Today I want to talk to you about maintenance.

Landlords, how do you deal with maintenance that is reported?
How do you record the maintenance that is recorded from your tenants?
What sorts of contractors do you use and what sort of time frame do you normally work towards?

Just a couple of things, when a tenant is reporting a maintenance issue, do you keep a record of it?
The date and the time they’ve reported the issue?
Of when you got a contractor out?
When it got resolved, and those sorts of things?
If you don’t, why not?

Reason being is you want to make sure that you’re fully protecting yourself against any future claims, possibly that the tenant can action towards you.

You want to make sure that as soon as a tenant reports an issue you date stamp it and time it on a record somewhere that you hold for that specific property, and it is there documented and you want to get as much detail as possible from the tenants in order to get the right contractor round.

Once you’ve sent the contractor round and they’ve carried out the repairs, you obviously also date stamp it and time it to confirm that the issue has been resolved and it has all been sorted.

Your contractors, what sort of evidence do you take from them or supporting documents?
Do you just get Joe Blogs from down the road who does all the fencing to do your fencing?
What if there’s a problem and it comes back and there’s a claim against you for problems done to further neighbouring properties?
What you want to do is make sure that you’re fully protecting yourself.

With regards to contractors whoever you instruct carry out any work, make sure before you do so you’ve got a copy of their public liability insurance, so should there be any problems, you are fully protected against this.

Time frame, what’s a suitable time frame would you say to deal with necessary maintenance?
Realistically speaking you want to try and action and get it all sorted within I would say a seven to ten day period, depending on if parts are needed, if further you know problems resolve.

If you would like to know more please give me myself a call,
Danielle, Inspired Sales and Lettings
Where we’re with you every step of the way on your property journey.