Maintenance of your rental property is a year-round must-do, especially with the planned changes within the Renters’ Rights Act. These place more emphasis than ever on property standards, requiring landlords to manage a timely maintenance and repair schedule to avoid issues developing.
Ensuring rental properties are safe and winter-ready is even more important during Christmas. Emergency callouts will be more challenging to organise, more expensive, and about as welcome as dry turkey on your Christmas dinner plate.
Check the heating
During such a busy period of social gatherings, a heating failure could be disastrous. If the property is unoccupied, the consequences could be even more devastating since the risk of pipes freezing and bursting increases. Servicing the boiler, bleeding radiators and insulating exposed pipes will help keep your tenants – and their guests – cosy and warm.
Take extra care of vacant properties
If you are awaiting new tenants, or they’re off on an extended Christmas break, then setting the property’s thermostat to a minimum temperature of 7°C will help to prevent frozen pipes, according to British Gas. Smart thermostats can also alert you if the temperature falls too low.
Be security-conscious
Your rental property and tenants can also be extra vulnerable to security problems over the Christmas period. Early, dark nights are often coupled with tenants out and about more often than usual, leaving behind a stack of presents ripe for the picking for burglars.
Extra steps to secure the property could include a maintenance check of locks and latches to ensure they are safe and secure and the installation of outdoor motion lights, security cameras or smart doorbells that trigger alerts of suspicious activity.
Reduce fire risks
You must check and maintain smoke and CO alarms and your tenants should also be testing them monthly. This is even more important at Christmas. Fire risks increase dramatically with the increased prevalence of Christmas decorations, lit candles, additional visitors and the possibility of overloaded plug sockets as Christmas lights fight for space alongside freshly opened toys and gadgets charging.
Check safe access
The extra damage that storms and winter weather can cause should also be anticipated over Christmas, especially if stormy or freezing weather has been forecast. An outside check will help identify blocked gutters and drainpipes that could freeze, slipped roof tiles that could come loose, or tree branches that are diseased or overhanging and could risk injuring tenants or their visitors.
Remind tenants of good practice
It could also be worth reminding your tenants of good practice, perhaps with a message in a Christmas card that reminds them you are thinking about their welfare. This could include not leaving presents on view, putting lights on a timer to mimic that someone is at home or being discreet on social media about their Christmas travel plans. Encourage them to report problems in good time too, reminding them that issues will be harder to sort once they escalate and Christmas festivities begin in earnest.
Having emergency details on hand
Pre-emptive inspections and regular maintenance can reduce the likelihood of seasonal problems in your property, but they can’t get rid of the risk completely. Check what Christmas emergency cover your usual tradespeople have in place in case you do face a frantic call from your tenants. You should also be available to take their calls – even if you’re tucking into your turkey at the time.
