A tenant waiting to start works
The tenant on the third floor wants to put in meeting rooms, a kitchen and extra power for a server cupboard. Their fit-out contractor has a start date. They sent drawings to the property manager, who forwarded them to the building surveyor, who asked the M&E consultant about the extra load on the distribution board. The M&E consultant asked for more detail. The tenant's contractor sent it to the wrong person. Two weeks pass.
Then the tenant's director calls the asset manager to ask why the landlord is holding up their move. The asset manager does not know where the request is either.
Why fit-out requests get lost between people
Approving tenant works in a multi-let building touches several people outside your office, each doing their own part in their own inbox. Nobody on the landlord side is holding the list of what has been received, reviewed, queried and approved.
- Submissions arrive by email with drawings attached, often incomplete.
- Each consultant reviews a different part and replies separately.
- Queries go back to the tenant's contractor, not always via the landlord.
- The solicitor is instructed once reviews finish, but nobody tells them when that is.
- Conditions such as working hours, permits and reinstatement are agreed but not recorded where the building manager sees them.
Your leases and your advisers decide what needs consent and on what terms. What goes wrong is the admin around those decisions.
What slow approvals cost
Tenants start their relationship with you frustrated, and some start works without consent because they cannot wait. The building manager finds contractors on site with no record of what was agreed. Consultants' fees rise when they review the same drawings twice. And at the end of the lease, nobody can say what the tenant was allowed to install or must remove, which feeds straight into dilapidations.
The fit-out tracker we build
- Tenants or their contractors submit requests through a form that asks for the drawings, specifications, programme, contractor details and insurances your process needs. Incomplete submissions are sent back automatically with a list of what is missing.
- Each request gets a checklist of reviews based on the type of works: building surveyor, M&E, fire strategy, insurer, structural, whatever your process sets.
- Each reviewer receives the pack with one link and records their response, queries or conditions against the request. Queries to the tenant go out from the request, so the history stays together.
- When reviews are complete, the solicitor is instructed from the tracker with the approved drawings and conditions attached.
- Conditions such as working hours, permits to work and reinstatement are published to the building manager's view for that unit.
- Approved works, drawings and licences are stored against the unit record, ready for reletting and lease end.
| Stage | Owner | What the tenant sees |
|---|---|---|
| Submission checked | Property manager | Received, or what is missing |
| Technical reviews | Your consultants | In review, or queries raised |
| Licence | Your solicitor | With solicitors |
| Works on site | Building manager | Approved, with conditions |
| Completion | Building surveyor | Signed off |
How the building runs differently
The tenant can see where their request is without calling. Your team can see every live request, what stage it is at and who is holding it. Consultants receive a complete pack. The building manager knows what has been approved before contractors arrive. Years later, the unit record shows exactly what was put in.
Leasing notices a difference too. When a prospective tenant asks how long consent for a typical office fit-out takes in your building, your team can describe the steps clearly and show a new tenant the form on day one, rather than promising to find out.
Is this your situation?
- Tenants chase you about fit-out approvals.
- Drawings arrive incomplete and go back and forth.
- You cannot say where each request is.
- Contractors turn up before consent is in place.
- Approved alterations are not recorded against the unit.