NOTICE TO LANDLORDS – WHAT TO DO BEFORE LETTING YOUR PROPERTY OUT.
If you are a landlord or a Landlady, you will know that maintenance of your property cannot be left to the judgment of the tenants. That said, there plenty of good tenants out there, who care about the maintenance of their rented property and will do all that they can to keep the building in a good condition until the end of their tenancy agreement.
The issue most Landlord/landlady will face is that a good maintenance habit often includes cleaning up after the individual and when it comes to cleaning this is an area that can be misinterpreted.
To give you some clarity, below are a few measures you can put in place as a Landlord or Landlady to ensure that your tenants do their best to keep your property clean and Maintained to a good standard.
CLEANING CHECKLIST
Rental property for a single household: most properties either it is a flat or a house are let to a single household instead of multiple individuals living together under the same roof. Rental properties occupied by an individual or a single-family are professionally cleaned usually before or after the tenancy begins. If as a Landlord, you have not communicated what you expect from your tenant to keep the property cleaned, you may find it unavoidable to pay for a professional cleaning service and most of the time a minor decoration (such as wall painting, re-grouting, bathroom resealing) is usually needed.
We recommend that you effectively communicate your expected clean standards via a checklist which is included in your tenancy agreement. the cleaning checklist should cover all aspect of the house, from cobweb in the ceiling to the group on the kitchen floor.
Multi-let rental properties: HMOs or student accommodations allow an individual to rent just a room in a house or accommodation, this means there are communal areas that belong to everyone and nobody. Communal areas usually suffer most from lack of care or from our point of view lack of cleaning. What happens is, each tenant looks after their own room but leave the communal area to others. Some Landlord/lady usually include instructions in the tenancy agreement but most of the time, the instructions are not observed because no one or (very few) want to take responsibility for changing the bin, tidying the kitchen, vacuuming the house, mopping the floor etc.
If you are Landlord, you probably wish your tenants are much more careful with the property and keep it clean always. Here are a few solutions we will like to suggest that you consider:
- Create an effective cleaning schedule for the house, ensure it work and you can see the difference
- Employ a cleaning staff to clean your properties if you have more than a couple
- Enforce your cleaning instruction more frequently
- Choose a house cleaning champion to encourage the rest of the house
BENEFITS OF AN EFFECTIVE CLEANING PLAN
- Less need for major expenditure at the end of the tenancy
- You get to know the state of the property on a regular basis if you monitor the cleaning frequently
- You can charge a better tenancy rate if your property is kept clean regularly
- A regular cleaning that works prevent the build-up of mould in the bathrooms, grease in the kitchen cobweb in the entire house
We hope this helps to in managing your rental properties more often.