Many lease contracts place responsibility for maintaining (certain) building systems on the tenant, and it is important for the tenant to understand the expected useful life (EUL) and remaining useful life (RUL) of systems to avoid unforeseen costs. A pre-lease PCA may also establish the condition of the asset when the tenant moves in, which establishes the “base-condition” to which it must be returned at the end of the lease-term.

Green PCAs
PCAs identify issues with a building and provide a schedule of capital replacement reserves. But what about the opportunity to save money? A Green PCA (GPCA) – which incorporates an assessment of energy efficiency and other 'green' elements of interest into the PCA – can help save money by identifying opportunities to improve the way building systems operate. A GPCA essentially combines a standard Property Condition Assessment and an Energy Audit to provide in-depth information about the building condition and operational efficiency.

A green PCA may include energy benchmarking services, energy audits or a simple Green PCA checklist. Performing such assessments in conjunction with the PCA will identify aspects of a buildings energy management program that are suboptimal and can easily be corrected. A Green PCA will also give the user a list of potential energy efficiency investments (commonly known as Energy Efficiency Measures – EEMs) and will rank these investments in terms of payback period—often several opportunities with sub-3-year payback periods are indentified. The property owner/operator can then choose which EEMs to implement based on need, budgets, capital investment return criteria, green branding goals, and sustainability goals.

A better, more-efficient performing building can save money through lowered energy bills and reduces operational costs. For example, optimizing and automating the HVAC and lighting systems can offer significant energy reduction without requiring a major capital investment. Better building systems will also lower ongoing maintenance costs.

The Energy Audit and Property Condition Assessment go well together as they are addressing the same systems. The PCA may schedule the replacement of a roof mounted HVAC system in year 8 of the replacement reserve as that is the end of its useful life; however, the Energy Audit may make a case for not using an old inefficient system until it fails; rather, the building owner may receive an positive return by replacing it sooner. Disclosure of buildings' energy efficiency or consumption is required by an increasing number of cities around the country. The required information can be collected during the GPCA to ensure compliance with energy disclosure codes.

So, next time you order a PCA think about whether you'd like that with a twist!