In terms of the lettings side of the business, the team continue to be busy with the day to day running of things. With the announcement of lockdown 3 in early January, a small number of our tenants unfortunately had to give their notice to leave, due to work and personal situations. The hesitance and uncertainty surrounding this particular lockdown seems to have temporarily affected tenant confidence, as we have experienced a slight dip in demand at the moment and very much hope that non-essential retail and hospitality will be able to begin to open up, albeit carefully, over the coming months, as well as the successful continuation of the rapid vaccination programme.
A couple of our properties have recently required some higher level maintenance than normal, with some water pressure issues in one property, caused by a booster unit fault, and some guttering problems causing a leak in another. Our team are great at addressing these things quickly and it obviously helps when tenants report issues promptly. Even when you think there are no issues, there’s nothing like a prolonged period of rain and perhaps some snow, to highlight a particular problem!
We always try to take advantage of room voids to take care of any minor paintwork issues or necessary replacement of items, but we also use them as an opportunity to refresh a room, which may be looking a little tired, or which may have a few too many signs of wear and tear. It’s important to try and turn these around in as minimal time as possible, in order to keep down the void time. So with a few rooms becoming available soon, we will be assessing their needs accordingly.
Over recent weeks, we’ve had a particularly cheeky tenant in one property, who has taken a liking to removing the batteries from the Hive heating unit! We’re not sure what he’s been using them for, but clearly not respectful of other tenants or the heating for the house!