Rethinking Property Inspections: Maintenance, Trust and Communication - Ep. 27

Rethinking Property Inspections: Maintenance, Trust and Communication - Ep. 27. 

Welcome back to The All Things Property Podcast. In today's episode, Simon Bacon and Ian Sader dive into one of the most misunderstood aspects of property management: inspections. 

Far from being a landlord's excuse to check up on tenants, regular inspections, handled with respect and open communication, are actually the key to preventing bigger problems down the line and maintaining strong landlord-tenant relationships. 

We'll break down best practices for timing and frequency, explore what landlords should really be looking for, and share how something as simple as a photograph can make a world of difference in getting maintenance issues sorted. 

Whether you're a landlord, agent or tenant, today's episode will help you see inspections as an opportunity for partnership, not intrusion.

Chapters

00:00 Discussing property inspections

03:56 First property inspection frequency

06:41 Using photos in inspection reports

10:49 Conducting a property inspection

13:08 Tenant access challenges

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So today what we thought we would do is look at something that we perhaps discussed slightly in the in the last episode where we talked about smoking pets. We're going to be talking about inspections. Now hopefully we'll cover how often what landlords can check, but inspections often get seen as landlords checking up on tenants. But done properly, they're actually one of the best ways to prevent problems. Welcome to the All Things Property Podcast with me, Simon Bacon of Preference Properties. Every week, Ian Sadler and I will delve into All Things Property. We'll guide you through with friendly, no nonsense advice. Welcome to the All Things Property Podcast with me, Simon Bacon. And me, Ian Sadler. So Ian, what what what's your purpose of of doing an inspection?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Well I try and keep it efficient but as low-key and casual as possible. I will message tenants to say No, I'll ask you the question: what's the purpose of the inspection? To make sure the property is not being abused and to maintain a relationship with the tenant. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Let's take the first bit then. Okay. I I wouldn't necessarily say abuse, but that's a bit strong, a bit harsh for someone who's so thoughtful as you. So in terms of uh an inspection, it's not just checking up. It's not checking up on the tenant, is it?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Okay, no, it's not okay. I'll take I'll retract that abuse comment. Okay. Um really a case of spotting any issues, I guess. Any potential growing dodgy areas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

And do you find that tenants see it as an intrusion or no, no?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

It's well I hate to bang on about communication, but you send a message to a tenant saying uh time for catch-up, a visit, expect etc. And very often you get back, why are you doing this? Is the landlord selling the property? Um, and you get a hackles-raised reaction. So diffusing that at the start is is important, and making it uh say it is um to look around the property and make sure everything's okay, but also to maintain the relationship with you and see how you're doing, how you're getting on in the area with the property and so on. So you can diffuse aggression or confrontation by by doing that.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I mean one of the things I I think I probably maybe in the last episode I mentioned it where I I do say to people when I'm showing them round that you know we do come and do inspections. So allowing us to come and do that again, tenancy agreement, it clearly sets out that we will come and do that the landlord or us will come and do property inspections on a regular basis. But it is, you know, there there is this thought I think by um people sometimes that inspections are an intrusion uh into you know their living in a property, but it's not about that, is it? It's about just making sure that the property is being looked after and that maintenance issues are being promptly reported. Yeah? Mm-hmm. How often would you say is uh reasonable to be doing an inspection?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

I've I've always felt that four times a year is too many, so I would now do them once every four months.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I think it can be perceived to be a bit in their faces to be there four times in a year. Maybe in this for the initial six months. I was gonna say, do you do you do you not tailor it? Yeah, you yeah, well I'm surprised you do because you're normally so rigid, but you could do because you could tailor it for the first six months, maybe after three months and six months, but after that, when you've got a feel for the situation, four months, I've had them where I've left them six months because I know that and I think that's I don't disagree with you.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I think that wow, for me, it's very much to start with the first the first inspection is probably one of the most important ones. It's the first time you get to see how the property is being looked after. So, you know, every every three months perhaps to start with, the first two or three, and then move to four months or maybe move to six months. And if a tenant's been in there for you know a number of years, then you know a six-month inspection is is more than adequate, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

I I've heard of managing agents that do inspections and take photographs of the property throughout the inspection. You do, we do, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

And then you know it's it's amazing. So the photos we used to find when we sent, see, this is this will be the difference. Let me ask you this question before I answer it. When you send your your written inspections, because I know what yours will be, yours will be a very general written inspection you send off to landlord, yeah, had a look, all nice, thank you very much. If you notice some maintenance issues, but they're not, you know, major issues or they're things to keep aware of, how often would your landlord contact you and say, Yeah, and I noticed on my report that uh there was a crack in the, I don't know, in the bedroom wall. Nothing major, nothing that you know, you hadn't thought, yeah, I really need to deal with that, but it's just a an observation. How many times would landlords actually come back to you and go, yeah, can you can you look into that for me? Look into the crack. No, look into the issue of property.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Um really? I mean immensely trusted by my landlords.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, but that implies I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Which again I wouldn't dream of, I'm sure you're far more rigorous with your administration.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

No, no, but it's not about see again, is it about trust? What's the point of doing an inspection if if you don't get any comment back from a landlord? What's the point? How many of your landlords actually look at them? I'm I'm asking a question.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

In your opinion, how many landlords look at your inspections? You you it's like apples and pears, isn't it, with your business and my business? It's completely different. I almost have, rightly or wrongly in your view, autonomy on the management of those that portfolio. So it wouldn't be.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

