Finding Tenants

By Chris Chambers

This article augments information provided at www.proudhouseproperty.co.uk

This article aims to provide information for our landlords, tenants and potential clients. All opinions are our own and do not constitute formal advice; none of the content is intended to form a contract or promise of services outside of our Service Agreement. Please feel free to browse these articles and use as an informative resource for lettings and property management. We would be delighted to discuss your needs in more detail; for Lettings in Yeovil, Sherborne, Somerset and Dorset please contact us on 01935 388456

Finding Tenants

At Proudhouse Property Management we believe that tenants are our greatest assets. Without them, there would be no landlords, letting agents, rental properties or Buy-To-Let mortgages. Yet we are amazed at how poorly some tenants are treated within the industry. Our policy is to get our landlords the best tenants, in a home where the tenants want to be. A tenant who is not in the right home for them will end up leaving or possibly not respecting where they live. Similarly, a poorly sourced tenant who ultimately fails the landlords expectations also represents a failed letting process - if the landlord asked for no pets and this requirement has not been met then the happy love-triangle of agent-tenant-landlord is going to fall apart!

Vetting: We vet tenants - by this, we mean short-listing tenants to those who are suitable for the property and who meet the landlords reasonable requirements. We do not however, discriminate - we will not work for landlords who wish to select tenants based on sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, disabilities or age. However, tenants who smoke, have pets or have other activities which may have an adverse affect on the property can be deselected if the landlord wishes.

Referencing and Credit-Checking: We use specialist and comprehensive credit checking and referencing services to ensure that tenants are able to afford the rent; we also check the tenant has no history of arrears, disputes or poor tenancy with previous landlords or agents. Sometimes a great tenant may fail the initial round of checks - we'll continue to try and find a solution, eg; could a guarantor help the tenant with the rent? Can we find alternative references etc? Sometimes however, a tenant is simply not suitable in which case we'll politely but truthfully manage everyone's expectations and then continue the search.

ID: We take photocopies of tenants' passports and take reasonable steps to ensure applicants are who they say they are. There is a new requirement this year for landlords to comply with the Immigration Act and check tenant's rights to be in the country and taking up residence. We undertake these checks as part of our letting process.

Financial Considerations: Not all tenants can pass a credit check - but that does not necessarily mean they are bad tenants. We will always help a tenant if we can - perhaps rent can be paid upfront in a lump sum, or perhaps a guarantor is needed. We will help and provide guidance with this when we can.

Proudhouse Property Management strive to provide excellent service. We are an ARLA licensed firm and members of The Property Ombudsman Scheme. For a letting agent in Yeovil, Sherborne, Somerset or Dorset then please call us - we would be delighted to help you.

Emergency, urgent or just maintenance?

By Chris Chambers

According to recent research 250,000 tenants a year in the UK are withholding rent to pay for urgent repairs which their landlords have not acted on. Usually tenants have a right to do this - so landlords: act on those repairs quickly - it's in your interest.

However, many landlords will have experienced the tenant that requests a repair that is an "emergency" or instructs tradesman to act on tasks that were not emergencies or even very urgent at all! However, a balance needs to be struck - you don't want a tenant to be completely inactive and ignorant of major problems that are quickly going to worsen and be a danger to both the tenant and the property.

Give your tenants advice - if you are using an agent they should do this for you. Here are some extracts from our advice booklet which we give to our tenants:

Emergency repairs and callouts
Remember; what may seem like an emergency to you may not be seen as an emergency by your landlord. So think carefully about the situation, especially if the landlord is going to be expected to pay an emergency call out fee. To be treated as an emergency the fault must carry the risk of immediate injury to people or major damage to property. We consider the following to be emergency repairs:

• Escape of gas or fumes 
• Electrical fittings in contact with water 
• Live or bare electric wiring 
• Sewage overflowing into the home 
• Outside doors that need secured 
• Burst storage tanks, cylinders or pipes 
• Failure of all lights or all power 
• Failure of heating systems in severe weather and where no alternative is available 

Emergency repairs can be initiated by the tenant by contacting the relevant tradesman from the list of preferred tradesman detailed in the next chapter. You must inform Proudhouse Property Management (if we are your managing agent) or your landlord without delay and include details of the emergency/defect/malfunction, the name of the tradesman/emergency organisation that you contacted and any fees that have been incurred. Any other requirement for repairs should be raised with Proudhouse Property Management (if we are your managing agent) or with your landlord.

