UK Landlord Forum / Life

We're currently expanding our modest number of properties ( one to about five) and auditioning letting agents. One of the things putting us off doing it ourselves is our lack of known contacts in trades and chippies. Anyone got experience of using property maintenance companies? Any recommendations in west Yorkshire? Any drawbacks?

I used a letting agent for a few years who arranged the maintenance / repairs and so I didnt have to get involved at all apart from giving the ok and then paying the bills through deductions made from the rental collected on my behalf................that suited me at the time as i was working full time and had no time to get involved and sort out things myself.
Now after having used a number of different tradesmen and encountered more than a few rip off merchants and idiots and unreliable tradesmen, I found a local Handyman whos been in business for years and is a) bloody cheap and b) bloody reliable which is worth loads.
ive now built up a relationship with him and he looks after anything that needs doing.....I also have him do jobs on my own house. He'll also do jobs that the tradesmen just dont want to know for eg removing a bath and putting a supporting structure in place then repairing replacing tiled area and sealing........to cure a persistant leak around the over bath shower.

That's pretty much my problem. That legendary diamond handyman is the dream, in the mean time I may have to make do with a property maintenance company or pay exorbitant agency fees.

How about putting the effort into auditioning the Handymen, rather than the Letting Agents?

A problem arises, you engage one, you take the time to meet this person and assess... if the work is done - well and reasonably - to your satisfaction, build up the relationship. I'm not sure 5 properties would keep someone that busy... unless you're thinking of buying completely run-down stuff... I look after exactly this number and jobs in 2014 have included... re-fitting a washing machine, relocating some pipes, re-attaching the door (integrated), sanding down a front door so it doesn't stick as much, and tidying up some lead flashing on the garage roof... the other things that I've required have needed the right professional involved... so I had to start my search for a central heating company and an Electrician.

I use Agents for Tenant Find only... I would never contemplate using them for maintenance... all they will do is engage their chums who'll give them kickbacks and inflate the invoices... don't pretend they won't... this is not a completely unregulated industry full of complete cowboys, liars, cheats, bullies and bilkers for nothing.

Do you not think that once you have more properties to look after - and one would expect more jobs to be done - that you will quickly build-up the contacts? I mean, everyone starts somewhere... surely it's not the fear of starting that's holding you back... as you have already started this journey. As long as your Tenants can see that you, as Landlord, are acting reasonably to fix their problems, they should not be able to kick-off or complain too much... it's those Landlords that put their head in the sand, flatly refuse to fix things or engage the incorrect people for the wrong jobs that Tenants get hacked-off with (reasonably so).

I had a complete boiler replacement done in under a week earlier this year and I vetted 4 companies. That's more than I've ever done for myself. I had 4 fellas come around and do a survey before giving me a proper itemised quote and I went with the one I felt offered the best overall deal. This was... boiler failed on Friday (emergency plumber out in 50 minutes), that company and 3 others came to view the job over the weekend (1 on Monday), I decided on Monday evening and it was fitted on Thursday. Tenants really upset at first... but really pleased in the end... better boiler, quieter and more efficient, 7 year warranty, professionally done, everyone acting with the right level of urgency.

I would challenge yourself to not let this stuff put you off.

Cracking reply as ever Hippo. Guess the sudden increase increase in the amount of properties is boggling. But I suppose once the initial set up is done its over and unless things go spectacularly wrong it will be fixing problems as and when. The thought of balancing full time work is also concerning but manageable. Really motivating thoughts Hippo.