Real estate managing agent receives the thumbs up

A real estate owner of a large, diverse property portfolio in Mayfair, London, asked us to carry out an independent audit of their appointed property and asset managing agent.

The client requirements

The client was seeking independent assurance that health and safety matters relating to their portfolio were being managed, and ultimately their health and safety obligations to tenants were being delivered by their appointed managing agent.

What we did

We considered the portfolio risk profile and proposed the following topic areas to focus our audit on:

• Risk assessments.
• Fire prevention and precautions.
• Water hygiene.
• Gas and electrical safety.
• Asbestos.
• Lifts and lifting equipment.
• Building fabric.
• Monitoring and reporting.
• Managing tenants and contractors.
• Competence and resources.

We were given temporary access to the managing agent’s electronic building management system to confirm the existence of the required documents and records, such as general and fire risk assessments, maintenance, inspection and testing records, and tenant and contractor inductions. And we cross referenced actions recorded in the documents and records to check they had been completed.

We looked for evidence of competence of the managing agent’s employees and contractors working on the portfolio, for example checking they had health and safety, property related and industry specific qualifications and certifications.

We also visually inspected the properties to look for any obvious problems, such as slip, trip or fall hazards, missing signage, or damage to the fabric of the building.

What we delivered

We delivered a detailed audit report clearly stating where we found evidence of compliance with the law and good practice, such as risk assessments and building maintenance and testing tasks being completed as expected, where we saw evidence of actions and recommendations being completed and signed off in the electronic building management system, and confirmed that employees and contractors had the expected qualifications and industry memberships.

We also recorded where we found evidence of innovative practices, such as the use of an asbestos tool featuring a QR code that can be scanned to obtain asbestos information on a premises.

The client was able to use our audit reports for onward internal reporting to directors and risk committees to demonstrate that health and safety is being effectively managed on their portfolio.