Practical Advice To Help You Profit From Rental Property
Maintaining Your House
At the very least, your property should be 'fit' for human habitation. The requirements currently are that:the structure, i.e.
the walls, floors, ceilings and roof, is stable; it does not suffer from serious disrepair; it is not so damp that it affects the health of the
occupants; it has adequate natural and artificial lighting, heating and ventilation; it has an adequate supply of water suitable to drink; there
are satisfactory facilities for preparing and cooking food, including a sink with a supply of hot and cold water; it has a suitably-located
toilet; it has a suitably-located bath or shower and wash basin, each provided with a satisfactory supply of hot and cold water; it has an
effective system for draining foul, waste and rain water.
Though it may be fit, your house should not be in substantial disrepair either. This could be due to a single major item of
disrepair, or a lot of smaller items. If your house is in substantial disrepair, or if something else about its condition affects the comfort of
your tenants in some significant way, the council can require you to repair it. Poor living conditions can affect the health of tenants and make
their home a 'statutory nuisance'. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides legislation for local authorities to deal with complaints known
as 'statutory nuisances'.
Property Management Companies. These will normally contact you before carrying out any work, but they normally have
a contractual right to carry out any necessary repairs and maintenance within an agreed value, often around £200. They also generally
reserve the right to carry out any emergency work without your prior approval.
Insurance. It is possible to take out an insurance policy to cover the costs of emergency repairs. When emergencies
occur, it is often important to act quickly so as to avoid further damage being caused by your failure to carry out repairs. Policies
cover the cost of call-out charges, several hours labour and parts and materials up to a predetermined maximum, often in the region
of £500 including VAT. The cost of policies varies, but a policy can be cost-effective with just a single emergency call-out at the
wrong time of day or year.
Carrying out repairs to your property does not allow you to increase your agreed rent. However, making your house
more attractive may mean it can command a higher rent when a new agreement comes to be negotiated. Similarly, while you may not
harass or illegally evict a tenant for making a complaint to a local authority about the
condition of your house, it may make you less likely to renew the tenancy of that tenant in the future.
Tell your tenants how long repairs will take to be carried out. Once you have been told about a maintenance problem
you should carry out repairs within a reasonable period of time. What is a reasonable period of time depends on the facts in each
case. But next week or next month may not be good enough. It is important to set a target time to do the work.
Prioritise your tasks by putting each problem into one of the following three categories: Emergency
Repairs (Do within 24 hours of being reported):
Any repairs required in order to avoid a risk to the health and safety of tenants, serious damage to the house or to your tenants’
property. Examples of emergencies are a broken WC, broken cooker, water leaks from pipework, heating breakdown, lack of hot water and
disconnection of gas/electricity. Other emergencies are those that affect home security e.g. broken locks and damaged doors or windows. Urgent Repairs (Do within 5 days of being reported):
Problems which affect the life of your tenants or will cause damage to the property. For example problems with the washing machine,
vacuum cleaner or other appliances, or a leaking roof. Non Urgent Repairs (Do within 1 month of being reported):
All other less important repairs or maintenance. For example, dripping taps, clogged and leaking guttering.
Be sure your tenants know what to do if a problem arises: draw up an emergency procedure to be followed when they
have a maintenance problem. Unless it is unavoidable, you do not want them using someone from Yellow Pages then passing the bill on
to you. This procedure may be as simple as telephoning you, perhaps using your mobile number or leaving a message on an answering
machine. It might be telephoning approved (by you) tradesmen directly e.g. a gas engineer, a plumber, an electrician or a washing
machine repairman.
Once a problem has been reported keep your tenants informed about what is happening, whether you are planning to do
the work yourself, or you are employing someone to do it.
Gas leaks, or suspected leaks, should be dealt with in the first instance by calling Transco on 0800 111 999. They
will check the gas system to locate the leak and will, if necessary, disconnect an appliance until the required repairs are made by a
qualified gas engineer. Make sure your tenants are aware of the need to call Transco with any gas emergency problems.
If you are doing repairs yourself tell the tenants how long it is likely to take. The same goes for your
tradesman; find out how long it is likely to take and pass this information on to the tenants. If it is a simple repair e.g. to a
washing machine, it should be completed in one session. However, if the work is more involved ask the tradesman about his timescale
for getting the work completed before you hire him. The work should be finished within a reasonable time depending on the nature of
the repairs. It should also be completed with as little inconvenience to the tenants as possible.
You, and anyone doing work for the you, are entitled to enter the property after giving reasonable notice (generally
24 hours, except in an emergency), to carry out repairs. Discuss the repairs you intend to do with your tenants and give as much
notice as you can. The law says the work must be done in a "professional" or "workmanlike" way using proper materials and the house
should be fit to live in when the work is completed.
Tenants do have legal rights if you do not carry out repairs, although it is not likely that many
tenants would be familiar with such rights or would start a legal action. However in serious cases they could approach official
bodies who would inform them of the actions they could take.
If you do not carry out repairs within a reasonable period of time tenants have the right to carry out the repairs
and deduct the cost from future rent payments. However, they should tell you what they intend to do, get three estimates for the cost
of the work to be done, and send copies to the you. If the tenants arrange to have the work done they should choose the lowest
estimate.
Create your own maintenance team. To properly maintain yourproperty you will need the services of several
different tradesman, even if you are able to tackle many of the DIY tasks yourself. These are not people you need on a regular basis
but only on those occasions when you have a problem and need someone to fix it. When you have a problem you cannot take care of
yourself you need to have someone available who is reliable, inexpensive and who can be trusted to do a decent job without delay. The
workmen you will need to employ at some stage include:
Handyman (or you may be able to do basic jobs yourself)
Plumber
Gas engineer
Joiner
Electrician
Repairman for washing machine, fridge-freezer, microwave
Roofer
Carpet fitter
Painter and decorator
Cleaner
Gardener
Check up on the work your tradesman he has done. If he hasn’t turned up, or has failed to solve the problem, or has
left a mess, this will reflect on you as the person who arranged for the him to carry out the repair. You will will need to follow up
the matter promptly.
Find out if the breakdown was the result of tenant abuse and if so ask the repair engineer for a written report of
the cause of the breakdown. You will need written evidence if you are going to successfully recover the costs from your tenants.
The best approach to carrying out repairs can be summed up in these two important rules:
Do what you say you are going to do.
Do it right the first time.
Get the full picture when a problem is reported to you. Find out as much information as you can from your
tenant or by visiting your property so you understand the exact nature of the problem. By doing so, you will be far more likely
to send someone prepared so they can solve the problem on the first visit.
Don't make false promises, and provide status updates if necessary. Tenants understand a reasonable time period is
needed to respond to a problem. Just make sure you give realistic promises about completion time and make sure it's done in that time
period. And, most importantly, immediately provide a status update of progress if anything changes from what you promised the
resident.