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Property inspections are your opportunity, as the Tenant, to discuss any issues and your experience of living in the property you are renting.
As well as giving Tenants a platform to talk about their home, part of the service we provide to both our Landlords and Tenants is to visit the properties we manage, from time to time, because it is helpful to keep our Landlords informed about their property during the tenancy term.
We’re only too aware that you may have some questions about the property inspection process, so to help we’ve answered your most frequently asked questions.
A property inspection will typically take about 10 minutes, dependent on the property size – it’s not a detailed inventory check. Ideally, we would like to have full access to all rooms, garage and outbuildings, because our expert Property Managers are fully trained to look out for maintenance issues you may not have spotted.
The inspection covers any repairs necessary, the existence of smoke detectors and the general overall condition of the property. We feel that as an agent there are two main reasons for us to carry out inspections:
A member of our qualified Property Management team will carry out the inspection. We often find that our experienced Property Management team can identify repairs that otherwise may not have been noticed and that this can be both helpful to the Tenant and Landlord.
If you would prefer to be present and you require a timed appointment please contact your Property Manager, giving 24 hours’ notice. Every endeavour will be made to arrange a mutually convenient appointment.
Please be aware that our Property Managers only visit a property during daylight hours during the working week. We regret that appointments cannot be made outside standard office hours.
Every endeavour will always be made to be on time for any pre-arranged appointment, but we would ask for your understanding as on occasions traffic or other problems may cause unforeseen delays.
We cannot enter a property where there is a dog unless the owner is present, so please let us know in advance if there are any animals residing with you.
Our Landlords do appreciate photographs of their property as it shows exactly how it is presenting at any given time. Photographs often help in providing supporting information on maintenance issues or even just to show how well the garden is looking in the summer months. We will endeavour to include internal and external photographs of the property within the report.
Should you have any particular concerns with respect to this process, please contact us to discuss.
Once the tenant property inspection has been carried out a report will be prepared and sent to the Landlord.
The Landlord will always take the content of the report seriously and will give thought to its contents, but we cannot confirm what instructions will be given by the Landlord. We will always do our best to recommend that your Landlord attends to the issues we have reported.
We have carried out research with our Landlords and settled on 6 monthly inspections. Some firms carry out 3 monthly inspections, but we feel this is excessive.
Where possible please remember that maintenance issues and damages should be reported immediately as they occur, as stated in your Tenancy Terms and Conditions. If you are not going to be present during the visit, but wish to raise issues relating to the property these can be brought to our attention in an email in advance of the visit, or by leaving a prominently displayed note for our attention.
If you have made a pre-arranged appointment which you are unable to meet, please let your Property Manager know in order that they can use the management set of keys or re-arrange their diary to suit. An aborted appointment charge may be made if our Property Manager attends for a pre-arranged appointment which has not been cancelled and where access cannot be gained.
We would draw your attention to your Tenancy Agreement which also states that you have a duty to use the premises in a ‘tenant-like manner’. In other words, to take proper and reasonable care of the property and not to allow it to fall into disrepair or to wilfully or negligently cause damage.
Damage through negligence on the part of the Tenant is not covered by wear and tear and the cost of repair, replacement or reinstatement of any damaged items will be recovered from you if due care is not taken.
