Private Landlord adopting Office Hours telephone calls

G_M

Googlies wrote: »

Strange responses,

Landlords/Agents regularly claim they need to keep a set of keys to a property for emergencies, do they mean only emergencies between 9 and 5?

The OP was enquiring about NON-emergencies.

clutton_2

easy - if its the pain in the bum tenant who calls, text back asking what the problem is.. if it aint an emergency, dont return the call till the morning........

Googlies_2

G_M wrote: »

The OP was enquiring about NON-emergencies.

Er yes, and if I was responding to the OP's question rather than the thread in general I would of quoted him.

sims01

How about something old fashioned like just using common courtesy.

Obviously, noone would be expected to fix trivialities at ridiculous hours of the night, but it would be reasonable to at least acknowledge their call and let them know when you'll be available to deal with the problem or respond to their call.

Simply ignoring calls or not coming back to people instead (which unfortunately some LLs I've dealt with do) simply shows disrespect and is frankly unacceptable considering that ultimately your tenants are your customers paying thousands of pounds a year for your services.

And frankly 9-5 are unrealistic business hours nowadays.

clutton_2

""thousands of pounds a year for your services"" - i pay thousands of pounds a year for many services but dont expect to have my mortage lender, or insurance broker, or grocer on the phone available to do business with me 24/7.... why should landlords be penalised then ?

as a LL i would say a tenant who called me at 10pm to ask me to change a light bulb would be showing ME disrespect...... if the heating had gone off, it was february and they had just had a baby.. now THAT would be ok to call me ....

heathcote123

babe-ruth wrote: »

HI, as a landlord to 4 properties (no agent) i was wondering if it is ok for me to assume normal office hours - 9am -5pm, Mon - Fri,(except for emergencies) when it comes to receiveving telephone calls from tenants?

I have always responded to calls, which usually come in an evening or at weekends and frankly i'm getting a little tired of it, especially as it has not been a matter of emergency. Just wondered what you more experienced landlords thoughts were on this.

Thanks

Best just to let it go to answerphone. You can always give them a call back if it is a real emergency.

KateLiana27

Having lived in several rental properties, I think it's absolutely fine to ask that you are only contacted out of hours in emergencies. That's common courtesy, but some people do need it spelled out to them. (Your tenant may even feel you prefer not to be bothered at work - who knows).

A non-emergency can wait until the next working day. If it couldn't, well, it would be an emergency.

If the tenant cannot make calls during working hours, they can always send an email (before work if necessary). As long as you pick these up and respond promptly there shouldn't be an issue.

Our previous landlord couldn't be contacted at all out of working hours. I thought that was unacceptable, especially when we got locked into our house and had to leave for the airport.

BigAunty

Perhaps it's easier to implement this for new tenants going forward rather than restrospectively for current tenants who may see it as a lowering of service standards for them or that you are ignoring their maintenance requests?

Issue new tenants with your contact information, plus a definition of what constitutes an emergency, on the usual information sheet issued to them (where the stop !!!! is, bin collection day, etc)?

zappahey

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

What would I do? Have a separate phone line for my landlording business with an answering-machine attached to it.

If you want to do this cheaply, you can get a free virtual phone number from https://www.sipgate.co.uk. They provide voicemail which can be picked up from anywhere or even emailed to you.

No connection other than being a satisfied customer.

poppysarah

What sort of calls are they making that you don't class as an emergency?