IPM Limited Dependable commercial property and project support

IPM Limited

Dependable commercial property and project support

Latest Articles

The Collection That Never Came: Making Waste Logistics a Programme Discipline
Compliance & Regulation

The Collection That Never Came: Making Waste Logistics a Programme Discipline

On too many UK refurbishment projects, waste is treated as a container in the yard rather than a scheduled activity. Missed collections, rejected loads and incomplete transfer notes then consume programme float and complicate the final account. This article sets out how to plan arisings by phase, provide for segregation and access, and assemble the duty-of-care evidence a client should expect.
The Register Is a Timetable: Sequencing Refurbishment Around Asbestos Data
Compliance & Regulation

The Register Is a Timetable: Sequencing Refurbishment Around Asbestos Data

Refurbishment programmes routinely file the asbestos survey under pre-commencement compliance and then discover, mid-strip, that it was a scheduling document all along. This article sets out how to read the register as a set of durations and dependencies, phase surveys against the works, and price the unexpected find as a programme allowance rather than a hopeful line in the risk register.
Live Cover, Live Programme: A Review Cadence for Construction Insurance
Compliance & Regulation

Live Cover, Live Programme: A Review Cadence for Construction Insurance

Construction insurance is often filed at pre-start and left alone while the works programme continues to move. This article sets out a practical review cadence for UK commercial projects and the evidence clients should keep when scope, occupancy or completion dates change.
The Assumption Audit: Testing a Fire Strategy Against the Works Programme
Compliance & Regulation

The Assumption Audit: Testing a Fire Strategy Against the Works Programme

A fire strategy describes how a building is expected to behave in normal occupation — which is precisely the condition a refurbishment suspends. This article sets out how landlords, occupiers and contractors can audit those assumptions before mobilisation, keep them valid through the works, and avoid temporary arrangements hardening into permanent risk.
The Bay Is a Resource: Scheduling Material Access in UK Commercial Refurbishment
Compliance & Regulation

The Bay Is a Resource: Scheduling Material Access in UK Commercial Refurbishment

Loading bays, goods lifts and parking suspensions are too often treated as site logistics rather than programme constraints. In UK commercial fit-out and refurbishment, access is a shared and finite resource that deserves the same control as trades, plant and materials. This article sets out how to lock access into the programme before mobilisation.
The Wall Next Door: Scheduling Neighbour Risk in Urban Commercial Projects
Compliance & Regulation

The Wall Next Door: Scheduling Neighbour Risk in Urban Commercial Projects

Party wall matters are routinely treated as a legal formality to be resolved once the programme is fixed. On tight urban commercial schemes, that assumption is expensive. This guide sets out how early surveys, sequenced notices and a single neighbour-communications record can turn an unpredictable statutory process into a managed workstream.
Retired, Not Released: Auditing Contingency Before the Final Account
Compliance & Regulation

Retired, Not Released: Auditing Contingency Before the Final Account

An unspent risk allowance is not a saving, and treating it as one corrupts both the project ledger and the next capital plan. This piece sets out how to retire contingency risk by risk, with evidence, and how to release it in tranches that respect the defects liability period.
The Fixed Date in the Calendar: Winter Readiness as a Programmed Deliverable
Compliance & Regulation

The Fixed Date in the Calendar: Winter Readiness as a Programmed Deliverable

Winter failures in commercial property are rarely genuine surprises; they are predictable events with known triggers. This article sets out how to scope, budget and assign pre-winter inspection and mobilisation work as a programme deliverable, with a decision log in place before the first cold snap.
Information Latency: Managing Technical Queries as a Controlled Workstream
Opinion & Insight

Information Latency: Managing Technical Queries as a Controlled Workstream

Unanswered technical queries rarely appear on a programme, yet they hold trades, distort margins and weaken delay claims. This article sets out a practical control regime for RFIs — ownership, response targets, escalation and closure evidence — before information latency becomes the critical path.
Evidence Before Replacement: A Client's Guide to Contractor Insolvency in 2026
Compliance & Regulation

