Beyond business rates relief: the full financial case for professional guardianship

When faced with an extended period of vacancy, most commercial property owners will rightly think about the cost of business rates. In some cases it may be possible to get relief for the first three months, however once that time is up the full bill starts racking up quickly.

Property guardianship is an established means of achieving some relief from the burden of business rates. We managed to save a client more than £329,000 in business rates over a seven-year period when we managed their property at the former police station on Streatham High Street for example.

However, if rates relief is where the conversation starts on cost saving through property guardianship, it shouldn’t be where it ends. For most vacant assets, rates only make up part of the picture.

Property guardianship eliminates the traditional cost of security. Over multi-year vacancies, not uncommon in our planning system, security costs can quickly surpass those of business rates by a large multiple. Typically manned security, with guards patrolling the building 24/7, can run to £10,000-£15,000 per month. At our Streatham property for example, the £329,000 saved in business rates was dwarfed by the £1.8m saved in security costs over those seven years.

Plus, the risk of leaks, burst pipes, vandalism and fly tipping all blight vacant properties and add to the overall costs of a vacant building. Without guardians and our maintenance teams, property owners are often hit by higher insurance premiums and higher maintenance costs. With issues spotted later, they cost more to fix. Guardianship reduces all these costs, delivering lower premiums and lower costs for utilities and maintenance with more proactive management.

More worryingly, across the UK over 9,000 fires break out every year in vacant properties. Active maintenance by our team of technicians means that fire systems are fully compliant and regularly checked. Down the line, this could save you a huge amount in the future refurbishment cost.

For property owners, guardianship provides security in more ways than one. Professional guardianship removes the cost volatility of ad hoc maintenance and emergency call outs with a single management arrangement which in many cases actually generates revenue. This predictability in terms of cash flow benefits your property and your balance sheet.

At Live-in Guardians we’ve been protecting property for over 15 years. In that time we’ve saved our clients over £250m across the full spectrum of vacancy costs: rates, security, insurance, utilities, and maintenance.

Business rates relief is important. But it's only one line in a much larger financial case. The real question for property owners is how much vacancy is costing them beyond rates — and whether they're accounting for it.