Property Management

You would be forgiven for thinking that Property Management is just collecting rent and organising urgent repairs on properties. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Barbers are one of the few Letting Agents that feel that Property Management is so important we have a department dedicated soley to the needs of landlords and tenants. Our Property Management team consists of Chris Martin, who is head of the Department and is ably assisted by Carol Dakin, Cheryl Davies-Pyatt and Sean O’Brien. They are also supported by Linda Rodgers and Karen Whitby who look after Accounts; John Roberts and Jacqui Edwards who undertake all the ingoing and outgoing schedules of condition and Ben Martin who conducts the Property Management visits. We pride ourselves on creating a personal relationship with our landlords and our tenants to achieve good communication and customer service. Each landlord and tenant is allocated a member of the team to deal with their individual property and requirements. As part of their ongoing development, all the staff have either achieved or are currently studying for the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and association of Professional Inventory Providers (APIP) qualifications in lettings and property management.

Rent collection is perceived as the most important part of property management, and its very important as this forms part or all of the landlords income. The other major section of looking after a landlords investment is the upkeep of the property. 

If the property is not maintained then rental can be affected the next time the property is available to let. We carry out regular visits to all of our managed properties to ensure that tenants are taking care of things. One thing that a lot of landlords and their agents don’t do is carry out visits during a tenancy. Our view at Barbers is that this is best done to prevent problems rather than having to cure them at the end of a tenancy when things have been neglected. All landlords appreciate knowing their property is in good hands and is being treated with respect. The other purpose for the visits is to ensure that the tenants are happy with the property and try to establish what their long term intentions are. Looking after a tenant will encourage them to look after the property and stay for the foreseeable future rather than looking to move on and leaving the landlord with a void period which means loss of rent and Council Tax bills!

We have landlords living overseas as well as many parts of the UK; landlords could live next door but may not have the time to deal with day-to-day management of their property. We look after in excess of 800 properties for landlord clients; with our qualified staff dealing with the day-to-day matters, you can be assured your property is in safe hands.