Letting Property Inspections – Why are they so important?

Letting property inspections are probably one of the most important tools you have a landlord, they can make or break a tenancy. Property inspections help to prevent any surprises-both good and bad.

How often should landlords complete property inspections?

One of the most common questions we receive is, how often should landlords be completing property inspections?

To an extent it depends, how long is the tenancy? How long have the tenants been in? and so on. However, as letting agents we try to carry out inspections every 3-4 months in ‘’normal times’’.

How can you do property inspections during COVID?

As you might expect, COVID has impacted us so we have had to work around tenants, their situations and the government guidance, due to this some of our rental properties have gone a little longer than we would like. However, the software we normally use to property inspections also has the option to be used remotely, which has allowed us to complete remote inspections where needed rather than missing the inspection altogether.

I can hear you now saying – well how does that work? Won’t tenants just hide any bad bits and only show the good bits? But I can assure you the software we use is very clever and does ensure that tenants have to show us everything they would normally on a physical inspection. Obviously, we would still rather do a full physical property inspection but this has allowed us to check in while respecting the situations of the tenants.

No news is good news, right?

You don’t hear from your tenants so everything must be fine, why bother them. My answer why not! Silence is not golden!

Just because your tenants haven’t called you and just because the rent rolls in every month on time doesn’t always mean everything is perfectly fine. In my opinion, it is always better to double-check just to ensure there are no unexpected surprises later on.

If you don’t go to the property if you don’t take a look around then how do you know that everything is fine? Your tenants may not want to bother you with something small, especially if it is something that they don’t think will lead to a problem. But it is often small issues that lead to much bigger problems long term. Take that little leak, for example, it might only be a tiny intermittent issue to the tenant, not worth bothering you, but if they ignore it, that tiny problem may turn into a major repair and some considerable re-decorating.

Avoiding surprises

I have written on damp and condensation, previously, there is a big section in this blog. In the summer when all the windows are open you are very unlikely to have a  problem with dampness or condensation or mould. But come the winter when clothes are drying on every radiator it is a different story. Often by catching these possible issues early you can save yourself a lot of time and money as well as maintaining a good relationship with your tenants.

What about changes in your tenant’s situation which they don’t let you know about. Maybe they have fallen in love and a new partner moves in? You know nothing about this new resident, you should have done plenty of checks when taking on the original tenant so why would you want to properly check out this new resident?! They could be anyone one, axe murderers, drug dealers, inland revenue inspectors – the likelihood is they will be just as good as your original tenant but why take the risk?

Maybe your tenant has decided to acquire a pet, the tenant probably thought you wouldn’t mind as they are very clean and don’t smell – the pet, not the tenant, although I would hope the tenant doesn’t smell either. In all likelihood with a conversation and some understanding, you might be fine with the new arrangement or new pet, but if you turn up for an inspection unaware of the new situation then you might get a shock. Which is likely to lead to a breakdown in communication and trust between you and the tenant.

Don’t assume that if the tenants don’t contact you that everything is perfect.

What to look for during property inspections

So, what do we look for when we do inspections? We look for changes.

We look for any changes which could indicate that either something isn’t working right or that there is a potential issue on the horizon. How is the décor looking? This includes both, planning for maintenance work and considering how well the tenant is looking after the property itself.

We look for any signs of condensation or watermarks. These could indicate either a leak or issues with ventilation. By picking up on this early we can proactively find a solution before the problem escalates.

We also look for any potential hazards, are the sockets being overloaded, is there any maintenance required on the outside space such as loose slabs or a damaged step? We are looking firstly at how the tenant is looking after the property and if we need to give guidance or indeed a warning. But we are also looking at if there is work that needs doing which is maintenance work for the landlord such as exterior paintwork.

By doing regular inspections we can monitor those changes, it is much easier and cheaper to carry out a small maintenance issue than have to look at a major repair.

The benefit of using a letting agent to complete the inspection is three-fold. Firstly, it saves you time as we can work around tenants’ schedules to be flexible whereas you may not have this luxury. Secondly, if offer landlords some distance from the situation which both encourages the tenants to be respectful and reduces the chance of the relationship becoming sour. Finally, with years of experience behind us, we can spot small changes much quicker than the average landlord and can therefore react to changes faster reducing the time and cost implications of any work. To find out more about our property inspection service click here.