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.

Tenant causing damage ? what do you do ? So as a lanlord you have met the new tenants and they seem perfect both working with good jobs well dressed well spoken and good references. What more could you want?

Well they have been there 4 months and the agent has made the first inspection. The agent reports that the property is very messy but not damaged the tenants are simply untidy and perhaps careless and result could be a problem.

An inexperienced agent may write a stern letter and come down hard on the tenant. This should never be the first approach as it will alienate the relationship. The tenant agent relations should be maintained at early stages at all cost even if Landlord has fallen out. I have learnt through experience to tread carefully initially. Where things are not going well on initial inspections I have always returned to the office and written to the tenant saying "we are sorry you were not able to have the property ready for our inspection it maybe we did not give you enough time to get the house presentable as we are keen to present a good report to the owner, perhaps we could return in a weeks time please confirm your co-operation.

Now we have a situation where subtly the hint has been made without talking down at the tenants.Thereafter if they simply ignore a sterner approach can be adopted. So the agent has returned to the property and this time it is neat and tidy clothes are in laundry or wardrobes plates removed from floors and coffee tables and the agent report states that due to carelessness the newish cream carpets will not survive the term of their occupation as already stains from footprints and spillages have caused damage that may not clean.

Most agents at this point would warn the tenants that they are causing damages and they will expect them to remedy the damage by the expiry of the tenancy.

Many discussions over my 30 years with other agents in asking what course of action they would take they all respond similarly. Along the lines that they log it, then demjand tenant action and warn owner, then do nothing until, the expiry of the tenancy.

This is not the correct way to address the issue, it needs to be tackled with direct action immediately. Again from experience the last thing a tenant proven to be careless is interested in at the end of their term is the property they are leavingt. Their focus will be on the new property and will not give 100% commitment to the property they are vacating mentally or financially

So we are mid term and the carpets look like they will definately need replacing. Its at this point AN agent should insist the tenant tackles the issue today not tomorrow. The agent should tell the tenant how old the carpet is and obtain a price for professional cleaning and pass it to the tenant. Warn the tenant that if it doesnt clean they maybe responsible to replace. Ignore promises that they will sort it all when they vacate. The pressure must be placed on them whilst they are in the property. If the cleaning has worked they may be more cautious and tidy in future, if it has not worked and the damage is obvious then an agent should stick 2 or 3 replacement carpet quotes under the tenants nose saying that the owner intends to replace and they must pay. Its easier to pursue them legally whilst they are in your property.

It is the owners responsibility to make the decisions to enforce action keep in mind an agent is only a go-between. In making decisions fare wear & tear needs to be a consideration and the law courts will hold very little value of a carpet that is over 6 years old. A good agent will have the condition of the carpet reflected in the inventory but age will play a major factor in any dispute.

This example deals with carpets but can be applied to any other damage seen in the property.

Many owners read a report and think the agent will tackle it further, the agent is their to advise and administer your instruction if it falls within the law and the agents remit. However if anything is mentioned in the report then an owner should be pro-active in tackling the issue sooner rather than later

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Poole rental agent specialists Tailor Made lettings maintain office dedicated to rental & management

Dedicated only to the rental market Our Poole Town centre office has been a dedicated rental agency from the day it opened in 1992.

Only once did I attempt to bring in a sales department. It was when my wife decided she would like to return to work. The truth was that adding several selling staff into the mix proved counter productive to my Letting business.

My rentals team are proficient and trained to be accurate administrators. Duties include important logging diarising all manner of events,regulations,important anniversaries,rent due,renewals,gas safetychecks,electricity inspections,new tenancies,expiring tenancies, maintenance,rent increases,inspections,checkouts,checkins,inventories and so much more.

Sales staff I soon found had an aversion to admin and seemed to chat most of the day. They discuss their sales,their strategies and bounce ideas around all day long about getting an instruction or promoting a property or controlling a client, they were mainly working loudly together as a team.The sales people jotted the odd notes down and had very good memory for pursuing finite issues that may or maynot caused sales to falter every aspect shouted across the office for all to hear.

All very well but having two teams in one office was causing my lettings team problems.The answer was tricky as after 12 months I had to tell my wife she had to find alternative premises to work from.

Fortunately for Tailor Made we discovered the Sandbanks Peninsula office and opened up a dedicated sales office in 2001 from where staff referred rental inquiries back to Poole Town centre branch.

Since then our interest in sales at Sandbanks has been sold, yet remains in my wifes family.

With new regulations governing every aspect of renting a property, operating a proper management system is key to dealing with larger volume. Lets face it you would not want your property to be the one that slipped through the net for something important such as building insurance,gas safety,electrical testing or tenancy renewal or notice to quit.