Maintenance
This is a much debated subject and can become emotional! It is best to clarify at an early stage who is responsible for what. As a general rule, for short leases (eg an AST) the landlord/freeholder will be responsible (ie pay for) for upkeep of the external parts of the property. He/she will also be responsible (ie pay for) for provision of equipment for heating and services. If he/she has provided any goods or appliances which were present at the commencement of the tenancy then he/she is responsible for ensuring that they remain in working order. However, a tenant should never expect a betterment on what was present at the start of the tenancy (unless the object concerned is a snag, hazard or danger) - so as an example, if the washing machine breaks down and is beyond repair then the landlord is obliged to replace it only with something of similar quality and functionality as the original - this could even be comparable second-hand item assuming it was safety checked.

Tenants are expected to take reasonable care of the property, irrespective of any expressed terms in the tenancy agreement.

...you must be vigilant to emergent defects that can cause damage over time - eg a slowly leaking pipe which is causing a damp patch on a ceiling: do not ignore this! Inform the landlord or agent and ensure that it gets rectified - otherwise you could be guilty of something known as “permissive waste” (ie allowing the property to fall into disrepair).

Chris Chambers is the owner of Proudhouse Property Managament - we are an ARLA licensed firm and members of the Property Ombudsman Scheme. We provide property management and lettings in Yeovil, Sherborne, Somerset and Dorset.

Who can you trust?

By Chris Chambers
30 Dec 2013

Would you entrust a cherished and valued item to someone that knows absolutely nothing about how to look after that item? Let's say it's a vintage car - you would want your chosen custodian to know when and where to take it for a service; how to top up the oil; make sure it is taxed and insured etc. You wouldn't dream of giving it to someone that didn't know or care about cars.

Well it seems to be a different story with houses. The boom in the rental market has led to a proliferation of property management and letting agents and in an unregulated industry this has meant an inevitable rise in the number of unscrupulous agents. And there are plenty of unwary landlords willingly handing over their properties to agents in exchange for low rates of commission and getting a poor service in return.

Landlord & Tenant law and the Housing Acts are complex subjects riddled with points of law waiting to trip up the uninitiated; the statutory requirements placed on a private landlord are not for the faint-hearted; houses need maintenance and an agent really needs to know about property in order to correctly diagnose problems and ensure he/she calls out the appropriate tradesman (eg; the boiler is leaking and the electrics have tripped off - is an electrician, plumber or gas engineer required??); tenants go into arrears and breach tenancy agreements; the list of pitfalls is long but a robust and knowledgeable agent will foresee and prevent many of these issues and will act quickly to safeguard a landlords interest.

So who can a landlord trust?

Firstly; look or ask for an agents fees - agency fees have come under the spotlight in recent months: lettings and property management have become known as the "Wild West" of the property industry due to countless examples of agents charging unfair fees, having hidden fees or not disclosing their fees up-front. Get this information; ask for their terms of business and make sure that you sign up to an agreement that, should you need to, you can get out of on reasonable terms.

Check if your chosen agent is a member of a redress scheme; the main one in the UK is The Property Ombudsman Scheme. Membership of this scheme shows that the agent is bound by a Code Of Practice and follows managerial and customer-focused standards and practices. Our firm Proudhouse Property Management is a member of this scheme.

