Newbie Landlord needs advice

franklee

mchale wrote: »

If your LL told you it would be a week before your boiler would be repaired, I take it you would be happy with that

Initial call out within 24 hours and final repair within week, fine by me. Four appointments and three and counting no shows - not fine. As I said before it's the mucking about and no idea which appointment if any was going to be met that is the problem here.

But I prefer my current landlord's supplier who carries parts on the van so there is no need to wait for parts. It's a bit more expensive if cheap parts are broken and cheaper if expensive parts are broken. Thankfully my landlord is prepared to pay for a decent service. I think the problem comes when costs are cut by a cheap initial call out fee, when in reality by the time they return and parts and labour are paid for in the return call it comes out as expensive if not more so.

There are good contractors out there you just have to pay for efficiency.

If I'd waited in all weekend and had three appointments cancelled I'd have asked the landlord to cancel the fourth and go elsewhere. What was the landlord thinking in accepting this and making a fourth appointment after being let down three times?

I did already post I'd be happy to wait longer for a reliable contractor, in case you missed it, post #20, my first post on this thread:

franklee wrote: »

I'd far rather have an appointment if a bit later on from a reliable company than being kept messed around during three cancellations so I'm not surprised the tenant lost confidence in "reactfast" after all the tenant had no way of knowing how many more times they were going to cancel.

Anyway in the OPs case I hope the tenant's choice of contractor turned out OK and the repairs were completed today as planned. From this thread my preferred contractor would have been the vendor of the boiler with the repair done Tuesday as they sound the most reliable setup and most likely to have the parts to hand.

I would not like to do business with "reactfast".

clutton_2

franklee in your nice ordered routine world you seem to assume that all jobs take x amount of hours and then maintainance staff move onto the next job which takes x+2 - life is just not like that

its not about the money - its about the sort of job; its about the experience of the staff attending; its about the availability of the spare parts; is about the location of the job in comparison to the previous job staff were attending; its about the day of the week; its about tenants being in when you get there - ALL these things are variables.

i should not have to tell a computer wizard like you that calculating the ongoing effects of variables is very difficult

lets not fall out about this - getting good quality consistent reliable trades is not just a matter of plowing through yellow pages

landlords are at the mercy of trades - at least say you understand that ??


""I would not like to do business with "reactfast".""

i daresay OP wont now either


you also say ""From this thread my preferred contractor would have been the vendor of the boiler with the repair done Tuesday as they sound the most reliable setup and most likely to have the parts to hand""

for sure you would have got good service - 2 days later than other contractors and certainly much more expensive - but as it was, the tenant went ballistic on Sunday - what was the LL to do ??

Vendors of Boilers dont normally work on sundays .....

hindsight is a wonderful thing

franklee

clutton wrote: »

franklee in your nice ordered routine world you seem to assume that all jobs take x amount of hours and then maintainance staff move onto the next job which takes x+2 - life is just not like that

its not about the money - its about the sort of job; its about the experience of the staff attending; its about the availability of the spare parts; is about the location of the job in comparison to the previous job staff were attending; its about the day of the week; its about tenants being in when you get there - ALL these things are variables.

i should not have to tell a computer wizard like you that calculating the ongoing effects of variables is very difficult

lets not fall out about this - getting good quality consistent reliable trades is not just a matter of plowing through yellow pages

landlords are at the mercy of trades - at least say you understand that ??


""I would not like to do business with "reactfast".""

i daresay OP wont now either


you also say ""From this thread my preferred contractor would have been the vendor of the boiler with the repair done Tuesday as they sound the most reliable setup and most likely to have the parts to hand""

for sure you would have got good service - 2 days later than other contractors and certainly much more expensive - but as it was, the tenant went ballistic on Sunday - what was the LL to do ??

Vendors of Boilers dont normally work on sundays .....

hindsight is a wonderful thing

My landlord has contract with a company specialising in the type of boiler installed here (probably recommended by the manufacturer). Fixed fee repair, guaranteed to have all parts on van so fix is done in first visit. Cost double a usual call out fee but there is no return visit needed and parts are included. Time to repair all in was three days. It can be done if you pay a bit more for good service, it was 230 pounds fixed fee all parts and labour, one visit required. (parts replaced were, PCB (at a random online shop was 120 pounds), other part (online 20 pounds), so a good deal IMO). Oh and they turned up on time. they give a half day range for the appointment and then ring in via mobile phone when they are on their way.

These ^^^ contractors were very efficient, they specialise in just one type of boiler (several brands but fundamentally the same as the same manufacturer). They travel quite long distances, they guarantee to have all parts on the van when they arrive. The bloke was chatting to me, all movements are logged and they have to keep in touch with the office. I was really impressed!

Therefore I think the OP's initial instincts to go with the vendor of the boiler were right, even though the initial wait was longer, if they come with all parts on the van like my landlord's lot do.

