Hidden Costs in Your Office Rental or Lease Agreements

When signing an office lease, it is important to make sure you read all of the terms very carefully in order to avoid being taken advantage of by a landlord or proprietor.  Many times, landlords will add small things into the contract that you may not notice until after you have already signed the lease.  This is extremely important for newer or small business because some landlords will try to play on your passiveness or cluelessness.  Here are some hidden costs to look for in your office rental or lease agreements:

hidden-fees
Look for Hidden Costs in Your Office Rental or Lease Agreements

 

Electricity

Contracts are meant to confuse tenants so loopholes can be woven into the wording of the lease.  A lot of the time, landlords will include clauses that allow them to “survey” the space and then up the rate if they think it is necessary.  So you may start out with a fixed rate, but after a month or two you could find yourself paying significantly more for electricity than you started out.

Preexisting condition clause

Many rental or lease agreements will have a preexisting clause, which means when you move out of your office space, you are required to restore it to its preexisting condition.  If the walls were white when you moved in, and you painted them yellow, you will have to paint them back to white.  Anything you had installed must be uninstalled, and so forth.  Restoring your office space to its preexisting conditions can end up costing you a lot of money, so make sure you know what is expected of you when moving out of your office space.

Maintenance Costs

A common misconception among tenants is that building owners will cover most of the maintenance costs such as shoveling snow, trash removal, and any repairs that may be necessary.  Ask the owner what sorts of maintenance costs are covered by him/her and which kinds of costs will have to be covered by you.

It is so important to read thoroughly through rental or lease agreements in order to make sure you aren’t going to get screwed over by a property owner.  Whether you have or have not leased an office space before, you should make sure to look for these small clauses that could cost you way more than you initially planned.

Why Use A Virtual Assistant?

Could you use a virtual assistant?  Do you ever find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day to get everything done?  Even better, do you ever find yourself wishing somebody could take some of the overwhelming tasks off of your hands?  A virtual assistant can do just that.

virtual-assistant

A virtual assistant can’t pick your kids up from school, fold the laundry, or mow the lawn, but for just about anything computer or telephone-based, a virtual assistant can be extremely useful.  Virtual assistants can answer telephones, schedule appointments, or plan vacations.  They can also go beyond the realms of secretarial services.  For example, they can do research for you online, or perform other sorts of marketing research.  Basically, the virtual assistant can handle all of the online or virtual tasks that you feel comfortable delegating, which will help make your life that much easier.

The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant:

•    Hiring a virtual assistant can be much cheaper than hiring an actual part-time or full-time assistant.  A virtual assistant can save on the costs of payroll taxes, as well as the costs of providing an actual assistant with all the necessary things needed in order to properly do the work you assign.
•    With the number of virtual assistants continually growing, there are more and more people whose expertise will meet your criteria.

When hiring a virtual assistant, you want to make sure you pick the right one.  Virtual assistants are normally freelance or contract workers, so you want to make sure the person you hire is someone you can trust.  The person you hire may be a college student, a recent grad, or even a veteran who has been doing this for years, so make sure you make your needs clear and that whoever you hire can perform.