24 • INDUSTRYNEWS
PROUD SPONSOR OF
THE LOCKSMITH JOURNAL
Securing an empty property
is smart and cost-effective
- how a £5,000 investment can save a quarter of a million pounds.
» » RECENTLY IT WAS REPORTED
that a vacant 46,000 square
foot self-contained office and
storage unit in a business park in
Leamington Spa was ransacked
by travellers. Over 20 caravans
entered the car park space and
the trespassers stripped the
building of all metal for scrap. The
roof and the fabric of the building
was so badly damaged, that it
may need to be demolished. Most
of the windows were smashed.
The trespassers have now left the
site.
Last year Sovereign House
had been on offer for rental at
£210,000 per annum.
“It’s terrible, but leaving
empty properties unsecured
nowadays so often results in a
significant cost to the owners
or local authorities, and to the
environment.” explains Nicholas
Bye, a director of vacant property
specialists, VPS Security Services.
“They attract vandalism, metal
thieves, arsonists, travellers
and squatters way more than
occupied premises. The longer
an empty property is left
unattended, unprotected and
neglected, the greater the risk of
further devastating dilapidation,
compounding the cost and timing
of eventual repair. The sooner it is
secured against unwanted visitors
and the elements, the sooner
it will be re-let or sold.” Mr Bye
says.
VPS researched the risks and
discovered that across the UK
dozens of fires are deliberately
started every day in, or next
to, vacant premises. Illegal fly
tipping occurs every 40 seconds,
and grounds such as a car park
surrounding an empty office
block, are prime targets.
They followed up the
research with a comparison
of costs between guards and
technological alternatives.
Round-the-clock guarding can
cost upwards of £70,000 a year,
whilst the latest technologies
can provide 24/7 security from
around £5,000, securing an office
site and its car park. Simple but
effective options like blocking
car park entrances with concrete,
fixing the perimeter fences and
‘they could have
saved a quarter
of a million’
applying steel screens to windows
and doors, will significantly
reduce the risk of intruders and
vandals.
“If these low-cost but robust
options had been in place
to protect this site, they may
have been able to re-let the
unit sooner. It was on offer for
£200,000 rental last year, an
opportunity now lost if they
must demolish the site for safety
reasons. In this instance, the
owners could have saved tens
of thousands of pounds that
it will cost to make good the
damage. Overall, for the sake of
around £5,000 investment, they
could have saved a quarter of a
million,” concludes Mr Bye.
‘leaving properties
unsecured nowadays
so often results in
a significant cost to
the owners or local
authorities, and to
the environment’
VPS Security Services is part of
the VPS Group that specialises in
protecting people, property and
assets, by securing, maintaining
and managing properties across
a wide range of customer and
industry sectors. Core building
services cover the vacant,
unoccupied and void property
lifecycle from an initial risk
assessment, to security, including
guarding, monitoring, clearing,
maintenance and also ‘security
through occupation’, via the VPS
property guardians service.
www.vpsgroup.com
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL.CO.UK | MAR/APR 2019
Sponsored by ERA - Total Security