Secondly, find an agent that is actually trained and qualified! The National Federation Of Property Professionals (NFOPP) oversee the education, examination and qualification for a range of services within the Property Industry - holders of their qualifications are then permitted to become members of various licensing/accreditation bodies. Membership of ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) means that your agent has gained a minimum of a Level 3 qualification and is qualified to practice within the industry. It also means they are a member of a redress scheme. Furthermore, ARLA licensed-firms have had their accounting practices verified by an accountant, have client money protection and will have the appropriate indemnity insurance cover in place. Proudhouse Property Management provide lettings and management in Yeovil, Somerset and are ARLA members.

There are other bodies out there - most notably NALS - they provide redress, assurance and require agents to have client money protection in place. However, a landlord shouldn't just assume an agent is trained or qualified simply because there are some fancy looking logos in the agents window. Do your homework and ensure that, whether it is your cherished former home or a buy-to-let investment, your property is placed in safe hands.

Chris Chambers is a member of ARLA and owns and runs Proudhouse Property Management who provide lettings and management in Yeovil, Sherborne, Somerset, Dorset and the South West. Proudhouse Property Management also conduct energy assessments and Green Deal advice.

Energy prices... up, up and away. Genuine tips for using less.

By Chris Chambers

So energy prices are going up again!! Do you think there is nothing you can do about it? The best and most satisfying thing you can do is to use less energy - here are our energy saving tips and we promise we won't advise putting on a jumper and turning your thermostat down!

1) Light bulbs - I've banged on about this one in several of my blogs - get rid of all your old incandescent light bulbs (the classic old shaped ones) including any GU10 / MR16 bulbs which are not LED or CFL. They are only about 90% efficient! That means for every pound you give an energy company for powering an incandescent bulb you're only getting 10 pence of useful energy in return!! LED maybe more expensive (and more so for dimmable ones) but you'll never have to replace them (when it comes to LED spots you want a bulb that is at least 250 lumens to be equivalent to a typical 40w GU10). CFL bulbs have got better - they don't take very long to warm up and they're no longer the horrible white harsh colour they used to be. Check out this calculator below for some revealing stats on inefficient light bulbs.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment/energy/great-energy-challenge/light-bulb-savings-calculator/

2) Draft excluding: if you have a 1mm gap all around an average sized external door then that is equal to a square that is getting on for about 7cm by 7cm - if you actually had a visible hole in your front door which was that that size then you'd soon cover it up!! Gaps around doors, letterboxes and windows are frequently bigger than 1mm so get some draft-proofing installed.

3) Loft insulation: the recommended depth for mineral wool insulation is 270mm. Check your loft - chances are you don't have enough! And don't compress it as this reduces its insulating properties. Boarding lofts and using them for storage is unfortunately not very energy efficient - can you create a simple raised section in your loft space to store items on with room for insulation underneath?
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Insulation/Roof-and-loft-insulation

4) Change your hob for an induction electric hob? This is an especially good option if you are in the process or thinking of upgrading your kitchen. Induction hobs are brilliant - very efficient, no wasted heat and very controllable. If you thought you'd never want an electric hob over a gas one then think again!

5) Boiler replacement: This is a bit pricey but the cost of replacement of a very old and inefficient boiler will be returned in energy savings over only a few years. Check your boiler's efficiency here: http://www.boilers.org.uk/

6) Get an energy assessment done - most people associate energy assessments with selling or letting houses but they provide very useful information and advice bespoke to a particular property.

If you're in Somerset or Dorset and whether you're a homeowner, landlord or tenant, Proudhouse Property Management can conduct an energy assessment for you and also advise on how to access the Government's "Green Deal" or ECO schemes.

Get rid of the Grid??

By Chris Chambers

All that power going to waste

Yesterday (24th Sep 2013) Ed Miliband announced that the Labour Party would freeze energy bills until 2017! Hmmm... I think the energy companies might have other ideas - it's a nice idea but there is a hell of a lot of infrastructure to maintain and that maintenance isn't free. Furthermore, and more importantly, the Energy Companies need money to invest in and develop energy generation for the future. So freezing energy bills is not good for the consumer... free insulation programmes, the Energy Company obligation, and investment in renewable technologies (things that are all good for the consumer) are funded by the energy companies. Freezing energy prices could have a really bad effect on energy consumption and generation.

