Which service to choose when renting out your property? I was surprised to learn that apparently 60% of landlords choose the Tenant Find Service from their letting agent and embark on the management of the property themselves. Now don’t get me wrong setting up a tenancy is vitally important. Finding the right tenant and negotiating your way through the mountain of legal requirements is essential. A mistake at this point can result in being unable to serve future notices, fines and even the possibility of a criminal record. It truly is a minefield.
But it doesn’t stop there. The pitfalls continue long into the tenancy term. I recently had a complaint from a landlord who had taken the Tenant Find Service and 3 years later came back to voice their dissatisfaction about the quality of the tenant found. But at what point is the management responsible for the relationship with the tenant? Investigation into the issues revealed a tic for tac escalation which soured the relationship. Now the encumber tenant was using every possible obligation missed by the landlord. Everything from prescribed information to data protection. How many self-managing landlords have registered with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office)?
It's funny because when we do our job well, it looks like the easiest job in the World. But that’s because we know the price of getting it wrong. If our clients saw the checklists, we have in place they would think us pedantic. It is this level of rigour that needs to be in place. In fact, if you would like one of our infamous checklists, I’ll attach a link.
Then there are the negotiating skills required for if things should go wrong. It is the landlord’s property but ideally it becomes the tenant’s home. This can be a fine line to tread. What is deemed as a breach of “quiet enjoyment” and what is acting in a “tenant like manner”?
The cost between the different services seems relatively low compared with the increased obligation. By using a managed service what the landlord does is to indemnify themselves against these issues by making the managing agent responsible. And hence, why my surprise at the statistic that more Landlord’s self-manage. I can only surmise that it is a failing on our part as managing agents that we fail to explain the benefits and value added from a fully managed service.
For more details about the individual services we offer please explore our website; www.smartestateagent.co.uk