One Quality Service for all Landlords
Based on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, Collier Property Management offers a full set of services for residential landlords and potential landlords in the Tees Valley area. We take the worries away from the landlord, dealing with any unforeseen problems e.g. lost keys, callouts, Council Tax, utilities, and many other problems.
Getting started
The temptation to enter the buy to let market is high in these days of low interest rates for both borrowings and savings, but it is not as simple as it may sound. There is a significant amount of legislation that affects would be landlords.
The Gas Safety Regulations require that all gas installations in a property are inspected annually by an engineer who is on the Gas Safety Register. Likewise electrical regulations mean that all electrical installations must be safe and there are Furnishing Regulations that apply to all furniture in a furnished rented property. These are just the tip of the iceberg!
In addition there is legislation covering bonds, security of tenure for tenants, services such as heating and hot water (section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) and the recovery of your property through the courts if things go wrong, such as non-payment of rent or breaches of the tenancy agreement. We have had experience of most situations (though there is always something new comes up from time to time…) and can help you avoid the pitfalls.
If you have recently purchased a property with the intention of letting it out, but it needs refurbishment first, again we can help. We have an experienced team of contractors we can call upon to get the property into shape. David Collier will supervise this; however we do have to charge for this service. Likewise we can help with refurbishment of ‘tired’ existing rented properties.
Tenancies
We have standard forms of Six Month Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreements for various situations, which have been prepared by our solicitors, alternatively, as members, we can use the National Landlords Association standard form. If you have a specific agreement you wish to use, providing it ticks all the legal boxes this can be used. We credit check and reference all prospective new tenants before any agreement is signed. All viewings are accompanied.
Money
As you would expect all client money received by us is kept in a client bank account and thus separate from our own money (not all property management companies do this so it’s worth checking). The account is a designated client account with HSBC.
Rent is ideally collected by Standing Order, but we also receive rent payments at our office and we have the facility to take card payments over the telephone, which has proved very popular. If necessary we will call to collect rents if there is a problem. Rents collected on your behalf are paid to you regularly twice a month.
Bonds are an area where legislation applies. Taken at the start of a tenancy they are sent by us to the Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS), where they are held until such time that the tenancy comes to a satisfactory end.
Insurance
This is your responsibility and we require evidence of it from you. If required we can help arrange insurance via out insurance broker contacts. We will assist you if claims are made, We can make and manage your claims on your behalf in certain circumstances (an additional charge is payable for these services).