5 Tips for Winter Property Maintenance from ARPM Property Management

Dave Hunt, Business Development Director of ARPM Property Management, one of the largest outsourced lettings providers in the UK looks to provide some tips for winter property maintenance and explains why more people choose to outsource their property management during the cold winter months!

Pipes                             

Freezing temperatures can cause devastation to properties if pipes freeze and burst.  Tenants and Landlord should be reminded to leave the heating on low, even if the  property is unoccupied to look to prevent this from happening.  

Drains & Gutters

It is worth all Agents having a discussion with their Landlords to recommend instructing a maintenance contractor to visit the property to check that the drains and guttering are not blocked.  Gutters, for instance, which become blocked can become extra heavy with frozen water which can lead to them breaking and falling.

Chimneys

Chimney fires can cause thousands of pounds of damage, loss of rent whilst a property is being repaired and of course death – is it therefore vital that a chimney is swept atleast once a year.  If a property contains a chimney, an Agent is best placed to ensure that they receive proof that a chimney has had an annual sweep to minimise this very serious risk.          

Water Systems

If it’s likely that a property will be empty for a significant period of time, turning off the water is not always sufficient as there is normally still a lot of water in the system which could cause damage.  Reminding your Landlord to instruct a plumber to drain down the system (water and central heating) will help to eliminate this risk.

Insurance Obligations

Again, if a property is likely to be empty for a prolonged period, make sure that the Insurers obligations are not compromised and advise your Landlord to instruct anindependent Inventory Provider to carry out Empty Property Visits on a regular basis to provide independent photographic proof that the property has been monitored.

The winter months are often one of the busiest times of year for new clients to opt to outsource their Property Management; in the main, the reasons for this is that the big freeze tends to remind Agents how time consuming and problematic property management really is.  The number of out-of-hours calls also tends to increase, which can put a great deal of pressure on to smaller lettings businesses, who don’t necessarily have the capacity for out-of-hours call handling and the ability to instruct emergency contractors.

ARPM Property Management manages thousands of properties on behalf of Lettings businesses throughout the UK.  Given this, it is essential that we have reliable consistent emergency maintenance procedures in place which cover all eventualities!   In addition to this, our Clients Landlords have the ability to purchase a Landlord Warranty Pack available to ARPM to help ease the financial burden of emergencies.  In brief, each emergency call out is covered up the value of £500 per repair, there are no call out charges, no excess to pay and no need to pay for parts.  Cover is available for heating and hot water, burst pipes, locks and glazing, storm damage and even pest infestation.  Tenants are furnished with a 24/7 365 emergency help-line and a local contractor will be at the property within 2 hours if it’s an emergency to carry out a repair.  ARPM really does help to simplify Property Management for everyone concerned”.

If you would like to find out how your business can benefit from partnering with ARPM Property Management this Winter, contact them today for a without obligation consultation.  Tel: 01923 775705 or email info@arpm.co.uk