Now, please allow me to state the obvious; some general wear and tear in a rental property is inevitable, and as the property owner and landlord, you will need to constantly invest in the upkeep of your property!

We liken this continual investment in your property assets to the daily exercise of brushing your teeth; if neglected they will tend to decay, which will cost you alot more in the long run, and ultimately have a tangible impact on the future value of the property.

Over time, you can expect a roof slate to come loose, fence panels to blow down or be damaged in the wind, gutters to get blocked and overflow, an oven seal to go, a cooker element to break down, a window pane to get misted over, an outside drain to become blocked, a sink pipe to come loose or a heating pipe to burst.

These types of regular repair and maintenance issues are solely the responsibility of the property owner and landlord to repair, but as the managing agent, it’s our job to liase between the tenant when they report these jobs, and the landlord.

Over time, decorative internal and external paintwork will inevitably chip, carpets may fray and kitchen and bathroom grouting will become mouldy. It’s how we, as a letting agent, deal with these ongoing property maintenance issues that affect the reputation of our business, and of course impact the level of service we can offer our tenant and landlord clients.

Now we speak from experience and can tell you that it’s not always easy to find trusted and reliable external tradesmen, who are available at short notice to carry out reactive property repairs and/or scheduled property maintenance. Time consuming research, finger-in-the-air quotes and shoddy workmanship are just three of the main problems we’ve come across over the years when dealing with external tradesmen, but by choosing Jacob’s Ladder as your rental partner, you can thankfully forget about hiring the wrong tradesmen, or wasting your valuable time trying to schedule any repair jobs yourself.

Our tried, trusted and experienced property team, led by Dave Collings (pictured with Simon) can assist our landlord clients organise any property related repair or maintenance issues. We have a clear service level agreement with any external sub-contractors, and we always insist they communicate immediately with our tenants, and use plain English when quoting on maintenance jobs. We also ask that they use digital photography to document any problems, take before and after images, which are always useful for our landlords, our office based property managers and our tenants, should any issues or disputes arise down the line.

Our property team make all the necessary arrangements on behalf of our landlord clients and see the job through to completion, hopefully taking much of the hassle out of any ongoing property repairs and maintenance for them.

The emphasis on property maintenance is only going to heighten after recent statistics suggested tenants are staying in their properties for a record 20 months.

We believe that if you’re trusted to manage a landlord’s property, you’re charged with protecting their investment, and ensuring that all bills are scrutinised and kept to a minimum, and ideally advised in advance, so that landlords can budget for such deductions from their monthly rental flow.

Jacob’s Ladder does not profit from this work, as many estate and letting agents do! We understand that our landlords rely on the monthly income and want to keep any deductions down to a minimum, and also be notified in advance as much as possible of any pending repair or maintenance costs.

We also make sure the property remains in a habitable state, which in our eyes has two main benefits;

a) it keeps the tenant happy and loyal

b) it protects and can improve the value of a property should the landlord ever wish to remortgage or sell the property in the future.

If you would like to find out how the Jacob’s Ladder property team could help you successfully manage and maintain your investment property, then please feel free to call our office today on 01706 828229 and book No Obligation, 1-2-1 consultation.