Evidence Before Replacement: A Client's Guide to Contractor Insolvency in 2026

Contractor insolvency rarely arrives without warning. This guide sets out the signals worth recording, the contractual levers that can be enforced, and the first-72-hours actions that protect a UK commercial programme when a contractor or key subcontractor enters administration.
Occupied Ground: Programming Refurbishment in Live Commercial Buildings
Compliance & Regulation

Occupied Ground: Programming Refurbishment in Live Commercial Buildings

Refurbishment in a part-occupied commercial building is not a standard project with tenants added at the edges. Access, noise windows, temporary services and life-safety coordination are the real critical path, and they need to be programmed and costed from the outset.
Who Owns the Meter? Making Utility Connections a Programme Workstream
Opinion & Insight

Who Owns the Meter? Making Utility Connections a Programme Workstream

Utility connections are rarely treated as a workstream in their own right, yet power, water and telecoms can quietly become the longest dependency in a UK commercial fit-out. This article sets out how to assign ownership, test supplier evidence and build realistic contingency before the meter becomes the critical path.
The Year-End Ledger as a Workstream: Service Charge Reconciliation Under Scrutiny
Compliance & Regulation

The Year-End Ledger as a Workstream: Service Charge Reconciliation Under Scrutiny

Service charge reconciliation is often handled as a finance close-down, yet it carries the hallmarks of a small project: fixed deadlines, multiple contributors, evidence gaps and an occupier audience quick to test the numbers. This article sets out a managed workstream for UK commercial property teams, from building a defensible audit trail to closing the cycle without a lingering dispute tail.
The Policy Schedule Is Not the Valuation: Reinstatement Costs in 2026
Compliance & Regulation

The Policy Schedule Is Not the Valuation: Reinstatement Costs in 2026

Sums insured drift away from real rebuilding costs quietly, and the gap is usually discovered at the worst possible moment. This guide sets out how to commission a reinstatement cost assessment, what evidence loss adjusters expect to see, and how property teams can keep the figure defensible year after year.
After the Keys Change Hands: Running Defects Liability as a Managed Workstream
Compliance & Regulation

After the Keys Change Hands: Running Defects Liability as a Managed Workstream

Practical completion is a milestone, not the end of the project. This guide sets out how to give the defects liability period its own owner, register, reporting rhythm and close-out discipline so that outstanding issues are resolved before final certification and retention release.
Before the SLA Bites: Structuring the First Quarter of an FM Contract
Compliance & Regulation

Before the SLA Bites: Structuring the First Quarter of an FM Contract

Awarding a facilities management contract is not the same as starting the service. The first ninety days carry the heaviest operational and contractual risk, and they respond best to project discipline: a named lead, a dated plan, clear data handover and a formal readiness review before day one.
Closing the Loop: Why Handover Deserves Its Own Phase on the Programme
Opinion & Insight

Closing the Loop: Why Handover Deserves Its Own Phase on the Programme

The final weeks of a commercial project are routinely planned as if they will look after themselves. They rarely do. This piece argues that handover is a managed phase with its own risks, and sets out a short checklist for closing it out cleanly.
Consent First, Contractors Second: Untangling the Licence to Alter Process
Compliance & Regulation

Consent First, Contractors Second: Untangling the Licence to Alter Process

Tenants routinely commit to dates before the landlord's surveyor has seen a single drawing. This guide examines what a licence to alter actually requires, where negotiations lose weeks, and how to assemble a consent pack that survives first review.
Before You Push the Programme: The First Month of a Fit-Out Recovery
Opinion & Insight

Before You Push the Programme: The First Month of a Fit-Out Recovery

A stalled fit-out is seldom rescued by pushing the programme harder. The first thirty days should restore safety, evidence and control before the client chooses to recover, re-scope or re-tender. This recovery playbook sets out a disciplined sequence for inheriting a project mid-delay.
Counting the Cost of 'Next Year': A Governance Guide to Maintenance Backlogs
Compliance & Regulation

Counting the Cost of 'Next Year': A Governance Guide to Maintenance Backlogs

Deferred maintenance rarely arrives as a single capital request. It accumulates through small postponements that become a governance and compliance exposure. This guide sets out a practical audit, risk-scoring and board presentation framework for turning a backlog into a costed plan.