By: Grant Findley
Managing Director
With freezing temperatures about to take hold around the UK as winter sets in, it would pay for landlords to be alert. If you are a landlord, now is the right time to implement a range of routine maintenance checks on the properties in your portfolio.
Unfortunately, almost half of private landlords neglect to inspect their properties in this way before winter weather arrives, according to a survey by online letting agent Upad. 4,000 landlords were surveyed here, as reported by property journalist Zoe Dare Hall in an article for The Telegraph.
However, landlords neglect their winter maintenance responsibilities at their peril. Minor problems left unattended could escalate, potentially leading to expensive repairs and tenants so dissatisfied that they ultimately choose to leave. Various procedures can help to avert such issues in advance.
Inspect gutters, drains, and roofs
Debris, such as leaves and mud, might have already accumulated in your gutters and drains during adverse autumn weather. However, by clearing the debris from those gutters and drains now, you can help reduce the chances of water damage to your property.
You should also pay close attention to your roof, or arrange for a roofing professional to check it for you.
At Findley, we can inspect a roof at no charge for any homeowner in the North East. If some shingles are loose or missing, the roof could easily leak, due to rain or melted snow.
Don't go off the boil - get the boiler checked
Naturally, many households strongly rely on the heat generated by their boilers during winter. Furthermore, as a landlord, you are legally required to have each of your properties checked by a Gas Safe Registered Engineer every year, notes Express writer Jess Sheldon.
Therefore, you have two strong incentives to book in each boiler for an annual service. It's also a good idea to put in place a service plan for your boilers, British Gas Home Serve, for instance, to ensure the tenant will have a crucial point of contact in case the heating still fails.
A little less condensation, a little more air-con, please
During winter, condensation can rear its ugly head in the form of water droplets on cold surfaces. Your tenants could particularly notice those tell-tale signs if they form on walls, so it's in your interest to prevent it happening - and one potential remedy is a breath of fresh air...
And yes, we do mean that literally. By enabling air to flow through the building, you can stop damp patches from forming on the walls of kitchens and bathrooms, where the air could otherwise become especially humid. Are extractor fans and ventilation procedures being used as appropriate?
Consider installing or updating insulation
Usually, as a landlord, you aren't responsible for paying to heat the property. Nonetheless, there are good reasons for you to check that residence's insulation - not least that, from 1 April 2018, landlords have been legally obliged to meet particular minimum energy efficiency standards.
At Findley Roofing & Building, we let our customers in the North East choose from the insulation products of TLX Gold and TLX Silver. Either can deliver impressive increases in a building's energy efficiency and so provide big savings in heating bills for the tenant.
Is the property covered by up-to-date home insurance?
It's worth finding out - as, no matter how diligently you attempt to winter-proof the property, it would be risky to entirely rule out the possibility of winter weather still inflicting damage to the building. Unfortunately, the current insurance policy might not extend to winter-related damages.
Another potential pitfall concerns flat roofs. Many insurers don't cover damage to them - but rest assured that, if any North East properties under your wing have a flat roof that does pick up damage, we can freely inspect it before you opt for any repairs from Findley Roofing & Building in the North East.
Prevent unnecessary alarm by checking the alarms
If any of your properties rely on a solid fuel burning appliance - like a working fireplace - that is likely to be used as the weather chills, you should have a carbon monoxide alarm fitted in the same room. This is a legal requirement for landlords in the private rented sector.
Also, there must be a working smoke alarm on each habitable floor of a rental property. All of the property's alarms - including, for the tenant's further comfort, the burglar alarm - should be tested.
Look around the garden for potential hazards
When your tenant sealed the deal on the property, they weren't just taking the main residential building - they were taking any garden that came with the deal as well. However, that's far from the only reason to go through that garden with a fine-toothed comb, so to say.
Winter weather can wreak havoc, not only in the garden but also, as a result, on the main building. For example, high winds could send garden furniture and wheeled bins flying, so secure them.
In an article for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), Sally Walmsley, Communications Manager for the RLA, has advised: "Inspect fencing, too, as it is much cheaper to replace a single panel now rather than an entire fence later in the season."
Check again with the tenant just before Christmas Day
Of course, it would be especially inopportune for an issue to arise on Christmas Day itself. However, you can slash the chances of that happening if you pay a visit to the tenant in the days before then.
During your visit, you should verify that everything in the property works as it should and that the tenant also has spare keys. You might have already informed the tenant of the relevant procedure for dealing with emergencies, but you ought to confirm this procedure with them again.
After all, it could prove invaluable for that information to be fresh in their memory, should they indeed stumble across an urgent issue on Christmas Day, and you need to call for outside help.
The Property Voice - Insight from Richard Brown
I have a couple of stories to share that reinforce the points made here.
First, I have a maisonette, which has the older style concrete guttering in place. I started to notice some dark staining on the outside of the building below the guttering. After having the guttering inspected by a roofing specialist, using a VERY long ladder three storeys up, it was clear that leaves and moss had accumulated and caused a bottleneck before the drainpipes. Not only this, but the dark patch was, in fact, penetrating damp, which transferred to the inside of the property, causing damage to the interior as well. As a result, besides clearing the guttering and laying a protective membrane to prevent further leakage, I also had to repair the interior plaster and redecorate as a result. I now make sure that the gutters are checked and cleared from debris every year following quite a hefty repair bill.
The second story could come from a number of similar stories, but here is just one that tells a common tale. Often a tenant will complain of a property being 'damp' and ask the landlord to fix the problem. Of course, damp is a genuine problem and one that can not only cause costs and damage to property but also one that can lose tenants and also prevent the issuing of S21 notices in some cases, if the problem is not addressed. This can cause a range of consequences as you can imagine.
However, in a surprisingly large number of cases, apparent damp is not always actual damp. In many cases, it is simply condensation caused by poor heating, ventilation and tenant lifestyle issues, such as hanging wet washing inside to dry. In one instance, I was quoted £2,000 by a damp company working for my [former] letting agent to install an expensive ventilation system and replace an entire wall with new plaster, when another damp specialist mentioned that simply by opening some windows, avoiding hanging wet washing and using a £100 dehumidifier, that the problem would be fixed, clearly at a fraction of the cost.
My main takeaways from these two stores are indeed to have the property inspected regularly, addressing any obvious repair and maintenance issues and also to engage with the tenant to 'educate' them around the causes of condensation due to their use of the property, thus avoiding apparent 'damp problems' arising in the future. For more context around how to go about undertaking works and engaging contractors, make sure you check out this podcast episode here.
So, plenty of good tips in here and timely around this time of year as the winter weather bites.