Love thy landlord: 3 myths about the office lease setup

I'm a ridiculously big fan of The Big Lebowski. For me (and many, many, others) the film's a timeless collection of absurd situations that can be applied to life.

I'm also a big advocate of office tenants being proactive about sustainability. If the heavy lifters in any effective office sustainability playbook are staff, it's the landlord (or their rep.) who is a key facilitator.

In The Big Lebowski we're introduced to the main character's landlord when the Dude answers a knock at the door. He accepts an invite to his landlords interpretive dance recital. Needless to say the recital is awful, but the gesture is both an effort on the landlords part to get genuine performance feedback, and effort on the Dude's part to build leverage with his landlord.

The dynamic plays true for the office landlord-tenant relationship. Well, it should. If feedback and active leverage aren't part of your current or next office premises considerations, it's likely due to a combination of these 3 common tenant misconceptions.

1. Adversaries: "I'm the tenant, they're the landlord. We're not meant to like each other." Wrong! Sure, if you get into formal dispute you may well be staunch adversaries, but your landlord is hardly the man in black pyjamas. For me this stigma underpins the inertia many small businesses have in addressing sustainability. Get over it, start the partnership, and see a world of efficiency opportunities open up.
2. Rent: if you chose to lease your premises based simply on it being the most modestly priced receptacle for your business, you started on the wrong foot. Where net leases predominate (in Auckland or Christchurch), you'll pay for outgoings on top of rent. Level of outgoings, relative to similar premises, is typically a function of how efficient the building services are. Unless total occupancy cost is a key part of your selection criteria you'll end up with cost surprises.
3. Off the shelf lease document: most of NZ runs on the ADLS lease form, which is founded on years of experience and allows additional clauses to be inserted. But it's wrong to skimp on legal cost up front by simply relying on the template. They're not just papers. When drawing up the agreement to lease you can introduce provisions to build sustainability into your premises partnership (incl. by sharing building performance data). A year or so ago I helped put together this leasing guide which is great for scoping possibilities.

So, embrace the relationship with your landlord, think total occupancy cost, and incorporate sustainability measures into your next lease. If you need a hand securing any of these benefits please get in touch.