Make Property Management Easy
One of the most important roles of a property manager is to ensure the condition of properties in their portfolio is maintained.
Regular property inspections can help property managers quickly identify if and when any damage to a property has occurred.
Responding to maintenance issues, particularly requests for repair, in a timely manner signals to a tenant that you care about the property and value their concern for its condition.
A well maintained property not only makes life much easier for both tenants and landlords, but it can also attract higher rental income, encourage tenants to treat the property respectfully and reduce the possibility of injuries taking place which could potentially result in a liability claim.
However, when it comes to regular maintenance, there are a few things property managers should consider:
Update tenants and landlords on responsibilities
Ensure tenants and landlords are aware of and clear about the tasks that they are responsible for.
For example, tenants may be responsible for gardening while landlords may be required to action preventative and ongoing maintenance such as annual gutter and drain cleans, gas appliance services and changing air-conditioning filters.
Although these should be stated in tenancy and property management agreements, it is also a good idea to remind tenants and landlords when certain tasks should be actioned.
Increase control
Generally, the more maintenance responsibilities property managers can action on a landlord’s behalf, the more control they have over keeping the property in a good condition.
For example, hiring a professional gardener to attend to the property on a regular basis may ensure that the garden is kept under control.
Property managers who use licensed and approved tradespeople to carry out maintenance requests often have good pre-existing relationships with them.
In these instances, it is more likely that the tradespeople will be aware of the property manager’s expectations and the required work will be of a high standard and won’t lead to further problems down the track.
Property managers can also request that all invoices are sent directly to them so they can monitor when the work is completed.
Property Management software
It is a good idea to regularly update contractors’ details on Property Management software with the names of qualified, reliable and competitively priced tradespeople who provide maintenance services with corresponding quotes on hand to provide to tenants if requested.
Giving tenants access to the names of these tradespeople to action maintenance that is not covered by the tenancy agreement will increase the chances of the required work being completed according to the property manager’s expectations.
As tenants are also entitled to arrange repairs themselves if the circumstances are classified as ‘urgent’ and pass on these costs to the landlord, property managers who provide tenants with details of their approved tradespeople can help to ensure landlord expenses will not be excessive.