Commercial Property Business Adviser

What will you be doing?

We operate a lean business model with 2 directors and 1 administrative staff working full-time in the business. Both directors have a combined experience of over 50 years in the business support sector. We scale up our full-time team as and when needed.

Otherwise, LBP has a pool of professional advisors that it can engage to deliver specialist support in several areas, ranging from business diagnostics, digital marketing, strategic planning, and financial modelling. This flexibility allows us to undertake the delivery of different projects at the same time, historically in the West London boroughs.

Gerald Eve (now part of Newmark, the US-based international property consultancy) has also been supportive in making available selective members of their London office to meet virtually with our clients and to provide them with specific advice on lease/business rates issues. However, with Gerald Eve, now fully absorbed into Newmark, it is now prudent for us to increase our independent advisory options in case they decide to reduce their support in the future, especially as we want to expand our service to operate outside of London.

Your Role

The process is relatively straightforward. We would like to agree on a fixed time period in your calendar to schedule clients to meet with you. Our preference is to have one half day per week, i.e. 3.5 hours. Start time can be either 9 am – 12.30 pm, 1 pm to 4.30 pm or 1.30 pm to 5 pm

All meetings will be organised by LBP’s team and scheduled primarily over Zoom. The allotted time for each appointment is no more 30 mins however, sometimes the meeting will be shorter than this. 

(If the client requests an additional another support session or you agree to offer them another online meeting. LBP will coordinate the setting up of the next appointment.)

We will provide you with a brief on the issue the client will be meeting you about.

Wherever possible, we will provide you with copies of specific documents in advance of the appointment to help your meeting preparation, such as leases, licences, floor plans (if necessary) and business rate statements.

Zoom meeting calls are recorded for internal purposes.

We use the AI transcript service in Zoom to summarise the key meeting discussion points, so there is no need for you to make notes. We will send the client a summary of the key action points agreed post the meeting.

The client will not have a direct relationship with you, so any additional questions they have will be routed through LBP. Any answers from you to the client will be sent via LBP.

Your key role is to listen to the client, build a rapport, and provide them with the appropriate answers to their question(s).

What are we looking for?

Our commercial property adviser will have either lease advisory and/or business rates experience preferably in a senior position. They would have worked in either a prominent commercial property business or run their own property consultancy business. With reference to the latter, they have recently retired from an existing practice or are in the process of winding down their current practice with a view to retiring. They are or have been a member of RICS.

In terms of core competences we expect that they have experience in the following areas:

• Lease advisory (dealing in particular with rent reviews, lease renewals, disputes)
• Business Rates Advisory (general advice, ratings assessment, ratings revaluation involving check, challenge and appeals, accessing rates relief schemes, multiple occupancies)
• Commercial agency (acquisitions & disposals) – helping people identify and secure the right property for their business
• Landlord & tenant negotiations – primarily, our work to date has focused on supporting tenants
• Service charge analysis and challenge – advising on strategies to mitigate the
• Dilapidations (assessment, negotiation, strategy) – how to plan exits and mitigate potential liability.
• Property inspections & condition reporting – Your work will not involve physically travelling to premises and inspecting them. It will review actual reports
• Market research & affordability benchmarking – you will have access to industry insights that you can share with our clients and us.
• Stakeholder engagement and client education - providing market analysis reports
• Strong written communication — contributing to reports, guides, and tenant‑friendly resources – this is extremely relevant to what we are doing with our offering
• Links to other professional advisers who can support tenants on their property journey.
• Local knowledge of the area provides rare insights for our prospective renters
• Has mentored junior surveyors where the opportunity presented itself
• Valuation (RICS Red Book, investment, development, and operational assets)

We are looking for someone with strong communication skills – the ability to build rapport and empathise with a variety of clients, so that they can better understand their issues, and offer the most appropriate advice/alternative solutions.

What difference will you make?

An experienced property surveyor will play a central role in strengthening and expanding our property advice service. As more tenants, small businesses, workspaces and community organisations come to us for support, the commercial property landscape they face is becoming more complex, more technical, and often more intimidating. Your practical experience and professional judgement will directly improve the clarity, accuracy and confidence of the advice we provide.

A key part of the role is helping clients understand the suitability of the spaces they occupy or hope to take on. Your ability to identify risks, and spot opportunities across a wide range of commercial premises will give clients the information they need to make informed decisions. This includes offering clear, accessible guidance on business rates—an area that consistently causes confusion and financial pressure for the people we support. Being able to explain liabilities, reliefs, and potential pitfalls in plain language will be invaluable.

Your technical insight will also help translate complex property information into advice that feels usable and empowering. Our mission is to demystify the property process, and your ability to break down surveys, leases, and regulatory requirements into straightforward, actionable steps will help clients negotiate with confidence and avoid common traps.

Beyond casework, your knowledge will shape the development of our wider service. Your understanding of market conditions, regulatory frameworks and different asset types will feed into the tools, templates and internal standards we rely on. This will help ensure our advice remains consistent, high‑quality and aligned with best practice across the sector.

Your on‑the‑ground experience will also strengthen our ability to advocate for tenants. By identifying patterns in building condition, landlord behaviour, business rates pressures and wider market trends, you’ll help us build a clearer picture of the systemic issues affecting small businesses and community organisations. These insights will inform our engagement with local authorities, policymakers and partner organisations, allowing us to push for practical, evidence‑based solutions.

Within the team, you’ll play an important role in sharing knowledge and supporting colleagues’ development. By helping build technical confidence across the service, you’ll ensure every client benefits from reliable, well‑informed advice.

In joining us, you won’t just be adding technical capacity—you’ll be contributing directly to our mission. Your expertise will deepen our impact, strengthen our credibility, and help ensure that the people and organisations we support receive clear, accessible and trustworthy property advice at every stage of their journey.

Before you apply

We are very keen to learn about applicants' experiences working with small businesses and local authorities.  

We intend to interview as many suitable applicants as possible. Depending on the number received, we aim to contact applicants no later than 72 hours after notification of their submission.

Interviews will be arranged either over Zoom or face-to-face at a time which is most convenient for the applicant.