good clause aside until the end of the lease. The tenant may then be shocked at what they are required to do, leading to a dispute with their landlord. 

So how should you handle a Make Good clause as a commercial tenant? And what steps can you take to ensure a smooth leasing process and handover?

Welcome to our new blog series "Working Well" where we take a look at workplaces through the eyes of the people within them. Each month, BRM catches up with previous clients to hear how they found, created and continue to manage a workplace that "works well".

This week we spoke to Henry Kalus, Partner at Melbourne-based law firm Kalus Kenny Intelex. The firm recently made the move to a new location at 4 Riverside Quay in Southbank. Here's what he had to say about the new workplace...

Curating the right mix of tenants as a commercial property owner can transform a great space into a valuable cultural experience for the people within that space. The centrality of people to the workplace has become a much talked about topic within the commercial real estate industry. Savvy property owners, in a bid to stand out in the real estate landscape,  are filling their buildings with likeminded businesses that can leverage each other at a business level, together with the right blend of retail and hospitality amenities.

The result is a space that not only provides the day to day services tenants require, from food outlets to dry cleaning services, but also a carefully curated mix of office tenants that can provide professional services to each other. 

​For BRM, our services have always aimed to reach beyond the transaction itself. We put people at the centre of everything we do, from workplace consulting, to project management, workplace design, and in this case, property advisory.
 
Yes, property is about “closing the deal”, but many are quick to forget that the “deal” involves people, from the people who are making the deal, right down to the people who will be occupying and working in the actual space. For this reason, we see relationships as paramount to commercial property. Without stable and trustworthy relationships, a company facing a change in location, organisational structure or even the layout of its office desks, will encounter great difficulty.
 

BRM’s design, property and project management team came together to assist law firm Kalus Kenny Intelex in their recent move from the Como Centre to 4 Riverside Quay in Southbank. 

​BRM’s multidisciplined skills meant that the firm’s entire move from initial property search, right through to the design of the new office and handover of their previous space was overseen by the one property service provider. The result was a smooth transition to a new workplace in a brilliant location, with different corners of the BRM team across every facet of the move. KKI was able to settle in and enjoy freshly designed new offices with peace of mind, knowing that BRM’s property team was taking care of the handover of the previous space. 

It is quite commonly known that Landlords are responsible for costs and maintenance of safety requirements in retail premises in Victoria.  This is the case under both the Building Act 1993 (Vic) and the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic).

There has been some contention about how the two acts operate, which both apply in the case of retail premises.  The main question most landlords ask is: Can such obligations can be contracted out of or passed on to the tenant?

A recent Advisory Opinion in 2015 has helped to clarify the position of the law in regards to these issues.  While Advisory Opinions are not legally binding, they are highly persuasive to Tribunals and Courts in hearing such decisions, especially given that there are many cases in support of the conclusions reached.