We often get asked about all our services provided in detail, so I have decided to dedicate the blog article explaining all our services in detail to have a full understanding of what our Professional HMO Management service includes. 

Property setup and room decoration.

This is to ensure we can rent out rooms much faster and reduce/eliminate voids. We do use our own dress up kits and the work that we do to make it all beautiful is all part of our management service.

Property set up means getting the property ready for tenants to moving in making sure everything works and is ready. For example, things like cleaning drains with drain liquid before tenants move in. And providing a tags on water stop taps, providing tenant handbook.

Also setting up internet, making sure all radiators work. Making sure toilet has cleaning brush and small bin (something that often can be forgotten and can cause blockages and distress). We work with our own set up checklist that we have developed over the past 9 years and we currently have 119 tasks in our property set up checklist that are always checked before tenants move in. 

Rooms marketing and viewings.

We primarily use our database, our website and SpareRoom to advertise the rooms available. En-suite rooms and studios are also advertised on Rightmove and Zoopla. 

Tenants referencing.

We have developed our own in-house processes for carrying out all necessary checks. At the moment we can pretty much complete the whole referencing for an applicant in one day, providing there are no delays with them sending all required documents. We check Visa if required. Right to rent checks and we ensure they have sufficient income. We even do face-to-face interviews with applicants during the process and we also do CCJ and credit score checks with NRLA. Credit check with NRLA at £12 per applicant is the only extra cost for this work. All other referencing activities are all part of management service.

AST Agreements.

We prepare and sign on Landlord’s behalf and renew all ASTs ourselves at no extra cost neither to Landlord nor to Tenants. All our  AST’s are reviewed by a professional Property Legal Advisor.

Check-in/out with full inventory. 

All our check in and check out reports are prepared on professional Inventory software with no extra cost to landlords. Full check-in and check-out reports are prepared and room states are assessed. And we deal with deposit protection to recover anything that does not qualify for fair wear and tear and damages if any. 

Deposit protection.

We protect deposits with custodial deposit protection schemes. This way we avoid unnecessary extra costs to protect and maintain deposits. So, no extra cost here for Landlords either.

Rent collection.

All rents are paid into the Client Money Protection account as required by regulations. We track rents on a daily basis. We have a process of monthly rent reminders about upcoming rents and following up if there are any delays. Delays occasionally can happen. And we always have worked out our own way of dealing with this in a timely manner.

Big part of this is actually referencing itself. That’s why we had to take it all in-house and develop it ourselves to avoid problems with non-paying tenants.

Dealing with arrears and evictions.

In unfortunate situations like these we will be dealing with the entire process of serving all necessary notices and managing the entire eviction process. We do not charge anything extra on our part. There is a cost associated with this process and it really depends on the actual case. Court fees, bailiff fees, solicitor (if required) fees – all are extra costs for Landlords.

Certificate management and renewal.

HMO is a highly regulated industry. Currently we record and track 9 types of certificates for all properties and most of which are mandatory for HMO properties. We are arranging timely renewal with qualified contractors and communicating to Landlords if any works need to be done as a result of these checks. We manage it all at no extra cost to Landlords. Invoices from contractors for carrying out checks and issuing certificates will be an extra cost for Landlords and should be accounted for/budgeted for . All certificate renewals are managed automatically within  Management Software and no renewal date can’t be missed.

Utilities management.

With most of our properties we fully manage all Utilities as well. This way we can efficiently report monthly usage and track actual amount used, rather than estimated. It also makes it easier for Landlords not to worry about this part at all. We manage Gas, Electricity, Water, Council Tax and broadband internet connection.

Ongoing maintenance.

This is where we respond to tenant’s enquiries, arranging and managing works, communicating and keeping Landlords up-to-date with any activities where their approval is needed. We usually agree with Landlords on a monthly maintenance budget that we can use without disturbing them (for example small things such as fixing toilet seats, changing lamp bulbs, etc). For any bigger works we would always be seeking approval first. 

Full property inspections.

We do full property inspections including all bedrooms every 4-5  month and we produce a full condition report with detailed photos and descriptions. The communal areas inspections are done once a month. 

Monthly housekeeping.

By its nature HMOs do require someone to be attending on a monthly basis to clean communal areas. We have tried different ways to deal with this, but in the end, having a housekeeper attending 1-2 times per month seems to be the best way to ensure a safe and clean environment for tenants. They only clean communal areas, they also test alarms and record this in logbooks and they do report any problems as well. We manage the whole process at no extra cost.

Monthly Financial Reports

We  produce monthly reports for Landlords summarizing all transactions over the period of one month (rent collected, utilities, maintenance, management, etc).

Management Platform.

We heavily invest into designing and developing our own internal management systems. We been awarded as winners of the Tech Star in Real Estate 2022. There is a lot of high-tech here and our core management platform has been built from ground-up by ourselves. This approach allows us to adapt to new changes very quickly (such as for example new Right to Rent checks, which is now part of our standard workflow).

We also can implement ideas, feedback and suggestions from others almost instantly. All that has a positive effect on efficiency and service delivery overall and we have confidence in knowing we stay on top of everything in this rather complicated, demanding and highly-regulated industry.