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Are there any signs of water damage, bee's nests, other infestations?
Are there any 'contaminents'? Asbestos? Lead paint? Hazardous chemicals?
What's the age and condition of the HVAC plant?
The largest / heaviest / most awkward items that we must move in and out must fit through / in the hallways, doorways, elevators, etc. on the way to where we load / unload vehicles. [What exactly are these items? For any building with a loading dock, three items to check are palletized 7' pipe, palletized pegboard, and palletized books arriving from the printer. Check that there is a way to get the couches and bookcases in and out.]
Will we need an occupancy permit to use the space for meetings? Are there any other permits we'll need or paperwork we'll have to do? Is the building up to code?
Check with the town or city hall!
It appears that, in general, the building permit required for fitting-out work will automatically lead to an occupancy permit.
Is the space handicapped-accessible?
In practice?
According to the official rules by which we must abide? [Are there any?]
What is the allowed floor loading? Is this affected by concentrated loads (e.g., at the legs of shelving units)? [What is our current actual floor loading? Can the shelving leg loads be safely spread (e.g., by steel plates on the floor)?]
Is there enough electricity? [Number and placement of outlets, number of circuits, total service capacity?]
Is adequate lighting provided? [Our current meeting room, with all the lights on, is about 3W/sf of fluorescent lighting.]
Are there light switches in the places where we need them?
What telecommunications wiring is in place?
For space with a loading dock, what lighting and weather protection is provided for the dock? Is electricity available for supplemental lighting?
What's the permanent external lighting like at night? Is there supplemental lighting that we can switch on when we need it?
Immediately around the building.
Between the building and the likely parking areas.
In the likely parking areas.
How is trash disposal handled? What are the limits on the amount or type of trash we can dump?
Is it possible to park a truck for a day or two? Is it possible to park a car for a day or two (or a week or two) while its owner is driving a truck?
Is high-speed Internet connectivity available at this location?
Is there any place to park a couple of bicycles that doesn't come out of our interior space?
Is an outside rack acceptable?
What's the area like?
Residential, commercial, [light] industrial, mixed?
Slum, run-down, decent, nice, excellent, hoity-toity?
Are there neighbors who might be unhappy about late-night or Sunday truck loading / unloading or other worksessions?
What's the crime rate?
How convenient is:
food?
a Post Office?
what else?
How are the city or town officials (building inspector, electrical inspector, etc.) to deal with? Easy, hard, incredible pain-in-the-ass?
Where is the nearest fire hydrant? The nearest fire station? Is there a sprinkler (or other fire suppression) system? Are there good fire exits? How's the emergency lighting?
How good is access?
By car?
By "T"?
By bicycle?
Are there any events (annual fairs, parade routes, etc) that will interfere with access or parking?
What effect does this location have on our insurance rates?
How exactly are heating and cooling controlled and distributed? Placement of thermostats, heating and cooling vents and returns, heating and cooling units, etc.
Are there any openable windows?
How hard will it be (in practice) to get it off the tax rolls?
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What utility (or other) costs, special charges, etc., are not bundled into the rent, and how much can we expect these charges to be?
What's the term of the lease? What are the penalty clauses for breaking it? Are there escalation clauses? Provisions for extension?
Is any of "our" space actually reserved for building services, maintenance, etc.?
If the building is long-term unusable for any reason, and we need to rent emergency space at some astronomical rate, who pays the difference?
Has the space been empty long? If so, why?
If there is a freight elevator between our space and wherever we load / unload vehicles, do we have 24x7 access to it, what condition is it in and what happens if it breaks at a critical moment? How quickly can / will it be repaired? Who pays any extra charges for after hours / emergency service?
Do we have 24x7 access to the circuit breaker panel(s) for our space in case we need to reset something?
Who owns, and who is responsible for maintenance of, all HVAC equipment?
What amount of refitting are we allowed to do? Also, how much of it can we do ourselves, are we restricted to landlord-approved contractors, or what?
Adding new electrical circuits or new outlets on existing circuits?
Adding lighting?
Adding or moving light switches?
Adding or modifying telephone or network wiring?
Attaching things (e.g., bookcases, bulletin boards, counter space) to the structure?
Does the landlord have to approve / inspect work done to the space by us?
At lease end, will we have to rip out any changes we've made? Who pays?
Do we have 24x7 access to unrestricted heating and cooling?
If the HVAC plant breaks down, how quickly will it be fixed? Who pays any extra charges for fast / emergency service?
Who is responsible for snow removal?
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We need 24x7 access for each of ~30 people? [Exactly how many keyholders do we currently have?]
How is heating / cooling, lighting, etc. handled for common areas? [Hallways, stairwells, freight elevator and loading dock (if any), bathrooms (if shared).] Is this all available outside 'normal' hours? Or even during 'normal' hours?
How is the heating and cooling controlled? Is it possible to heat or cool our space independent of the rest of the building?
If there is a shared loading dock, what are the protocols for its use? Are they compatible with our occasional need to keep a truck there for several hours in the evening or on a weekend?
Who's responsible for cleaning the common areas? How often is it done?
Is a cleaning service available for our space? How much would it cost?
How are parking spaces allocated?
How is mail delivery handled?
Is there someone who can receive occasional shipments for us during 'normal' hours?
Can we work at off-hours in the parking lot behind the building for, e.g., bookcase-building sessions?
Does any sprinkler (or other fire suppression system) extend throughout the building? Do any other tenants engage in 'dangerous' activities?
Is there a doorbell that sounds in our space?
This page is maintained by Dave Anderson, and was last modified at 10:30 am on 6 June 2003.
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