By Steve Roulstone

There is no doubt in my mind what so ever, that the Property visit for Landlords in a fully managed scenario, is one of the most important functions carried out by the agent on behalf of the Landlord. It works so well on so many levels that when I cannot understand why any professional agent should not carry them out.

Landlord benifits.

When you receive a report that the property is or even is not, being looked after by the existing Tenant, means that as a Landlord, you know that the agent is on the job and that you are receiving a return for the monthly fees being charged. A report on the current Tenancy, which should in my opinion (and practise and I am not alone!) be carried out every three months especially with a new Tenant can put your mind at rest about the property, or give an early warning about what may need to be done in the future. Whichever way this plays out, this becomes a strategy and the best way to manage any situation is to plan in advance and that is exactly what happens when holding regular property visits.

Tenant benifits.

Now what is not recognised so readily, but is an issue that I have seen firsthand, is that the same visit also gives the Tenant belief that the owner of the property cares about its condition (this to me is why so many Tenants talk about their agent as their Landlord by mistake, because the face of the Landlord IS the Agent and they know somebody cares!) and it is very important for the person paying the rent to know that they are not alone in being responsible, financially or otherwise, for the home they live in and pay to live in!

No losers!

So everybody wins when visits take place, but make sure it is organised well and legally, badly dealt with this could cause more problems than NOT visiting, but I continue to experience first hand that it can be difficult to get Landlords to carry out direct visits themselves especially under self Management, but what they do not realise is the harm it does to the perception of them as Landlords by the Tenants! I have stated before and firmly believe that if Tenant requests continue to be ignored by Landlords those very same Tenants who want action because they care, will stop doing so and that can only be bad news for the property itself.

Difference between Inspection and Visit?

Technically none, but it is worth pointing out that to the true definition of the word, it is Property Visits we carry out and not Inspections. Many years ago an Agent was successfully sued for failing to report on the failing condition of a property as part of the ‘Inspection’ which resulted in heavy cost for a Landlord which could have been avoided should the problem have been spotted at an earlier date. This then opened a can of worms for Agents and a better defined ‘role’ and ‘description’ was utilised, that I feel is better described as a ‘Visit’ to carry out a ‘Check’ on the manner in which the Tenancy is being carried out. This removes the risk on us not noticing that the chimney stack is cracking and the cost of replacement for not reporting at a time that remedial action could have been carried out!

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