Alarm Bells

We recently assisted a landlord who had entrusted her HMO to a rent-to-rent company operating within the social housing sector for 18 months. The situation had deteriorated significantly. She hadn’t received rent for four months and had serious concerns about the properties management and even greater concerns about the properties compliance. The rent-to-rent agreement stipulated that they would furnish the bedrooms, secure the HMO license, and install a fire alarm system, among other things.

Emergency Response

However, upon our inspection, none of these commitments had been fulfilled.  This meant the property was being run as an illegal HMO while also not providing the safety standards required.  This is a really high risk situation as the property owner does not void themselves of responsibilities by signing a rent to rent agreement with the operators.  Only two of the five rooms were occupied, generating minimal income for the rent-to-renter, which clearly explained the landlord’s lack of payments and the lack of budget available to fulfill the work they were contractual and legally bound to do.. Even these two rents were far below market value.

Real-world Rescue

Upon instruction, we immediately took charge. We met with the existing tenants, introduced ourselves as their new point of contact, and outlined the necessary compliance changes. Leveraging our expertise, we conducted a Fire Risk Assessment, confirming the next steps we needed to take swiftly.  Using our trusted contractors we had the fire alarm installed, work done to improve the fire doors and general amenity standards which brought the property up to full compliance,  We used our good reputation to apply for and secure the hmo licence.  Lastly we suggested some improvements for overall tenant desirability and after implementing this, we achieved full occupancy within just two weeks.  

Here, Now

Six years later, we continue to manage this property with the utmost care and attention, providing the landlord with a consistent and reliable income stream.  During this time the Landlord has made further improvements to the property which have been project managed by us and this along with the market has allowed the rents to climb some 27% over this period.  The other key thing is the standard of the property now also attracts a fantastic caliber of tenants who respect and look after the property very well.