The Importance of LTA Reviews
So, what is an LTA Review and why should you have one?
A Licence to Alter (LTA) Review is perhaps the most important instruction a Landlord can make for any Tenant alterations or fit-outs that may have an impact on centralised systems. This could be fire alarms, chilled water, heating, ventilation, electrical distribution or any other service that is common to a whole building or multiple floors.
As an example, when you have a new occupier for your building with plans to personalise the space, change the layout, create purpose-built meeting rooms etc, how do you know that they aren't going to encounter comfort issues once they're in? Worse still, what if the HVAC arrangement in their fit-out has adverse effects on the Landlord’s central systems, causing discomfort for other occupiers?
All Facilities managers will relate to the building with the office that's always too hot/cold regardless of the weather, or any changes made to the BMS, or the best efforts of the Maintenance Engineer to make the fan coil unit work harder than it was designed to.
An LTA Review ahead of a fit-out can prevent most of these issues. The exercise includes a review of the intended new layouts along with all associated mechanical and electrical services, highlighting potential comfort condition issues ahead of the work being done. This gives the Contractor and incoming Tenant the opportunity to make any required changes, or if the changes are cost prohibitive, it informs both parties that the issue may arise and that temporary measures may need to be implemented at certain times of the year.
The completion of an LTA review coupled with the O&M manuals for the completed project also provides a documented record of any changes made to a Landlord system for future reference to ensure the space can be reverted to base build CAT A status if required