What Maintenance Costs Should We Be Prepared For As Landlords?
We all know how great it is to have your property let, mortgage paid for and a regular income from your tenants.
Many of us however don't know exactly what they are obligated to do as landlords, how often to redecorate the house or even what maintenance work is your responsibility.
I am sure all of us went through times when we thought that tenants are asking for way more than they should and the reason for that is that if you are not fully aware of what you should and should not do as soon as tenants detect it they can use it against you.
Maintenance The maintenance parts that you always need to look after as landlord is plumbing, electrical, building/constructional or damp issues but don't let your tenants send a plumber out to bleed the radiators.
From my own experience what I have found very useful, is to provide your tenants with a handbook explaining how to check and correct the water pressure in a boiler, bleed the radiators (we even provided them with a tool for it), and explained how all appliances work and how to reset them if needs be.
Believe me a lot of tenants are very lazy and won't look through a full manual so we decided to give it to them all in black on white and save future trouble and wasting money on call out charges.
The main thing you need to make your tenants aware of, right from the start is that they are not paying rent for you to bleed the radiators but to have a roof over their head.
A lot of them have a very different impression of this so it is important to make it clear to them.
Do not waste your money but put some time at the beginning to avoid problems during the tenancy.
Decorating As a landlord you are obligated to repaint your house every 2 or 3 years due to wear and tear but that does not mean that you have to do it if the walls still seem fine and in are presentable order.
The same comes with the carpets or floors - do not change them unless there is a real need for it.
Depending on what type of property you have, you might want to keep it updated frequently if it is a modern house fitted with brand new furniture but if the house is in a generally good order and the fact that the same carpet has been down for 4 years does not show any contrast to the rest of the property there is no point in wasting money.
Be aware a lot of tenant will come up to you and say that they want a new carpet after 6 months of living in the property - do not let them have that unless there is a real reason for that.
At the end of the day they will not be paying a higher rest for you to do that and you can explain to them that when the carpet is worn then it will be replaced but you will not agree to this just because they do not like the colour of it any longer.
Saying that, if you have a family living in your property for over 2 or 3 years and they ask you to change the carpets due to not only it being old but with decoration issues also, then you need to think about it.
If you never had problems with them before and they are good tenants looking after your property you want to do everything to keep them there and avoid void periods so in this case agreeing to this might be a good idea - they might even be able to share the costs with you if they have something particular in mind.
Furniture Another point that people often raise is the furniture of a HMO house for example.
The main thing is to remember that we are investing so buying very expensive furniture would be a mistake however buying too cheap will bring you even worse results.
Imagine the sofa in your house which you share with 2 other members of the family - an average quality one will probably need to be replaced after 5 or 6 years depending on the age of your children.
If you put the same sofa in your investment house shared by 6 people then that same sofa will only last around 3 years because of how much more often it is going to be used so now it is up to you.
Is it better to buy a £200 sofa and replace it every 2 or 3 years or spend £300 and have it there for 5 or 6 years.
Remember your HMO tenant will never respect your furniture as much as you will.
The same comes with mattresses.
Why buy a £50 mattress to "save" money and having to replace it every year if you can spend £80 on a very good one (if you find a good deal) and that will last you for a very long time.
Think about all the time you might spend replacing all of those little things - is it worth it? The main point from this is that if you think an item will be used very often (desk, mattress, coffee table or a sofa) then be prepared to spend few extra pounds to avoid future problems, frequent item replacements and unnecessary stress.
Many of us however don't know exactly what they are obligated to do as landlords, how often to redecorate the house or even what maintenance work is your responsibility.
I am sure all of us went through times when we thought that tenants are asking for way more than they should and the reason for that is that if you are not fully aware of what you should and should not do as soon as tenants detect it they can use it against you.
Maintenance The maintenance parts that you always need to look after as landlord is plumbing, electrical, building/constructional or damp issues but don't let your tenants send a plumber out to bleed the radiators.
From my own experience what I have found very useful, is to provide your tenants with a handbook explaining how to check and correct the water pressure in a boiler, bleed the radiators (we even provided them with a tool for it), and explained how all appliances work and how to reset them if needs be.
Believe me a lot of tenants are very lazy and won't look through a full manual so we decided to give it to them all in black on white and save future trouble and wasting money on call out charges.
The main thing you need to make your tenants aware of, right from the start is that they are not paying rent for you to bleed the radiators but to have a roof over their head.
A lot of them have a very different impression of this so it is important to make it clear to them.
Do not waste your money but put some time at the beginning to avoid problems during the tenancy.
Decorating As a landlord you are obligated to repaint your house every 2 or 3 years due to wear and tear but that does not mean that you have to do it if the walls still seem fine and in are presentable order.
The same comes with the carpets or floors - do not change them unless there is a real need for it.
Depending on what type of property you have, you might want to keep it updated frequently if it is a modern house fitted with brand new furniture but if the house is in a generally good order and the fact that the same carpet has been down for 4 years does not show any contrast to the rest of the property there is no point in wasting money.
Be aware a lot of tenant will come up to you and say that they want a new carpet after 6 months of living in the property - do not let them have that unless there is a real reason for that.
At the end of the day they will not be paying a higher rest for you to do that and you can explain to them that when the carpet is worn then it will be replaced but you will not agree to this just because they do not like the colour of it any longer.
Saying that, if you have a family living in your property for over 2 or 3 years and they ask you to change the carpets due to not only it being old but with decoration issues also, then you need to think about it.
If you never had problems with them before and they are good tenants looking after your property you want to do everything to keep them there and avoid void periods so in this case agreeing to this might be a good idea - they might even be able to share the costs with you if they have something particular in mind.
Furniture Another point that people often raise is the furniture of a HMO house for example.
The main thing is to remember that we are investing so buying very expensive furniture would be a mistake however buying too cheap will bring you even worse results.
Imagine the sofa in your house which you share with 2 other members of the family - an average quality one will probably need to be replaced after 5 or 6 years depending on the age of your children.
If you put the same sofa in your investment house shared by 6 people then that same sofa will only last around 3 years because of how much more often it is going to be used so now it is up to you.
Is it better to buy a £200 sofa and replace it every 2 or 3 years or spend £300 and have it there for 5 or 6 years.
Remember your HMO tenant will never respect your furniture as much as you will.
The same comes with mattresses.
Why buy a £50 mattress to "save" money and having to replace it every year if you can spend £80 on a very good one (if you find a good deal) and that will last you for a very long time.
Think about all the time you might spend replacing all of those little things - is it worth it? The main point from this is that if you think an item will be used very often (desk, mattress, coffee table or a sofa) then be prepared to spend few extra pounds to avoid future problems, frequent item replacements and unnecessary stress.