Arizona Vetrepreneur Incubates a Commercial Twist on the Well-Established Home Warranty Concept

GUARDIAN PR
Jul 1, 2015
3 min read

Desert Storm Veteran and small business entrepreneur, Edward Maznio, recently launched America’s first commercial property warranty built for small business owners. Mr. Maznio, the inventor of OfficeGUARDIAN Commercial Office Warranties, says: “OfficeGUARDIAN is the first full-service, commercial warranty company built from the ground up to serve and protect the small business owner from unexpected and often expensive office system repairs.”

Edward explained that commercial tenants are bound to lease terms that give them virtual ownership and full responsibility for nearly every major and minor system found in and outside their suite, similar to an office condo owner. Their responsibility includes the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, electrical, plumbing, appliances, and even the sprinkler systems and glass. All these systems and their 240+ components expose small business owners to risks of large repair and replacement bills. Since most commercial tenants rarely perform a pre-lease inspection, they often accept the provided-systems at face value, in their as-is condition – many 10+ years old or more. Unlike midsized to larger companies that have deeper pockets to handle unexpected expenses, the small business owner often goes into unnecessary debt to cover expenses such as these, or even worse - can’t take a personal salary or otherwise bleed precious cash reserves.

Mr. Maznio recalls many potential pitfalls found in commercial leases from his own experiences; first as a paralegal drafting and reviewing commercial leases, then from leases he negotiated for clients as an Arizona license real estate broker, and later the multiple leases he signed as a retailer and small business owner with 9 Arizona locations. Without exception, every lease assigned the ultimate responsibility for preventative maintenance and repairs of all office systems to him, the commercial tenant.

The risks, as explained by Mr. Maznio, include budget-busting repairs that often occur at the most inopportune times, such as an $8,500 HVAC replacement on a month of slow sales; a plumbing backup requiring investigative commercial plumbing services or replacement of a lighting ballast costing $350 or more, plus labor. Under the OfficeGUARDIAN Warranty Plans, repairs like these would be covered and performed by an Arizona contractor vetted by OfficeGUARDIAN, and would require one simple call to OfficeGUARDIAN’S team to file a claim. Best of all, Mr. or Mrs. Business Owner gets quick service in a day or less, doesn’t have to “hope and pray” they select a reputable contractor on their own, plus pay only a small $99 service call fee and warranty premiums starting at $179 per month, both simple to budget and neither an impact to their bottom line.

According to Mr. Maznio, OfficeGUARDIAN is also revolutionizing the commercial leasing business – making it possible for landlords to offer an OfficeGUARDIAN Warranty Plan as an incentive to lease their space over another space across the street. Besides giving their property a leg-up on their competition, it also ensures that the landlord’s HVAC equipment is getting proper quarterly preventative maintenance service. Each OfficeGUARDIAN Plan includes quarterly HVAC maintenance and filter-changes by a licensed, bonded and insured commercial HVAC contractor. Edward has found that many landlords like to offer an OfficeGUARDIAN Plan to also reduce the chances for finger-pointing and blame if their tenant encounters a system breakdown early on in their lease term. In that case, the responsibility gets redirected to OfficeGUARDIAN rather than the landlord, defusing all potential disputes or expensive litigation.

OfficeGUARDIAN Commercial Office Warranties are currently built to protect small businesses with single or multiple locations, each under 5,000 square feet. For more information about OfficeGUARDIAN Commercial Office Warranties, please call Edward Maznio at 1-800-508-1850.