What could they expect from an inspection? So A, the place is okay, B, this is a maintenance issue, two kings. And what we used to find was that we would send out our inspection reports and some landlords would come back to us. We then started taking photographs of the properties of issues relating to repair. So for example, you know, scale or an issue with a tap or a crack on a wall, a photograph speaks a thousand words. And actually, if a landlord gets a photo that shows, you know, an outside patio that's perhaps dipped slightly, they're more likely to come back to us and say, Can you have a look at that for me? Can you get someone out to look at that than a written you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah, no, I think maybe you you misinformed me when you told me how you did it. I had visions of you taking photographs of the oven in the hub and freezer. No, no. Okay, now I can't.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

We will take we will take pictures of the gardens and we'll take a picture of each room. And if there is a specific maintenance issue, such as I don't know, a bit of you know, a damp patch on a wall or a stain on a wall or um you know some mould spots around a window, a photograph is is a to covers two things. One, it's a good documentation, a good record, and B, it really does show a landlord the condition of the of the property.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

I'm so glad that I've actually got something from this episode because I'm going to probably start using that photograph thing. And using the patio analogy, it paves the way for the landlord.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

You're in form, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

I am. It paves the way. The landlord has been about, he may forget, but you can point out, well, I did point this out six months ago, it's got to the stage now where I think something really needs to be done about it. It it smooths the way communication happens.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

The way I the way I always say to tenants is you know, it's a way of trying to make sure that if there are issues that landlords can see the issue, can understand it, and they are more likely to address it. And often it's been a complaint of tenants that oh, the landlord's not interested, the landlord hasn't done anything. I reported it last time you were here. Landlord hasn't done anything about it. The photographs has really helped that. Thanks for that. The communicate, you know, you say about communication, we bang on about communication. If you explain to tenants that actually, yes, we'll come and do, you know, we'll take photographs. It's not about have you done your washing up, have you made your bed, have you done this, have you done that. It's about a landlord going, yep, property being being looked after. It it it almost develops and and furthers that landlord's trust in you know the way that they're the the tenants are managing their property. And it's you know, it I I don't know who said it, but you know, a picture paints a thousand words. You said it earlier. Yeah, I won't can't be attributable to that though. However, it's true, you show a landlord six photos of their property, it means much more to them than it does just uh, you know, a a couple of lines.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Okay, so that's good, and I will adopt that. Thank you very much for that. Okay. So you see the hub's a mess or the oven's a mess, or the kitchen floor's filthy, you point that out to the tenants at the time?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Um okay, I think this is where your gut feeling comes in, in terms of you know, is it is it at the point where someone needs to come in and and give it a good clean, or is it just normal, you know, they've rushed out the door to work because of of something and you know they haven't done their washing up, or they cooked last night and they haven't cleaned up after them. That's that's the subjective part, and I I don't see inspections as being that because you know you can get a property cleaned at the end of a tenancy. That's my point. Um, you know, you're not judging how a tenant lives. What you want to do is is the property overcrowded, is there evidence of smoking pets again? Um you know, is there excrement in the garden? Is there, you know, are there repairs that you've noticed? Is there mould appearing? You need to talk and find out about condensation, that sort of stuff. That's the purpose of it, not you know, oh they haven't made their bed today, so that's really, you know, that they're not a good tenant. Nothing to do with that. You know, if they haven't done their washing or they've they've got a pile of washing on the floor because they're about to put it in the washing machine when they get back.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I think you're digressing here, am I? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yeah, I don't know what road you're going down, but talking about property inspections, what they're for, what we look for, and trying to reassure tenants that you know it's not a judgment on how they live, it's about identifying issues with the property that we can say to a landlord, this probably needs doing. Or from a landlord's perspective, I d I don't know, external redecoration is a good one. Um, you know, being able to say to the landlord, look, probably in a year's time, you can see the paint peeling on the on the wooden windows. In a year's time or 18 months, you might want to think about putting aside some money for some external redecoration. That's the whole purpose of of an inspection. And I think, you know, one of the real key takeaways is is making sure that you do respect the ten tenant's privacy so they do feel that it's a partnership rather than you know, rather than an imposition. What do you do if a tenant refuses access? Um do you ever have tenants who go, No, no, you're not coming in? Have you ever turned up at one and the tenant's gone, I didn't get the letter, so you can't come in.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Uh no.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

No, okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

I I I don't send letters, I send uh WhatsApp messages or emails. Okay. So it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Yeah, we do we do emails. But you know, there are occasions sometimes when we've turned up at property, and the tenant said, No, I'm sorry you can't come in, it's not it's not convenient. What can you do? You can't go in. No, you can't go in. But does that would that raise any alarm bells? Oh yes. Yeah, absolutely. And so all you can do is is you know, you can't go in, but you you know, we just say to the tenant, okay, well, we do need to come back and do it. Can you please contact the office and make an arrangement within the next? But we do very clearly well, what we do say to when we write out is we do so many that you know it's impossible to start rearranging every single one. And the tenancy agreement does state that we can access property using our keys if they're not going to be there. That's all very well having clauses, but if you don't adhere to them you you won't be able to get in. No, no, and you can't go in. But I've got to be honest and say, since we've since we explained to tenants what we're doing and why we're doing it, we have very, very few who um even rearrange them. You've softened right up, haven't you? Your approach to relationships, communication. Yeah, well, I don't know if I have or haven't. I think it's you know, the longer you you're in the business, the more you do really recognize that communication between all parties is is what makes the job so much easier. Communication prevents confrontation. Excellent. Very good. Yeah. So, in my more formal language, done well, they improve relationships.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

So just to round up this particular episode, I think, um, you know, what I would be saying is regular, respectful inspections protect both property and the relationship, and they are about maintenance, not intrusion. Thank you for that, Ian. You're more than welcome. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the All Things Property Podcast. If you found this episode useful, don't forget to subscribe, like, and share. These things really help us reach the people who need to hear this advice. See you next week.