Southside D12

There are also significant benefits to both staff and
residents to this type of employment model, that we have
seen at similar Management Company run developments.
Staff have a great deal more ownership when they are
employed by the building they work at. More ownership
results in reduced absenteeism and greater output during
their working hours. We would propose to provide their
uniform and have their identity ‘underpinned’ to the
building too, which would also present a more uniform and
building – tailored approach.
BE can manage these staff day-today in relation to all
aspects of the running of the building and can ensure,
through our relationships with similar companies, that all
liabilities to the Directors are limited. This means you will
get the same level of service without the requirement to
pay an additional amount of Service Charge in unnecessary
VAT.
BE manages similar sites like this across the city, and this
means that we are perfectly positioned to be able to cover
any sickness or absence of the Concierge Team by our
existing staff, which would mean no extra cost to SMC.
Our Birmingham office is closely located to Southside
Apartments, within Beetham Tower, so any additional
cover required can be on-site quickly.
Handyman
For a site as large as Southside, we would recommend
a handyman. This person can be directly employed
and could carry out the day-to-day maintenance and
management jobs. This could be anything from gardening,
to general repair duties around the development, which
would again make a contribution to reducing costs. For
example, to employ a painting and decorating contractor
is much more expensive than employing a handyman
where materials would be the only additional cost. This
has worked extremely well at other Birmingham sites
like Masshouse where a handyman has been directly
employed and has reduced cyclical costs by 75%.
Lifts
Southside have a large number of lifts, one per block,
totally 16.
A common issue BE tackles on developments we take on is
unfair lift contracts. When we met on-site we understood
that there was a better way of structuring the lift contracts
for the benefit of all at Southside.
BE employs the services of a lift consultant to negotiate
contracts in our clients favour (SMC/BE). This is because
for too long the contracts associated with lift maintenance
have been heavily weighted in the lift manufacturer’s
favour. BE would implement a strategy in either
management scenario as it is in the best interests of all
involved.
We change all this with our Lift Consultant. On numerous
sites, they renegotiated contracts for schemes similar to
Southside, providing a better service, better standards and
making contracts better value for money.