So is what Ed saying practical in any way?

How about relying less on the infrastructure? 

Use less energy!! I cannot believe the number of homes that still have incandescent lamps in the majority of their lampholders (see my earlier post). I conduct energy assessments, Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR) and help landlords prepare properties for letting so I go into a lot of homes... where are the CFL and LED lamps? Often there are only 2 - the 2 free CFL bulbs that everyone received free in the post a few years ago and usually they are in the hallway and the landing...  the technology has improved and they do save you money so promoting this should be a priority.

But here is a really BIG, crazy, pie-in-the-sky idea:

The national grid is only about 33% efficient - that's to say that only a third of the energy released from burning fossil fuel actually gets put to useful work in homes, commercial and industrial properties. That is a shocking yet strangely accepted statistic - I'm not aware of any initiatives to change this - it is just an immutable fact.

I think the era of large scale power production should be brought to a close. For domestic properties especially, there is no reason why a network of community heat & power, micro-generation and renewables cannot provide "cells" of localised power generation. Surplus energy from domestic Solar panels on individuals houses should not feed an into an expensive large-scale national grid - what a waste of a wonderful resource! Energy derived from daylight, at point of use, being fed directly into a network which is only 33% efficient and fed largely by dirty carbon! Wouldn't it be better if it was fed into power for the local community? 

Large power output generators are needed for heavy commercial and industrial units that need the consistent high power output that a national grid provides - so the role of the traditional power station will probably have to remain. But domestic properties with their diurnal low power demand should be on a separate system. 

So, instead of freezing energy bills why not force the energy companies to invest in down-scaling the national grid and providing local and renewable power generation within domestic communities - generate power much closer to the point of use and cut down on huge transmission losses.

Just an idea... could this work? I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts and comments.

Chris Chambers is the owner of Proudhouse Property Management LLP: Providing Lettings & Management services, Green Deal advice and Energy Assessments to Homeowners, Landlords and Tenants in Yeovil, Sherborne, Dorset and Somerset. 

Regulation Of Letting Agents

Yesterday the Communities & Local Government Committee called for the regulation of letting agents. This move would empower the Office Of Fair Trading to ban agents that act unfairly or improperly. Proudhouse Property offer letting and management services to landlords in Yeovil, Sherborne, Dorset, Somerset and the South West. We have long been opposed to what can only be described as underhand and greedy charges made by some agents for all manner of reasons: setup fees with no tangible return for the landlord; eye-watering registration fees for tenants; fees for overseas landlords; renewal fees; administration fees; correspondence fees; finders fees; lock in fees if a landlord decides to dispense with an agent but retain the tenant; set thresholds below which agents have free reign to spend a landlords money without his/her prior approval... the list goes on - if you can think of it, some agent somewhere has charged for it! Sure, it can be argued that there is good reason to charge some of these fees but the basis for any contract is agreement... it is simply unfair to charge someone a fee which they are not aware of; sometimes the landlord only becomes aware of the fee when they check their bank account and see less money for a particular month than expected! It's a pretty disappointing experience - our ethos is not this.

Your property is your business - the rental fee is your income. We charge fair and reasonable fees that reflect the level of work that we put in. We are unique in having our own in-house domestic energy assessment and electrical services and provide that necessary certification, along with a Gas Safety Certificate, in return for our setup fee. We are a relatively new business and serve a niche market for members of the Armed Forces - we do not need to maintain or depend on archaic income streams that some of the more established agents have become dependent on. Our fees are available on request and also provided to potential landlords during our free initial consultation. We offer flexible services and a refreshing, honest and professional approach to landlords and tenants alike. We are working towards ARLA accreditation and landlords' money is held in our client accounting bank account with regular statements provided. Please contact us if you are need letting and management services from true property professionals in Yeovil, Sherborne, Somerset, Dorset and the South West.

