The benefits of professional property management

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Professional management will optimise property assets to deliver maximum performance and return on investment.

If you are thinking about investing into property, or are already the landlord of a commercial or residential premises or portfolio, you may be wondering whether you should engage the services of a dedicated property management company or try and manage the assets alone.

Depending on the number of properties you own, your work and personal commitments, managing your own properties can quickly become both time and financially consuming. By choosing a property management service provider with a broad skill set and clear and transparent fees, you can rest assured your investment will be expertly taken care of so you can enjoy the benefits of its profitability.

Here we give an overview of just some of the time and cost saving benefits a full service, professional property management provider can offer.

Benefits of employing a property management service

  • Stay up to date and compliant with legislation
  • Rent collection
  • Managing rent reviews and lease renewals
  • Explore new investment opportunities
  • Maintenance and repair
  • Communicate between landlords and tenants

Keeping up-to-date with legislation

Rental properties are subject to an increasing amount of legislation and as a landlord you have responsibilities towards your tenants that you simply can’t afford to ignore.

As well as gas safety checks, electrical systems checks, fire safety regulations, Legionnaire’s Disease checks and legislation, maintenance and repairs, your tenants’ deposits must also be held in an approved deposits’ scheme.

Failure to put your tenants’ deposits in an approved scheme can mean that you lose some of your legal rights if a tenant stops paying their rent and can result in hefty fines or even imprisonment.

Working with a reputable service provider means that you can rely on them to keep you completely up-to-date and compliant with the latest legislation and they will be able to schedule the appropriate checks to ensure that your properties and tenants are suitably covered.

Rent collection

In an ideal world, rent would come in on time and in full every month but inevitably tenants occasionally hit problems that results in delayed or partial payment. As well as collecting your rent and paying it into your account on an agreed date every month, property management service providers will be able to manage any rent disputes that may occur and provide expert support and advice if a tenant finds that they are suddenly unable to pay their rent, meaning you have a regular and reliable income to cover the mortgage.

Managing rent reviews and lease renewals

Rent reviews and lease renewals require expert guidance and timely advice to ensure disputes don’t arise and both you and your tenants feel you are getting the best terms available at these critical points of lease negotiation.

By working with a management team with the expertise to cover these services in-house, you don’t have to pay for additional professional advice, and potentially expensive dilapidation claims can be avoided by ensuring and any work required is carried out in accordance with the lease terms well in advance of renewal or review deadlines.

Helping you make the most of your investment

A property management team that has resources to manage the day to day facilities and rental income requirements, as well as exploring ways of making the most from your investment, are worth their weight in gold.

Those with qualified valuers in the team will be able to value the premises to ensure you achieve the rent it is worth in the current market place. With additional services including how and where to market it, attracting the right tenants and comprehensive planned maintenance scheduling, it really is worth your time in sourcing a provider with a breadth of professional property disciplines covered in house to save time and costs in the long run.

Repairing your property

Many landlords are simply unprepared for dealing with unexpected repairs or even the routine maintenance of their properties. A full property management service provider will have in-house Chartered Building surveyors that are able to assess the property on a rolling basis and advise upon any potential repair and maintenance issues that need to be addressed in the next few years.

This allows a planned maintenance schedule to be put in place that can be communicated to your tenants in advance and service charges and budgets to be managed incrementally to cover the costs of upcoming work preventing unexpected and costly repairing bills for all parties involved.

Chartered Surveyors are also able to offer building project management and contract administration services to ensure any renovation or large project repairs are conducted, managed and inspected efficiently to ensure the results meet exacting regulatory requirements.

Of course, rental property is subject to wear and tear and unexpected maintenance emergencies do happen. By working with a property management team, you can rest assured that a broken boiler or bathroom leak will be handled with ease due to their direct access to reputable tradespeople at preferential rates, meaning unexpected problems are solved in a timely and cost effective manner.

The bridge between landlords and tenants

Ultimately, a good property management service will keep the lines of communication and the relationship between landlord and tenant professional and in line with legislation at all times.

As well as all the points above, they will be able to help you with:

  • Advertising your property to potential tenants
  • Sourcing suitable tenants
  • Supervision of repairs, refurbishment and maintenance
  • Collection of insurance premiums
  • Timely property disposals and lettings to ensure property doesn’t sit empty
  • Obtaining references and conducting credit checks on potential tenants
  • Preparing the tenancy agreement
  • Putting the deposit in an approved scheme
  • Recommending suitable insurance
  • Advice about your legal responsibilities
  • Preparing a written or video inventory of your property
  • Getting the tenant to check and agree the inventory
  • Assessing a vacant property for repairs and maintenance
  • Inspecting the property at intervals agreed with you and the tenants
  • Providing tenants with notice at the end of the tenancy
  • Dealing with evictions, harassment, legal aspects of the tenancy and property, or problems with squatters

Owning property can be a rewarding financial investment when managed correctly. Appointing the right management service will take the stress out of property ownership whilst providing full visibility of your portfolios performance, guidance on furthering investment profitability, and will allow you to stay up to date with as much or as little information on the day to day performance of the investment as you want to know.

Property management with Kempton Carr Croft

Our management surveyors and their accounting team work in partnership with our building surveyors, valuers and maintenance contractors to ensure all of your commercial and residential property needs are expertly handled under one roof.

With such a breadth of skills in-house we are able to cover the requirements of clients with a single property , to landlords, public sector and commercial businesses with extensive portfolios and investment management requirements.

 

Need advice or services?
We have an experienced commercial agency team operating throughout Bucks and Berks. Use our contact form to get in touch with Mitchell Brooks, Head of Agency. 

 

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