2What is held, and how it is entered
The company lets and operates residential and commercial property it owns or holds under lease in north London, and each holding is entered under three fields — unit type, permitted use, and the part of the portfolio it belongs to.
Unit type is recorded at the granularity the portfolio is reported on, which is one-, two- and three-bedroom residential with commercial floorspace let on its own terms, whereas a bin store, a plant cupboard or a shared stair is carried as common parts and never counted.
The unit reference itself is built from the building code, the floor and the position on that floor, so that it survives a renumbering of the street and a change of permitted use, whereas an address alone survives neither; every other register kept by the office opens on that reference before it opens on anything else.
- ResidentialA dwelling of one, two or three bedrooms, counted as one unit whatever its floor area.
- CommercialFloorspace let on its own terms and against the permitted use recorded for it.
- VoidHeld and not let at the moment of counting. Hatching means this and means nothing else anywhere on these sheets.
- Common partsA stair, a lift lobby, a bin store or a plant cupboard: a cost head and a maintenance record, never a lettable unit.
2.4One-bedroom residential
Counted as one unit whatever its floor area, since the mix is reported on unit count and a generous one-bedroom flat and a modest one each let as a single dwelling; floor area is carried on the file for apportionment and for the energy assessment, not for the count.
A studio is entered in this class where the sleeping space is not separately enclosed, in which case the file carries a note to that effect so the classification can be explained afterwards without reopening the plan.
2.5Two-bedroom residential
The largest class by unit count across the north-London holdings, and the class that carries the widest spread of layouts, whereas its reporting treatment is identical to every other residential class: one unit held, one unit let or one unit void.
Where a second bedroom has been formed by subdivision the file carries the consent relied on, to the extent that consent was required, so a question about the permitted layout is answered from the register rather than from memory.
2.6Three-bedroom residential
Entered as one unit on the same footing as the smaller classes, whereas its planned maintenance tends to run heavier because the plant serving it is larger and the certificate list attached to the building is the same list however the floor is divided.
A three-bedroom dwelling occupied by more than one household is a different regulatory animal, in which case the file records which regime the unit sits under before any letting decision is taken on it.
2.7Commercial floorspace
Let on its own terms and entered against the permitted use recorded for it, whereas the residential classes take their use from the dwelling itself and need no separate entry; a change of use is a register event and is dated like any other.
Commercial floorspace moves the occupancy figure exactly as far as a one-bedroom flat, because the figure is built on unit count, which is the reason the count and the rent roll answer different questions and are never substituted for one another.
2.8Common parts
A bin store, a plant cupboard, a shared stair or a lift lobby is carried as common parts, which is a maintenance record and a service-charge cost head rather than a lettable unit, in which case it never reaches the count at all.
The core drawn through every floor of the sectional plan above is this class, and it is the part of a building that generates the most diarised work while producing no unit in the mix.
7Counting the mix on the day it is asked for
Occupancy across the holdings is a count of units and not a valuation of them, and the working below performs that count on figures entered by whoever is reading the page, dividing units let by units held for each of the four sizes and totalling them into one portfolio line.
Standing empty at the count: none entered.
The arithmetic is fixed and visible: let over held appears as a plain fraction and as a percentage to one decimal place, share is that size’s held figure over the total held, and a let figure entered above its own held figure is read back down to it.
8The occupancy figure and the cycle it is reported on
Occupancy is measured at a stated reporting date and on unit count, not on floor area or on rent, so an empty commercial unit moves the figure as far as an empty one-bedroom flat, whereas a unit under offer counts as a void until the counterpart is completed.
The figure is reported monthly and read against two others — the same figure at the previous reporting date and at the corresponding date twelve months before — alongside a void schedule naming each empty unit, the date it emptied and the reason it is held.
A figure read on its own tells nobody anything, to the extent that a portfolio of a dozen units moves several percentage points on a single letting, which is why the schedule beneath it is the part the office actually works from and the headline figure is the part that travels.
11The four registers, and which sheet each sits on
Four registers sit behind the count, and each of them is written up on a sheet of its own rather than summarised here, since a summary of a register is the thing that goes out of date first while the register itself does not.
11.2The lease register, unit by unit
One file per unit holding the agreement, the plan of what was demised, the counterpart, the inventory where one was taken and the deposit protection reference, with every event recorded in the order it takes effect, so the terms in force on a given day can be established from the file alone.
11.3Demands, receipts and the reconciliation that follows
Rent demanded on the day fixed by the lease, receipts posted against the unit rather than against the payer, service charge demanded on account against a budget drawn before the year opens, and the account produced afterwards read line against line. The apportionment working sits on that sheet.
11.4The maintenance year, and a fault from receipt to close-off
One dated schedule per building built from certificate expiries, plant service intervals and the last condition inspection, and beside it the route a reported fault takes from the day it is entered to the day it is evidenced twice and closed.
11.5Certificates, intervals and the compliance list
A certificate register per building naming the certificate held, the issuing party, the date of issue and the date of expiry, with the interval taken from the regulation or standard governing the item; the compliance list is derived from that register and from the maintenance schedule together.
12How a reporting month closes
The month closes in a fixed order, and the order matters more than the speed, since a figure produced before the receipts are allocated reports arrears that do not exist and a void schedule drawn before the repair log is reviewed loses the reason a unit is being held.
- The count is takenThe mix is counted at the reporting date and the void schedule is drawn from it, so the month opens on a figure rather than on an impression.
- Receipts are allocatedEverything banked in the period is attributed to a unit, and whatever cannot be attributed stays visible as a credit awaiting a reference rather than being written off against the nearest file.
- Open repairs are reviewedEvery report still open is read again, its consequence band confirmed or raised, and anything closed on one evidence rather than two is carried forward into the next review.
- The next quarter is diarisedCertificates expiring inside the following three months are diarised backwards from their expiry dates, whereas anything already lapsed leaves the diary and joins the compliance list instead.
- The account is closedThe occupancy figure is read against the previous reporting date and against the corresponding date twelve months before, and the void schedule goes out with it so the figure is never read alone.
13The words this document uses exactly
Six words on these sheets carry a settled meaning, and they are set out here so that a reader meeting one of them in a clause does not have to infer it from the sentence it sits in.
13.2Holding
A lettable unit carried on the company’s own register, whether the interest in it is freehold or leasehold. The portfolio is the whole of the holdings taken together; a holding is one of them.
13.3Void
A unit held and not let at the moment of counting, whatever the reason and however long it has stood so. A unit under offer is a void until the counterpart is completed, and a unit held back for a missing certificate is a void with a reason attached.
13.4Unit mix
The distribution of the holdings across the four classes the register carries, expressed by unit count. It is the denominator of every occupancy figure on these sheets and the reason the count and the rent roll are never substituted for one another.
13.5Planned maintenance
Work diarised in advance from a known interval, as distinct from work ordered in response to a report. The planned year for a building is one dated schedule; anything outside it is reactive and is logged as such.
13.6Certificate interval
The period between one inspection and the next, fixed by the regulation or standard governing the item rather than by the company, and the figure the diary date is calculated backwards from.
13.7Occupancy at the reporting date
Units let over units held, counted on one stated day and on unit count alone. It is a position and not a performance, which is why it travels with the void schedule that explains it.