Hi everyone,
I’m based in West London and have a background in residential property sales. I’m currently researching an idea to help self-managing landlords with the hassle of arranging property repairs and dealing with tradespeople.
I’d be interested to hear how you currently handle maintenance, particularly finding reliable tradespeople, arranging appointments, chasing missed visits and keeping on top of repairs.
I’m exploring whether there’s a useful service I could build around coordinating this, but I’m not selling anything at this stage. I’m keen to understand the challenges landlords actually face before taking the idea any further.
If you’re a self-managing landlord, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. If you’d be happy to have a quick 10-minute chat, please feel free to reply or message me.
Thanks!
I’m in South West London, and I manage my own properties. Electricians and plumbers and gas people and rubbish clearance are easy, there is no need at all for any help finding them. All the bigger companies know exactly how to deal with landlords and tenants and they are good and reliable. The problem is carpenters, decorators and maybe gardeners. I can use task rabbit of course, but if it’s a big job it’s very expensive.
I only have the one flat so I’m no expert, but for me the hard part was never the plumber, it was not knowing anyone at all when something went wrong. What helped was asking my tenant to send a couple of photos first so I knew what I was actually ringing someone about, saved me a wasted call out already. The missed visits are the bit I really dislike, you end up chasing the tradesperson and the tenant both.