10 Reasons To Use The Green Deal

By Chris Chambers

The Government's new Green Deal Scheme has launched this year - this scheme aims to improve the energy efficiency of homes via grants to homeowners and landlords to fund, or part-fund, the fitting of performance enhancing measures such as modern boilers, insulation or even solar panels. Response has been luke warm and critics are waiting to pounce on any opportunity to prove that the government scheme is a flop and a failure... what a shame - we think this scheme, employed correctly and with correct financial safeguards in place, has excellent potential to contribute to the EU directive of reducing CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. 

Here are 10 good reasons to use the scheme:
 
1) It will save money for the consumer: Ultimately, using less energy will cost the consumer less money. Who wouldn't want to save money?! Yes, you have to wait for the grant to be paid off... but during this period you'll be no worse off than if you hadn't taken the grant.

2) It could make you money! Feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic solar panels and for Micro-CHP systems pay homeowners for surplus electricity that is fed into the National grid.

3) It will more than likely improve the value of your home. Buyers of homes are becoming more savvy and more choosy about what they spend their money on. For example, most customers these days, given the choice, are not even going to consider a home without double-glazing or a modern >90% efficient boiler. 

4) It's great for landlords: By 2018, any home in the private rented sector needs to score in Band D or above on an energy performance certificate. The letting of a home in Band F or G will be banned! The Green Deal is the obvious way to improve a property's energy efficiency and since the energy savings are measured and recouped through the utility bill the tenant would be paying back the grant.

5) Job creation: Green Deal funded measures must be installed by approved Green Deal Installers - this has the potential to create more jobs in the building trade. Plumbers, electricians, roofers, construction, and gas engineers will all be required which could be a timely rejuvenation of these industries. 

6) It's good for the economy: Large scale uptake of new technologies and their associated installation requirements can only be good for the economy. There are hundreds of industries affected both in the UK and abroad - think of all the components in a boiler, or the inverters and electrical components in a PV system, the turbine technology of wind power generation... all those unseen parts need manufacturing and assembling and transporting. The scaling up of these industries, whether it's in the UK or Europe can only be a good thing.

7) Advances in technology: It is true that some of these energy efficiency measures are expensive. Photovoltaic panels for an average house cost between £7,000 to £10,000 and a micro-CHP boiler could be a similar price. Economies of scale and uptake of the technology will drive the costs down and progress advances in technology to further improve efficiency.

8) Building Standards: there is still a problem in the UK with rogue traders and unregistered tradesman. These tradesman are often not qualified nor trained in what they are doing and risk serious danger or death to themselves and their customers. Green Deal Installers will have to be registered, checked and inspected by a Government approved scheme such as NAPIT or APHC. 

9) Avoid Fines: Should the Government not reach its target of 80% reduction of CO2 by 2050 then it will incur serious fines by the EU. These fines will be funded by the UK Taxpayers money! That's bad for taxpayers, bad for the economy and bad for the Government that is in power at the time.

10) The Environment: There is now no doubt amongst the climatologist of the world that global warming is taking place and there is no doubt that human activity is a significant cause. In May 2013 the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 400parts per million; this is a depressing milestone and the highest concentration of CO2 for 3 million years. We need to act. That's what the Green Deal is really all about - an effort to do something.

You might think the Green Deal doesn't apply to newer homes. This Barn conversion is only 14 years old but would still benefit from increased loft insulation, draft proofing around all doors, improved double glazing and an upgrade of its oil fired boiler. Rural locations could also be suitable for wind turbines.

Any homeowner, landlord or person with a professional interest in the property industry, environment or economy should be backing the Green Deal all the way. Whether to use it or not is a no-brainer frankly. But to sit back, do nothing and gleefully wait for it to fail is lunacy. 

See this link for the Department Of Energy And Climate Change's page in the Green Deal:
https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-saving-measures/how-the-green-deal-works

Chris Chambers is the owner of Proudhouse Property and Wigglies - Electrical Services. Creating innovative and sustainable homes in Somerset and the South West of England.