For the last 15 years we have used Gemini (started out as protrack) a property management package that covers every aspect of looking after property.The system is wonderful and speeds up all our processes freeing our time to promote and market empty property.

However we have grown with the system and staff are trained to use it. For instance a new member of accounts it takes approximately 6 months of working supervised to become proficient. The entire team pump in their info and record data on a daily basis. The entire history of your property under management is recorded and important events pop up out of the system at the right time and dates.

Property Management has become more complex and the need now is for specialised staff to perform specific jobs. I have been in the business since 1979 and know that to simply wake up one morning and decide to switch from Estate agency sales to rentals or do both is not conducive to good practice.

When faced with dropping everything and doing a viewing your Estate Agent sales negotiator will be up and gone as this is the reason he took the job to sell and earn large commissions, the fact that he has taken 10 repair calls,a checkout has been delayed, a tenant is locked out of the house and there are nine renewals to be done that afternoon may see the negotiator fade out of sight.

My trained staff attend regular training days and our own in-house training stems from adopted practices and techniques learned from an office with 20 years history as a dedicated rental agency using an expensive software system to make sure things are not missed and all reports are logged. Even for a dripping tap we now click on "choose the property", click choose the contractor, enter an instruction and click to send it to contractor and owner by email.

The job will be shown outstanding until a bill has been received and will disappear off the to-do screen once the bill has been paid. The Tailor Made office in Spain provides Estate Agency sales and although we offer rentals we do so on a Tenant finding service only . No management so essentially Spain is a sales office for the reasons contained above.

Does your property fall within our expertise ? location location location

Did you know Tailor Made Lettings are renting managing property right across Poole Once upon a time we looked to cover a radius of 15 miles from our offices in Poole town centre.In recent years to enable efficient management of property it has proved a sensible strategy to reduce the working radius to within 10 miles.

So if you are a Landlord interested in our services we confirm that we cover property from Lytchett Mattravers west of Poole across as far as Westbourne & the westcliff (Bournemouth)on Poole´s eastern boundary´

Whilst the name Tailor Made maybe connected to fabulous upmarket property in areas such as Sandbanks and Canford cliffs the reality is that with 20 years trading from Poole Town centre our bread & butter property tends to be in Poole town, Oakdale, Parkstone, Lower Parkstone,Branksome, Pennhill,Fleetsbridge,Broadstone,Hamworthy,Upton,Creekmoor,whitecliff and Lilliput. These are locations where we regularly rent out 1 & 2 bedroom apartments and 3 or 4 bedroom houses.

Our presence for rentals in the Sandbanks sales office continues, courtesy of Adrian Dunford & his sales team ensuring a continuous stream of high value rental inquiries

Want to know more about renting through Tailor Made Lettings then visit our office in the shadow of the Barclays international building opposite the Dolphin shopping centre. We are at the Poole end of Longfleet Rd

www.tailormadelettings.co.uk

tel:01202 770040

Landlords on your toes & get it right

Minimize Risk The great thing about the UK is the capability of checking out someone we want to do business with before committing.

Landlords its time to get on the ball and ensure your rental agent is working for you. After all its you who pays the fee not the incoming tenant

I know that you maybe excited that your agent has found you a tenant and was quick in doing so. Be aware that in this market its far easier to find a tenant the key is finding the right tenant.

However Agents do not always provide you with the perfect tenant. So my tip for today is insist that the agent provides you with all references. Do not be fobbed off with excuses for not getting the references you expect.

Checks for a tenant should include bank reference, credit check, previous Landlord, job reference or for self employed an accountants reference. An agent can apply for these manually or use a vetting agency to obtain the checks. We tend to use the latter as they are proficient in obtaining all information and often do so within 24 to 48 hours a plus in getting a deal in the bag before your prospective tenant is lured away by other agencies.

Recently our Poole lettings office has been quite frustrated at a spate of applicants who we have turned away due to negative checks and who simply go to another agency and are granted a tenancy. Interestingly most of these tenants were intro only arrangements where the agent was paid on completion and walked away

Often Tailor Made find out about the rogue tenant that we turned away a few months later when a Landlord comes to us for advice to resolve the problems

Many agencies have commission staff who are finding it tough in the current crisis and push through applicants who may not stack up. The most recent case I am aware of the previous Landlord had informed us that Mr H had trashed the house and left without paying the last 2 months. Yet the other agents Landlord who accepted them had not been provided with a previous Landlord reference. Agents may tell you that previous Landlords reference isnt worth having as they may be keen to get rid of a horror Tenant and so provide a positive reference. My experience shows very few owners will do this so its worth having a Landlord reference.

So there you have it the way forward is to ask your agent to show you copies of the checks that have been made and then insist on obtaining any that you feel should be provided make sure you get the complete picture.

Be nosey be safe