Blink Property
Every landlord needs a property manager to look after their portfolio and one of the essential services property managers provide is to conduct routine inspections.
These ensure the tenant is taking care of your property to the standard required by the lease they signed.
Blink asset managers are even more valuable than regular property managers because we look at your property holistically. It’s not just about ticking off planned inspections and making note of cleanliness or required maintenance. Blink asset managers identify future problems in the early stages and help you solve them before they become much more costly down the track. We identify ways to reduce costs and maximise the value of your overall portfolio.
But even though it’s a premium service, we’re not licensed tradespeople and we’re not magicians. Property owners need to pay attention to inspection reports and take responsibility to ensure the right actions are taken.
Here are a few things about inspections and maintenance that you might not know.
Landlords are sometimes annoyed to find they have cracked tiles on their roof and want to know why no mention of this was made in any inspection reports. Well, we don’t stand on stilts and we don’t pilot helicopters for routine inspections. We also don’t wear X-Ray goggles, so can’t see into your walls to spot a leak. Put simply, if we can’t see it we can’t report on it.
Qualified tradespeople are often able to pick up faults or potential problems that are invisible to the naked eye. These problems, if unchecked, can develop into highly visible and expensive problems later on. We do encourage owners to get annual building inspections to see if there are hidden problems that only trained tradie eyes could detect.
Pre-emptive maintenance is a good idea, especially on things like servicing for air conditioning, roller doors and fans. It may seem unnecessary to spend the money at the time, but the future savings can make it all worthwhile.
For example, if you want to service your air conditioning, do it in winter when it’s cheaper. Any necessary repairs uncovered by the service will also be completed faster than if it was in the middle of a Queensland summer when the hot weather means a backlog of repairs.
Likewise with roller doors. By the time they break down, they’re no longer just checking the motor, but the whole contraption. Pre-emptive servicing keeps everything running smoothly and for a fraction of the cost of replacing the door. Sliding doors are another one you can get checked once a year for a small callout fee, but if you don’t and they end up needing replacing, it can cost thousands.
If you have a handyman going out for a job, get them to check sliding doors and whatever else while they’re there too. This saves money on multiple callout fees.
If a property manager attends a routine inspection and there’s damage that’s worth more than one week’s rent, the manager can serve the tenant a breach. In that case, the tenant has seven days to rectify and once that time is up, we can begin the process of implementing a Form 12- Notice to Leave.
If the issue is minor, such as cleaning, we give them a reminder of their obligations and let them know it needs to be better. If they haven’t rectified it by the next inspection, we issue them a breach.
Some issues, such as a mouldy shower, may need a professional to clean it properly. Property managers will point a tenant in the right direction to organise that.
A property manager doesn’t always call an owner about every small bit of damage, but instead will note it in the inspection report. Owners need to take responsibility by reading inspection reports and taking action on necessary maintenance.
Some owners don’t realise that under the law, they are accountable. It’s not the property manager’s responsibility.
A property manager might note suspicious marks, or a water leak in the report. If an owner doesn’t act on that maintenance, then has an insurance claim later down the track, the insurance company will ask to see previous routine inspection reports and if they can see something that could have been prevented by the owner, they may reject the claim.
Contact The Blink Property Team
