Welcome to the Commercial Log Book

Part L 2006 of the building regulations in England and Wales requires that building owners must have summary information about a new or refurbished building, its building services and their maintenance requirements in a building log book. In Scotland Section 6 of the Technical Handbooks apply.

The Commercial Log Book has been developed for the business benefit of builders, developers and property managers, for residential, commercial and mixed developments.  Those charged with managing the assets that combine to form the built environment require considerable amounts of date and information in a meaningful and timely manner.  Quite often this information cannot be found in one location, or even at all, and in a format that is acceptable to the multiplicity of stakeholders who will impact on the assets.

In assessing the value of your assets you will be faced by a number of technical challenges which are complex but arguably not difficult.  In order to classify and assess it is appropriate to consider:

  • What you actually own/manage?
  • What is it actually worth?
  • What is the deferred maintenance?
  • What is the actual condition?
  • What is the remaining service life?
  • What do you prefer to fix first?

Typically, organisations store historical cost of asset and bring this cost forward to present day monetary values and/or calculate the replacement cost.  However, this does not establish the worth of the asset, just the cost.  The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) document BG 1/2007 goes onto suggest that a logbook should be designed to provide sufficient detail of installed apparatus and the methods by which they are controlled, along with other data that allows effective and efficient use of the building.

The drive for high-quality operation and maintenance manuals and records is emphasised, in England & Wales, by the requirement in the 2006 Building Regulations Approved Document that the owner ‘should be provided with sufficient information about the fixed building services and their maintenance requirements so that the building can be operated in such a manner as to use no more fuel and power than is reasonable in the circumstances’.  As an aid to this requirement, The Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE) explain in their guide, TM31, what sort of information a log book should contain.

The Commercial Log Book is a cost efficient integrated management information tool, that can exist in perpetuity against a development, enabling developers and owners to better assess the value of their assets and improve repair and maintenance schedules.