Becoming a landlord is not easy. In fact, it can be extremely stressful. Not all tenants are good. And it is often those that you expect to be good that turn out bad. You could be renting to social housing tenants in a bad area. Or to an affluent family in the suburbs. One thing stays the same and that is that you will be requiring property maintenance services for landlords.
When you rent out properties, you need to keep them well maintained. You cannot simply sign a tenancy agreement and hope for the best. Things need to be clear on paper too. This means ensuring that your tenants are aware of which repairs they will be responsible for. You need to also clearly state that your chosen maintenance team will be allowed access to the property with 24 hours notice. If you do not state this, you may never see the inside of your property until the end of the tenancy.
Property Maintenance Services for Landlords : What’s Included
What you include in your property maintenance services for landlords is really up to you. If you have more than one property in your portfolio, or live a distance away, a full management agreement is the best option. When you pass the managing of your properties on to an agent, you can forget all the bad experiences that come with being a landlord. For a small monthly fee, all problems, including collection of rent arrears will be carried out for you.
But, let’s look at what maintenance you should carry out on a property. Asides the gas safety that is obligatory, there are many other areas of maintenance that need to be taken care of. These include the clearing of gutters and drains. This is most especially important after bad weather. After adverse weather, you should check the property for loose roofing slates or tiles, leaks, and any other damage.
Internal Maintenance
As we said before, it is important to ensure that the tenant agrees to maintenance being carried out on the property. Radiators may need bleeding, and painting and decorating should be kept on top of. Some tenants have a habit of not reporting problems until it’s too late. A simple blocked drain could turn into much more. Digging up the back garden and replacing all drain pipes is just one thing that might happen when you are unaware of problems until it is too late.
The exterior of your property also needs to be maintained. This can include the painting of the garage door and the external walls. It also can include gardening work and cleaning of the driveway. All your maintenance needs can be handled by one team when you use BBN for your property management and maintenance. We can take out the stress of being a landlord, allowing you to sit back and really enjoy your return on investment.