[dustdees]

Hello all,

I thought I would just ask, if anyone has had any problems with lettings agent and e of t's.

I recently had a property to clean and to clean the carpets, no problem, cleaned the property, but they always seem to send me in a place where hot water is not working or not water at all. We managed to clean the property, but we need hot water to clen the carpets.

I told the letting agent that I was unable to carry out the carpet clean because of the water problem. This poses the question, should I charge them for the carpet clean, because it wasn't may fault, and then charge for the extra session when the boiler is working? Your opinions would be gratefully recieved.

Also the same letting agent, keep arranging for me to attend a property to completed a requested job, then either I am unable to gain acess the to place or the tennat/ landlord wants to reschedule.

This is wasting time, money and I could be booking other clients that I am able to service(So to Speak!!!) lol!!!

I am starting to tear my hair out, with them, would you ditch them are what ekse would you do?

Regards


Denise

[BSF]

Hi Denise,

With regards to the hot water problem, buy some cheap kettles and carry them on your vans, saying that my company does alot of jobs where their isnt any electricity supply, as the tenants had been on card meters, so you then have to weigh up investing in generator(s)
some letting agents are a pain in the #### but it comes down to how much you need the work.

regards

Paul

[Paul Forster]

Why not buy a second hand burco boiler

[mxg]

We have similar problems but usually more on the power & hot water front rather than gaining access.

As has already been suggested, adding some cheap kettles to your tool kit is an absolute must.

If you are in a property with the old style £ coin meter (although they are getting rarer) its worth just sticking a quid in to avoid the hassle. Hopefully your margins aren't that tight!

Another item from our toolkit that has saved our bacon more than once is a heavy duty extension lead. We just knock on a likely looking door and ask if we can plug it in for a bit. We alway bung them a fiver - they are usually chuffed to bits and again its a better investment than going away and having to come back again.

The biggest problem with the newer card meters is if the tenant has used up all the "emergency credit" and the meter shows a negative amount - it means you have to put in whatever the negative balance is (can be up to £15!) before you can even think about getting electric.

Another technique we use is if we have to put our price in writing in a more formal proposal/tender scenario - we ALWAYS include a section called Assumptions and say "This proposal is based on the following assumptions ...................hot water will be available / electricity will be freely available etc"

What we don't have at the moment is a line that says "The "failure" of any of these assumptions may impact the quoted price" ie a facility to levy extra charges if required

Hope this helps

Mick

[Jan K]

Hi Denise!

You could tell the Agency that if you make a visit to the property and cannot get access that you will charge them for that visit even if it is only petrol and time costs. Maybe take a deposit and that fee comes out of that! Also you could also try telling them that all electricity, gas and water needs to be on and working...........think its trial and error with these things mostly.

I did one where the electricity and gas were off, so I hunted down the fuse box and gas supply and switched it all on! Course I told the agency what I was doing! They were fine with it!

Jan

[Jan K]

Mick's quotes sound like the ideal way forward.....might just be what I consider in the future too

Jan