Can I get a property maintenance company to manage my portfolio?

Property management and property maintenance are easily confused with each other.

After all, they both do the same things - don’t they?

In a way, yes they do, but while some of the duties of both services overlap they are two different aspects of the same profession.

Property maintenance is, as the title suggests, concerned with the maintenance of buildings and land.

If you’re a landlord with a portfolio of several properties, it’s a great asset to have.

Property management, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive service, handling the complexities of property rental - both legal and practical.

What is property maintenance?

OK, so we know it’s about maintaining property and land, but what does that actually entail?

It’s pretty obvious that it’s all about keeping things looking smart and ensuring that everything is working properly, but it can also involve all those things that you as the landlord are legally bound to do, such as safety checks.

This is the kind of service you may require if you’re too busy to maintain your property professionally, or simply have too many properties in your portfolio to do the upkeep yourself.

Shouldn’t the tenants maintain properties themselves, though?

You as a landlord are responsible for keeping your rented properties free from health hazards, making sure all gas and electrical equipment is safely installed and maintained.

Imagine if a tenant fiddled amateurishly with a boiler, or tried to fix a leaky loo? They could make the situation worse.

Some tenants will admittedly make cosmetic changes to the property, but really all you should expect them to do is maybe change a lightbulb.

Who uses property maintenance companies?

Companies that own apartment complexes, hotels, and community living buildings like retirement homes benefit the most from property maintenance.

These buildings often have a boiler, several HVAC units, and one or more lifts that need serviced.

They also have large spaces like hallways, common areas, and car parks that need  to be cleaned.

With the help of reliable maintenance technicians, and local contractors, property maintenance is incredibly useful if you have these types of building in your portfolio.

What does property maintenance involve?

Depending on the kind of service you pay for you can rely upon your maintenance company to do some or all of the following:

• Cleaning services

• Safety checks

• General and specific repairs

• Installation and maintenance of utilities such as plumbing, wiring, heating etc

• Structural repairs such as mending the roof, or pointing a wall

• Painting and decorating

• Gardening

• Replacing fire alarms

• HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) filter replacements

More often than not, the maintenance manager will be on hand to leap into action when something goes wrong with properties, like unclogging drains, sorting out appliances that are broken, dealing with flooding and a host of other problems that might arise.

The advantages of hiring a property maintenance company

Saves you effort and time

The daily management of your properties is taken out of your hands, saving you considerable time and effort. If you don’t have relationships with a whole array of contractors who can drop everything and come to your aid if a property springs a leak, for example, then getting someone else to take on all the maintenance work is the best solution.

Saves money

Hiring cleaners, plumbers, painters and decorators individually means that fees can mount up, not to mention the extra costs if you have to get someone out on an emergency call. Getting someone in to maintain the property will probably work out to be much more cash savvy in the long run.

More efficient

If you want a professional look, then you have to employ the professionals. A professional cleaning company for example will have the knowledge and experience to make your properties look in amazing condition and of course, this could mean you can charge more for rent.

Enhances your reputation

Applying property maintenance increases the satisfaction of tenants, and in turn improves your reputation. This finer reputation leads to higher retention of tenants and repeat business.

As you can see, hiring a property maintenance company has its advantages.

However, services are nowhere near as comprehensive as those or a property management company.

If, as discussed earlier, you’re time poor then maintenance covers only a fraction of the tasks associated with being a landlord.  

What a property maintenance company doesn’t do:

• Find you tenants through marketing and advertising.

• Set the amount of money that should be paid in rent.

• Collect rent.

• Chase rent arrears.

• Prepare the tenancy agreement.

• Advise you on buildings and contents insurance.

• Take prospective tenants on viewings.

• Obtain tenant references and perform credit searches.

• Collect the rent and deposit.

• Prepare the tenancy agreement.

• Prepare the inventory/schedule of condition.

• Negotiate the return of the tenants’ deposit.

• Lodge the tenants’ deposit with DPS.

The property manager is involved in the whole process of renting your property and will be a point of contact dealing with every aspect of the tenancy with the tenant during their tenancy. This means that, in common with a maintenance manager, they are responsible for dealing with repairs and maintenance but they also deal with tenancy renewals, the rent collection and issuing of monthly rent statements and any other issues that arise.

Above all, they are committed to growing your investment, which is what being a landlord is all about.

They understand this and are there to help in every way.

Here at Grow Property we want to make your job as a landlord as easy as possible so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at: http://www.growproperty.co.uk