Miles Keeping

The “green” refurbishment of commercial property

Reviews current key areas of acknowledged best practice in “green” design and building management systems including the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method, Eco labelling and “green” building materials profiling systems. Identifies and discusses specific problems and “green” refurbishment techniques using examples drawn from recent case studies from commercial portfolios: energy and resource use; internal environmental services and systems; planned “green” maintenance programmes and techniques; “green” building management issues; and cost analysis of “green” refurbishment; cost effectiveness, viability and recovery of investment. The examples cited are from recent case studies undertaken by the Environmental Research Group at Oxford Brookes University as part of an ongoing collaboration with a number of major commercial property owners.

Sustainable construction: the development and evaluation of an environmental profiling system for construction products

There has been a rapid increase in the number of low environmental impact or ‘green’ buildings constructed in recent years, due to factors such as the UK governments Sustainable Development Strategy, new environmental legislation and perceived operational and business advantages. Consequently, the demand for up‐to‐date information, guidance and design ‘tools’ to help property professionals procure greener buildings also continues to grow. The development of a new edition of one such tool: The Green Guide to Specification, was based on research designed to evaluate user needs and current design and specification practices and expectations. Many property professionals do not use environmental tools on all projects because of time considerations and the disruption caused by having to take an ‘extra step’ in the design and specification process. Specifiers would only use such tools either when instructed to do so by clients or because of the specifiers own organisational green agenda. For environmental tools to be more widely used, information should also be embedded within commonly used specification programmes such as the National Building Specification (NBS) as well as in stand‐alone versions.

Facing the future: energy performance certificates and commercial property

Purpose – The paper aims to present the findings of a “situation review” of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), focusing on energy performance certificates (EPCs) to highlight areas of specific importance for the UK property investment community. The paper is based on research commissioned by the Investment Property Forum (IPF) and funded through the IPF Research Programme (2006‐2009).Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were undertaken with experts from the fields of property investment and building engineering. The interviews were undertaken with to identify: the current knowledge of EPCs in the property investment sector; key issues with practical implementation of the legislation; and perceptions of the potential impacts of legislation, particularly in relation to value stakeholder and behaviour.Findings – The paper finds that, although the regulations have been published, there is still a need for clarification in the marketplace with regard to some of the detail of regulations ...

Indicators of the impact of environmental factors on UK construction law: developments in the new millennium

In examining the impact of environmental issues on construction law, recent construction‐related legislation and litigation can be seen as indicators of the growing importance of specific property‐related environmental issues. Through reference to relevant literature and law reports, several recent legal developments can be identified relating to energy production and consumption, water inundation, the physical qualities of buildings, excluded materials, noise and disability discrimination and, finally, waste disposal and contamination. Recent law relating to energy consumption in buildings is evidence of the ever‐widening set of legal obligations regarding energy efficiency. Similarly, recent litigation relating to nuclear waste and wind farms may be more typical of future energy cases than those relating to traditional fossil fuel production processes. Noise represents another form of environmental pollution and has been seen in a number of cases. The impact of the built environment on people with disabilities is now recognized in Part M of the Building Regulations which places additional disabled access requirements on all building owners, landlords, employers and service providers. Property professionals, local authorities and statutory authorities need, more than ever before, to be aware of their current legal obligations while remaining constrained by resource and financial management regulation.

The negligent valuation of contaminated land

There has been much discussion in the academic and practitioner press about the valuation of contaminated land. Most of this discussion has centred upon the various techniques that can be used to determine an “appropriate figure” and what the effect, if any, might be of contamination “stigma”. Despite a re‐emergence in recent times of papers discussing professional liabilities in other aspects of valuation practice (particularly concerning bank loan valuations), there has been little discussion about the possibility of negligence being committed by valuers of contaminated land. The professional body which represents most professional valuers in the UK, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has issued guidance for the benefit of its members which attempts to clarify the complexities of law and valuation methodology which exist in this area. It has been suggested that due to the complex nature of the valuation of contaminated assets, as evidenced by the quantum of papers on this matter, many practising valuers might still not be discharging the professional duty to an adequate degree. This paper seeks to determine whether this is an accurate suggestion by verifying the existence and clarity of the guidance and then investigating both whether professional practitioners are familiar with it and implement it. Existing literature and case law are referred to in order to assist these tasks and a questionnaire survey to 400 practitioners was administered. The paper concludes that levels of valuers’ competence in this area, as measured against an objective standard, is often very low and that many valuers are possibly negligent when acting for clients with an interest in a potentially or actually contaminated site. Assessment and monitoring of professional competence in this area is recommended.