A happy ending Stress avoided

A happy Landlord story

A developer shows us a detached 4 bedroom house which he intends buying demolishing and building 3 homes on it. The plans have not been drawn up so he figures he has 12 months before he will be ready to build. The purchase goes through and because there is a crack on the building I tell the owner to maintain the building insurance with the same insurer as the previous owner and to get his lawyer to obtain a copy of previous policy. Tailor Made Lettings are asked to find a tenant for 9 month rental.

We advertise and soon have an applicant who wants to rent it but does not want to give references so offers 6 months advance rental for a 6 month contract. He has just sold a house and will get his lawyer to send the 6 months rent and deposit on his completion day. I don’t get a great feeling about the applicant and therefore make a few of my own discreet inquiries and am advised by several people to be wary.

I arrange a meeting with the owner and explain that I have reservations. The owner says that as there is 6 months upfront he is not too bothered and we should proceed anyway.

I suggest that we tell the applicant that the owner has a bank insisting on Rent Guarantee/Legal Assistance Insurance and to get this cover he must have a credit check done as well as an Employers reference. The applicant is disgruntled but agrees to fill in the application form. When he first met us he stated he was a self employed car dealer yet the application form showed he was in fact employed as a jewellery buyer. Again a few discreet inquiries establish his employment is in fact his parent business.

I again meet with the Landlord and update him on the situation explaining that I was not certain that he worked where he said he did and my concern was that once his advanced rental was used up he would not pay and would not vacate. The Landlord advised he would take that chance and I responded that if the vetting passed the Insurers checks then we should take the rent Guarantee/Legal assistance cover.

The 6 months expired and the tenant asked to stay longer the owner agreed another 4 months as long as the advanced rental was paid over. No rent came and the tenant avoided all demands and continued to reside in the house. Two months on the tenant reported a blocked drain and the landlord refused to send anyone. I spoke to the Landlord and advised him to get the drains checked as there were a number of trees on the site and if there had been a collapse it maybe recoverable under his insurance because easily as we had maintained cover with the same insurer. At that point a claim was submitted and the same day an arrears claim was made to the Rent Guarantee insurers.

Over the next 3 months the mains drain into the property was completely replaced at the cost of the building insurer and the tenant was evicted under the legal expenses cover and the owner received a cheque for the outstanding rent less the policy excess.

In this example Property Management experience has been key in a happy ending. The owner obtained planning for two homes within a few weeks of obtaining possession.

Beware! Good Agent Bad Agent

BEWARE BAD RENTAL AGENT: Choose the right agent In property Lettings Specialising is King How many of us ask the right questions when choosing an Agent The world economic crisis resulted in a strong rental market as ability to buy is diminished with of finance. The result has been many new letting agencies opening and many Estate Agents who never offered rentals or property management turning a hand into the letting market. A Question I get asked often "what makes a good letting agent" When Tailor Made Lettings first opened the Poole Town centre office in 1992 it was as a dedicated rental office. At that time I had worked in property management for 15 years during a time where the wrong word on the receipt of a prospective occupier could result in your property value halving overnight. In the 1970s and 1980s caution was key slip up in law. These days it has been simplified but the duty of care is still paramount and as in every industry specialising is king. During the late 1990s my wife wanted to return to work and came up with the idea of opening an estate agent. I had lots of room in the Rental office and so suggested that she may like to use a couple of desks and part of the window space to sell property. Within a month with 2 new staff the Sales venture opened. What became apparent very quickly is how different sales staff are in comparison to trained rental staff. The property management team were entering finite information and figures requiring a degree of concentration, suddenly we had some chatty sales staff talking over our heads about deals and applicants constantly thinking out loud. The disruption continued for several months and in the end I told my wife to find her own premises. Within 6 months she had vacated and moved to Sandbanks. The office returned to normality with my team concentrating on the task of managing the issues that arise when renting property. The team of 6 comprised as follows: 1. Owner manager 2. Financial controller 3. Lettings negotiator 4. Property inspector_ problem solver 5. Compliance Administrator 6. Receptionist - Administrator All have been through various levels of training and qualifications. All have been kept up-to-date with the latest changes in Law and compliance. So tell me how many Selling Agents that converted to rentals provide this kind of staffing and where did the training come from. An established letting agent has been through the mill and back many times. Along the way the agency has made errors paid for them and rectified the systems to avoid them in the future. This build up of experience is very important. Too often over the years I have heard agents at conferences or seminars at the bar making silly comments "I don’t take any nonsense from my tenants I really tell them where to get off if they dare question me" Hello Mr Agent! This is no longer a feudal system the likelihood is that your tenant is more qualified than you and earns 5 times your wages. No doubt this is an agent who alienates tenants and as a result looses respect and good communication. Most of the time the ones making the comments turn out to be inexperienced or migrating from sales to dabbling in lettings as well. So a Letting Agent - Property manager is a specialist that you as a client employ to find a tenant and minimize risk. My approach has always been nice people in nice property makes my life as an agent easier and I do prefer a hassle free work environment as opposed to Get them in at whatever cost because we need the commission . This attitude by agents results in problems. It’s frustrating when we refuse a rental tenant due to poor references then they go to the agent along the Road and are accepted immediately. You have to ask yourself did they reference and if they did what did they actually produce to the owner. Over the years as an agency we have turned down offers to manage bedsitters, houses in multiple occupation and student accommodations. Why? Because these types of properties are problematic and managing them will result in a lot of time being spent resolving issues taking staff away from their day to day management tasks. There may well be some good estate agents who double up as letting agents but finding the good tenant may only be half the necessary qualification. The real Letting Agent Property Manager has the knowledge and expertise as to how to deal with things when a good tenant goes bad. Francis Payne