25^th May 2022

The benefits of holding an interim property inspection

Interim inspections should form a routine part of every landlord and letting agent’s property management programme, however out of necessity they were generally suspended throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. In some cases, they’ve now been restored, but many agents appear to have abandoned them, having written them off as an unnecessary expense.

At Award, however, we believe that they’re an essential part of a letting agent’s service, but why exactly are they so valuable?

Rules
Interim inspections enable both landlord and tenant to be confident that both parties are fulfilling their obligations and obeying the rules. In any tenancy agreement, the landlord will stipulate the rules that the tenant needs to adhere to, especially regarding undertaking any modifications within the home.

Maintenance
Inspecting a property during the tenancy enables landlords and/or their agents to review how it’s standing up and to decide whether any repairs are required. Leaving repairs to the end of the tenancy, when you’re possibly going to be looking for replacement tenants, isn’t best practice and can lead to a gap in occupancy, which means a drop in income.

Insurance
Interim inspections help to ensure that your home insurance policy remains valid, so in that sense they can be worth their weight in gold. If something goes wrong and your insurance is invalid due to a lack of maintenance, for example, this can remove any profit margin you may be enjoying.

Value
Conducting an interim inspection will also enable you to preserve the value of your property by keeping the property in first-class condition. Any defects or issues will tend to devalue your property and potentially make it more difficult to let when the existing tenancy agreement comes to an end.

Management
Interim inspections are the cornerstone of effective property management, not least because it’s far easier to retain tenants, or re-let the home if it’s in excellent condition. And if you do decide to sell then a well-maintained property is more likely to achieve a higher asking price, and even in some cases to outperform the market by some way.

End of Tenancy
When it comes to dealing with an end of tenancy, there's real value in being able to refer to interim inspection reports when negotiating issues relating to a property’s hand back. Whilst the inventory from the tenancy commencement and a final check out report are important, where disputes arise over condition it can be helpful to refer back to confirm if issues have previously been raised and not resolved. This is often an area where self-managing landlords fall down in any dispute resolution as they may well not have undertaken interim inspections and therefore cannot produce a sequential history of evidence to support a deposit claim when a dispute unfortunately reaches independent arbitration through one of the Deposit Protection Schemes.

For Andrew Ward owner of Award Property Management, interim inspections are one aspect of an agent’s service that shouldn’t be withdrawn. ‘Property inspections are always the item that gets dropped first when staff are under pressure, and the pandemic gave the perfect opportunity to do this,’ comments Andrew. ‘But here at Award we carry them out every quarter on our managed properties. It’s a good chance to maintain relationships with the tenant, and it gives them the opportunity to raise any concerns or issues and to advise on their future plans. In addition, we get to take a look over the property and how it’s being used and treated, and that allows us to feed back to the landlord on how the tenancy is being conducted and to report any maintenance requirements we discover. We can also check on the quality of any work that’s been carried out and monitor compliance issues such as smoke alarm and CO alarm provision. To that end, we actually have a dedicated property inspector doing our quarterly inspections to provide continuity and familiarity to the tenants.’

Award Property Management are estate and letting agents in Cambridge. If you need any help managing your rental property, please get in touch.