Operating costs – what exactly is included in them?
You get an invoice for renting an office and suddenly next to the rent you see a second amount – operating fees. In Poznań, they are usually from 17 to 28 PLN per square meter net. It's worth knowing what exactly you pay this money for, so you don't feel like the building owner is profiting from your ignorance.
Maintenance of common areas and cleaning
The largest part of your fee goes to what happens outside your office door. This means corridors, staircases, elevators, and shared toilets on the floor. In the buildings we offer at Fairofoffers, the cleaning team usually appears 4 or 5 times a week. This costs 4,300 PLN per month on average for an entire medium-sized building. You pay for floor liquid, toilet paper in the public WC, and for someone to empty the trash bins in front of the entrance in the morning.
In winter, clearing snow from the parking lot and spreading salt at the entrance from the Dymka street side is added. These are real expenses that the manager must cover. If you rent an office with an area of 47 meters, your share of this fee may be around 184 PLN per month for cleaning maintenance alone. It is not little, but thanks to this, your clients do not enter the building on a dirty carpet. Besides, clean windows in common parts also don't wash themselves – usually, it's done 2 times a year, which is included in the annual budget.
It is worth checking in the contract if cleaning the interior of your specific office is included in this price. In 83% of cases in Poznań, the operating fee applies only to common areas. You have to take care of the order on your own desk yourself or hire a separate service for about 320-450 PLN per month. This is a frequent point of contention, so it's better to clarify this before signing the documents.
A clean staircase and a snow-cleared parking lot are not a luxury, but a specific cost shared among all tenants.
Utilities in common areas and elevator service
The second thing is electricity and water that you don't consume directly in the room. Corridor lighting, elevator operation, air conditioning in the lobby – it all turns the meter. In a modern office building, elevators must undergo inspection every 30 days. Such a service visit costs about 280 PLN for one elevator. If there are two in the building, a large sum comes out annually. These costs are billed proportionally to the area you occupy, so a small firm pays less than one occupying an entire floor.
Clients often ask us why air conditioning is so expensive. Central systems in office buildings consume huge amounts of energy, especially in July and August. The average cost of energy for common areas in a small office building can jump by 23% in hot months. That's why at Fairofoffers we always show real invoices from the previous year, so you know if you won't suddenly pay an extra 400 PLN in winter for heating corridors with gas or electricity. It's a matter of honesty, without which relationships cannot be built.
Security and monitoring are also in this pool. In most offices in Poznań, you have a physical security worker for 12 hours a day, and at night a camera system and an intervention group. The cost of security is usually about 3-5 PLN from each of your square meters. If the building has a reception that picks up your packages from a courier, that is also paid from this pool. This is a convenience that real saves your time because you don't have to break away from work when a delivery arrives.
Taxes, insurance and management fee
The building owner must pay property tax to the Poznań City Hall. Rates for commercial buildings are significantly higher than for residential ones. This tax is passed on to tenants as part of operating fees. Added to this is the insurance of the entire facility against fire, flood, or other random events. Remember, however, that this insurance does not protect your computers or furniture – you must insure your property separately, which costs about 450 PLN per year for a policy for a small office.
Another element is the so-called management fee, i.e., remuneration for the manager. This is a person like me who makes sure there is water in the tap, that the roof doesn't leak, and that chimney inspections are done on time. In Poznań, this fee is usually about 3% of the total rent. It may seem unnecessary, but without a manager, the building quickly deteriorates, and you would have to call a plumber yourself when a pipe bursts in the toilet on the floor.
The last detail is small repairs. Replacing a burnt-out light bulb in the staircase, repairing the intercom at the main entrance, or adjusting self-closing doors. These are small amounts, on the order of 50-100 PLN once, but over the year a repair fund accumulates from this. At Fairofoffers, we ensure these expenses are transparent. Once a year you have the right to inspect the settlement and check if indeed all this money was spent on the building. It's a standard we've stuck to for 8 years of activity.
Building insurance protects the walls, but you have to insure your laptops yourself – it's worth remembering.
How to read the annual settlement?
Every year, usually by the end of March, you should receive a settlement for the previous year. If the sum of the advances you paid every month was higher than the actual expenses, you will get a refund. Unfortunately, in the era of rising energy prices, underpayments occur more often. The average underpayment for an office of 60 meters last year was about 840 PLN net for the whole year. It's not an amount that will ruin a company, but it's worth having funds set aside for it so as not to be surprised by a corrective invoice.
When checking the settlement, look at the common area electricity meter and garbage collection costs. Prices for garbage in Poznań have jumped drastically over the last 2 years, which directly translated into an increase in operating fees by about 14%. If you see that the operating fee in a given offer is suspiciously low (e.g., 11 PLN per meter), remain vigilant. Most likely, the owner did not include all costs there and a huge extra payment awaits you at the end of the year.
Honestly, no one likes to pay these fees, but without them your office would lose value in the eyes of clients. Imagine a meeting in a premises where it smells in the elevator and it's dark in the staircase because no one replaced the lamp. Our job is to make sure that for these twenty-some PLN per meter you have peace of mind and professional conditions for work. If you have questions about a specific building from our list of 87 offers, just call +48 61 624 86 26 – we will explain everything without fluff.