The tenant went ballistic on Sunday *after* three appointments had been cancelled (Sat morn, Sat night, Sun morn, new one just made for Sun night). If they had been given the choice of the other contractor with parts on the van on Tuesday they may have accepted that. I would as it's usually the wait for parts that is longest and it saves having two visits. That option wasn't offered, but it's worth the OP looking into now ready for next time IMO.

Smi1er

OP... As you will learn it's the boiler that usually causes issues.

Part of the reason why I have British Gas Homecare in place. Peace of mind. Tenant calls me, I then call British Gas, British gas then call tenant to make appointment, they also do a landlord package which provides a Gas Safety Cert every 12 months.... you do have a recent Gas Safety Cert don't you......

clutton_2

BG are picky as to which boilers they will offer this service to

Welshwoofs

franklee wrote: »

These ^^^ contractors were very efficient, they specialise in just one type of boiler (several brands but fundamentally the same as the same manufacturer). They travel quite long distances, they guarantee to have all parts on the van when they arrive. The bloke was chatting to me, all movements are logged and they have to keep in touch with the office. I was really impressed!

lol I'd like to see you organise such a service for my solid-fuel stove. The manufacturers don't do such services and HETAS engineers are few and far between. In fact they're so few and far between that you're often waiting weeks for the initial call out.

Having read all your comments I'll be sure to tell my first tenant before they sign on the dotted line that if they have an issue they'd better not be expecting instant service

barnaby-bear

franklee wrote: »

The tenant went ballistic on Sunday *after* three appointments had been cancelled (Sat morn, Sat night, Sun morn, new one just made for Sun night). If they had been given the choice of the other contractor with parts on the van on Tuesday they may have accepted that. I would as it's usually the wait for parts that is longest and it saves having two visits. That option wasn't offered, but it's worth the OP looking into now ready for next time IMO.

This is my impression really poor communication with the tenant - if they'd have had it clearly explained that repairs take time and concern shown for the fact they might have to take time off they might have been more co-operative. Messing up their entire weekend with cancelled appointments not OK at all. The LL's wife authorising them to shop around just confused things further.

clutton_2

landlords run a business - as franklee so often tells us. one of the things we have to do is balance expenses against income.

in the winter i would be much more likely to pay for an "instant call-out" guy if my regular chap was on holiday. "instant call out" guys are always MUCH more expensive - especially at a weekend.

in the summer i would not pay for instant call out guys - unless it was my aged tenant who needs special care, or a tenant with a very young baby.

life is full of inconveniences - let tenants understand that .....

they rent - we own - most of us landlords do our best

any judge would say this OP had been more than reasonable

I would NEVER authorise any tenant to get their own workmen in - as i want to know who is in my property and what standard of workmanship they are going to do

i'm fed up with this now

franklee

Welshwoofs wrote: »

lol I'd like to see you organise such a service for my solid-fuel stove. The manufacturers don't do such services and HETAS engineers are few and far between. In fact they're so few and far between that you're often waiting weeks for the initial call out.

Having read all your comments I'll be sure to tell my first tenant before they sign on the dotted line that if they have an issue they'd better not be expecting instant service

:rotfl: It's me been saying I'd rather wait a bit longer for reliable service than being messed about with cancellations from a company that's suppoced to "reactfast"

Besides with a solid fuel setup don't you only run it in the winter and have an immersion heater for summer hot water. So unless both break there will always be hot water as the immersion can be used. That's better than modern houses that have a boiler which heats water instantly and no hot water tank. Therefore the boiler is the only means of getting hot water (apart from a kettle). That said perhaps you'd need to put the weeks for an initial call out to repair the heating in the tenancy agreement and explain that upfront to a potential tenant so as to head off any later problems. That way you can select a tenant who won't mind waiting and save hassle all round. Not sure where it would leave you for the holiday let if someone is freezing during their winter break at yours. Perhaps solid fuel stoves are more reliable than modern gas boilers ...

As for the rest of my comments, I was praising my landlord, as I was genuinely impressed with his choice of boiler repair company

alunharford

clutton wrote: »

landlords run a business - as franklee so often tells us. one of the things we have to do is balance expenses against income.

in the winter i would be much more likely to pay for an "instant call-out" guy if my regular chap was on holiday. "instant call out" guys are always MUCH more expensive - especially at a weekend.

in the summer i would not pay for instant call out guys - unless it was my aged tenant who needs special care, or a tenant with a very young baby.

life is full of inconveniences - let tenants understand that .....

I also run a business. One of the reasons I rent is that I want somebody else to be liable for the maintenance of the property I live in.

As a businessman, if I screw things up I'm liable for the consequences. That means I have to sort the problem out - no matter the cost to me - or I have to compensate my client for their loss. If that means I make a loss, I make a loss. That's business.

Peddling faulty goods and services and then failing to sort out the problems when they go wrong isn't business - at best it's abject incompetence.