Costly property maintenance services

Estate agents often offer landlords property maintenance services.  But they may not provide the peace of mind and cost effectiveness that they promise.

Costly property management

One of our customers rents out his property in Shrewsbury. He has a lovely Victorian house in Cherry Orchard and needed to get some maintenance done in between tenancies over the summer. His estate agent offered him the use of their property management service as a ‘cost effective’ easy way of getting the work done quickly. Landlords are keen to keep voids to a minimum and he did not live in Shropshire and know local tradesmen so this sounded attractive.

The letting agent arranged two quotes for the landlord. However, despite the estate agent’s pitch, the quotes seemed high. In fact, having got his own quotes, he found that the price from the agent’s contractors was 20% higher than independent local tradesmen. As well as being expensive, the maintenance men were general handymen, not qualified carpenters. ‘I did a web search on them, and could find no address, no number, nothing’, he said. ‘I didn’t feel confident letting them loose on our period property’.

Built and fitted door

Cost effective carpentry

This landlord has just booked us for a third year to do carpentry work on his house. Having previously built an airing cupboard door and refurbished the kitchen, this year our carpenters have been asked to do some restoration work on his front door and window frames. We have a waiting list of work and cannot do urgent carpentry jobs like some property maintenance services in Shrewsbury. However, with a bit of planning, we can still be booked for property repairs and refurbishment to fit around your tenants.

With summer coming and with two months to issue Section 21 Tenancy Notices, now is the time to plan the letting of your property. Our carpenters are qualified and no VAT is charged on our labour. Our client let his property in Shrewsbury without unplanned voids after two weeks. He wrote, “Thanks Oliver. We are very pleased with the kitchen refurbishment. It has definitely added value to the property”.

Estate agents are paid to sell your house; but their property maintenance may be costly and the quality of work may detrimentally affect the value of your property and the rental potential.

For carpentry maintenance, refurbishment or repair work on your property, please contact us for a free quote. We are happy to pick up keys from your estate agents and visit your properties on your behalf.