Do you have a property that you let out? How often do you speak to your tenant and are you happy with them, or are they like a deep sea diver with chicken pox? Basically do they come up to scratch?
Some weeks ago I was talking to a landlord who had let out his property around five years ago and those tenants had now moved on, he had let and managed the property himself and in all the time the tenants had lived there he had never visited the house or checked on them once, the rent was paid on time but they never spoke, they were basically out sight and out of mind. On the face of it that seems fine but the reality of the situation is that when he got the keys back and visited the property the tenants had made a huge number of alterations and caused significant damage, they had replaced carpets and took them with them when they left leaving the landlord with nothing on the floor in some of the rooms, they had added light fittings and electrical sockets and decorated the house in so many different colours Joseph himself would have been jealous. There were a number of other things, including damage to doors, kitchen units and the bathroom. The rent was never reviewed while the tenant lived in the house and we had recently let something similar nearby for £400 per calendar month more. The landlord had not protected the tenants deposit correctly, nor did he have the correct compliance certificates or safety checks in place and his tenancy agreement wasn’t worth the word processing software it was typed on. Thankfully the tenants had left of their own free will as evicting them would have been extremely difficult so my first question was, “why didn’t he use an agent not just to let the house but to manage it? “His response was that he didn’t want to pay the fees. The cost of the repairs would have run towards £10,000 which could have been managed with property inspections and basic communication with the tenant, coupled with the below market rent he was getting for most of the tenancy, having an agent to manage would be a no brainer. We are now managing the property and the new tenant does come up to scratch!!!
For anyone wanting to discuss letting and managing property give one of our offices a call or email him directly on r.heath@barbers-online.co.uk
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