The Importance of Maintaining Your Commercial Property (And Ways to Do It)

Whether you own an office building, apartment complex, or a retail shop, maintaining a clean, safe, and healthy environment should be a top priority. Not just for aesthetic appeal (though that matters too), keeping up with property maintenance is imperative to avoid costly consequences. As you’ll read below, anything from a ruined reputation and lawsuits to costly repairs and fines could go wrong.

First Impressions

First impressions are everything in the world of business. When customers or clients enter your facility, they should find it to be a comfortable and attractive environment. Think about it. Would you want to do business with a company that has a dirty or unpleasant looking commercial space? Failure to keep up with the property grounds essentially gives off a negative first impression and, therefore, ruins your reputation and decrease sales.

Employee Health and Safety

As an employer, one of your top priorities is to make sure that you provide staff with a safe and healthy place to work. When the property isn’t well-maintained it increases the risk of someone getting sick or hurt. Damaged pavement, for instance, could lead to an employee falling on the property. Surfaces that aren’t properly disinfected and cleaned can increase the likelihood of an employee getting sick. Any of these circumstances will leave you without an efficient team to get things done.

Customers, Clients, and Tenants

Another reason business owners need to keep up with property maintenance is because of customers, clients, or tenants. Keeping those who enter or occupy your commercial property safe is of the utmost importance. A client or customer who gets hurt or falls ill in your establishment has grounds for a lawsuit. The same is especially true for landlords as they have a set of obligations to provide their tenants with safe and healthy dwellings.

Lawsuits and Fines

As described above, business owners that don’t keep up with property maintenance run the risk of being sued by their employees, clients, customers, or tenants. They can also face fines and other penalties from state and federal authorities if their property is not in compliance with commercial property codes and regulations.

Maintaining Your Commercial Property

Now that you see how important it is to maintain your commercial property, here are some suggestions on how to do it best:

• Hire a cleaning crew – Keeping up with the day to day cleanliness of a property reduces your risk of the above-mentioned consequences. Unless you plan on vacuuming, mopping, taking out the trash, and cleaning work stations on your own, it is probably best to outsource this to a cleaning company.
• Pest Control – Pests in your commercial property could really damage your reputation. They also bite and carry disease which puts everyone’s health and safety at risk. Business owners would be wise to enter a contract with a pest control company like Moxie Pest Control to keep the pests at bay. They can service your building monthly (or on a schedule that works best for you) to ensure mice, ants, spiders, and other pests don’t cause an issue.
• Search for Contractors – The heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical systems must also be serviced periodically to ensure the safety of your commercial property and the people in it. Don’t wait for an emergency to arise to start looking for the best person for the job. Start searching for high-quality commercial HVAC contractors, plumbers, and electricians to maintain your systems.
• Hire a GroundsKeeper – The cleaning company is responsible for maintaining the interior of your commercial property, but what about the exterior? From picking up garbage to tending to the lawn, you need a professional who can keep your commercial property looking its best. That’s where a groundskeeper comes in. They are responsible for ensuring the exterior of your property is kept up to par. They offer services that include cutting grass, pulling weeds, trimming trees, planting flowers, and cleaning up the exterior of the property.

Your commercial property serves as the home base for your business operations. If it is not kept up as it should be, it loses efficiency, decreases productivity and sales, and puts everyone at risk. Trying to run a successful business when you have things like costly repairs and lawsuits is nearly impossible. So, save yourself the headache and a lot of money by using the above-mentioned tips to properly maintain your commercial property.