Is a slow repair response holding up the rent

Are you one of the many letting agents, or property managers, that dread the phone ringing for fear it's another tenant reporting a maintenance issue or home emergency Despite that heart-sinking feeling of yet another boiler breaking or fence panel blowing down, there is a duty of care with tenants that needs to be respected.

If a rental property isn't maintained to habitable standards, a tenant may take the decision to withhold their rent. The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) recently claimed a quarter of a million private tenants are not paying their rent due to uncompleted essential property repairs.

If you offer landlords a property maintenance service, you need to fulfil your promise. If you're falling short, it's time to outsource to us. At Everything Lettings we offer a comprehensive set of property maintenance packages, anchored by our panel of 2,000 qualified tradespeople and team of professional call handlers.

Emergency maintenance is often the biggest worry for agents and managers but with Everything Lettings' premium out-of-hours service, an SOS at 3am or locked-out tenant on a Sunday isn't a problem. Roy Fuller, Sales Director at Everything Lettings, says the duty of care box can be ticked when outsourcing emergency maintenance to Everything Lettings: "AIIC figures also revealed that 34% of private tenants questioned had faced a home emergency in the past 12 months. Of those, only one in three were dealt with on the same day, while almost a quarter took more than a week to resolve. We don't think that is good enough so our service level agreement stipulates a tradesperson should be on site within three hours of a genuine emergency being reported, unless otherwise agreed with the tenant. Our service runs 24/7 and covers all the trades on a nationwide basis; including GasSafe engineers, plumbers, electricians, roofers, glaziers, locksmith and general handymen. An agent or manager simply instructs Everything Lettings and we take over the out-of-hours reins. No more being on call or ringing round to find a free tradesperson at short notice."

As well as out-of-hours emergency cover, Everything Lettings provides a planned maintenance service, which also operates to a strict service level agreement. "Non-emergency issues are also responded to within a strict time frame that's made clear from the start, so both the tenant and the landlord can monitor the response," adds Roy. "We pride ourselves on delivering a maintenance service that encourages tenants to pay their rent."

Everything Lettings - providing the rental industry with property maintenance plans, gas safety care programmes, boiler leasing, 24/7 365-day emergency maintenance cover, utility switching, EPCs and PAT testing.

Everything Lettings - Tel 0844 272 2442 Mobile 07970 840561 E: tellmemore@everything-lettings.co.uk W: www.everything-lettings.co.uk