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Landlord News May 2011 - the darling buds of May

It's May already - that lovely time of year when everything springs in to life, the evenings are pleasantly light and its warm enough to sit outside for an early evening swifty at the local - admitedly with several layers readily to hand!

We hope you've enjoyed the last two long weekends. We're all bemoaning how we've overdone the easter eggs - and despite our best intentions, got hooked on the Royal wedding cover. Now have to make ammends by following a 'strictly no chocolate' diet - Ciya take note!

Trevor (or Captain Bligh as he's now affectionately known in the office) managed to miss all the wedding cover by taking to the high seas (well low canals actually) navigating the waters of the Shropshire - Worcester canal. Apparantly he covered 116 locks and almost as many pubs.

Despite the lovely long weekends, it's been very busy at here at Medics on the Move. We have some excellent relocation clients looking for homes, so please if you have a house or flat available or soon to be available, or know anyone who is a landlord, do let us know - we'll be eternally grateful.

So what's been happening since our last newsletter? We've been gathering snippets and stories that we hope will be useful, fun or just downright funny. So, here goes......


New Look Landlord Statements

Our new Winman Letting and Management programme is taking time to get to grips with, and we hope its not causing too many problems for anyone (other than Trevor that is). Trevor now has his new look Landlord statements firmly under control. These are being sent as .PDFs and he apologises if that wasn't what arrived in your inbox. He is anxious to get this right for you, so if you are having any problems viewing your statements, please let us know. 

For overseas landlords who have their own FICO number, or where your property is owned in joint names, each owner now gets a statement showing income and expenditure split equally. For UK landlords who are joint owners, if you prefer to have one statement please let us know and we can discuss how to arrange this. 

You might like to know that WinMan is the only L&M software to be Certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Microsoft. Well that probably makes you feel much better!



 


 


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24/7 service? Talk about putting your foot in it!

Ever wondered whether our 24/7 service really is all it promises to be? Well as the picture shows, one of our landlords have a reason to test us out. This unfortunate accident happened at 9.30am on a Sunday morning; Caroline took the call, instructed our maintenance people the very same day, and by Tuesday the floor and ceiling were restored to normal. We don't wish emergencies on anyone, but it's nice to know we're there for you!  

(Our thanks to Mr J.R. for the picture - we know who you are!) 
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Letting and Management Awards Winners

We're delighted to be able to say that Medics on the Move won the Gold award for the Best Medium Chain in the national ESTAS awards - what an accolade. Even more importantly, we were just so delighted to see that both Caroline and Rachel received some wonderful testimonials from you and we'll be adding these to our web site shortly. In the poll, we also received a 100% record for trustworthiness, its nice to know you trust us with your valuable investments but we won't rest on any laurels, we want everything we do for you to be 100% excellent. Here are a few areas we will be working harder on:

 - How we deliver details about our services and fee structures

 - Improved feedback on new legislation

 - Improved feedback on property advertising

So a big, big thank you to all the landlords who voted for us in the ESTAS awards. Next year we'll aim to be even better!

 

  
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Legal updates - a new service

Being a landlord is increasingly demanding. A recent experience has made all of us realise how important it is to accurately issue notices, act over deposit disputes and deal with contact paperwork on every let and manage, no matter how nice the tenant may appear to be. 


To help our landlords we have teamed up with AMD Solicitors offering a reciprocal property Q&A service to our landlords. Solicitors Richard Harris and Laura Wilkinson will be answering your questions so thinking caps on and ask away. We'll be sending out a specific LegalE-Update with their answers.


 If you'd like to know more about AMD who have local offices in Henleaze, Clifton and Shirehampton. Take a look at their web site: www.amdsolicitors.com



Here are a couple of questions we've been asked recently to get things going:

·         Can I insist that a tenant insures my contents for accidental damage?

·         Does a Section 21 Notice have an expiry date?

·         Are smoke alarms mandatory in rented property?

Answers to follow in our LegalE-Update shortly.



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AMD Briefing - Management Company Procedures

 

Recent legislation has imposed new consultation procedures when it comes to work on and management of flats. You must now follow a prescribed notice procedure for any works requiring a contribution from any flat owner which exceeds £250. Where the property is subject to a Qualifying Long Term Agreement (QLTA), an agreement with a contractor to provide goods and services over longer than a 12 month time frame, the figure is even lower- just £100.

Not following this procedure means that you may only be able to recover £250 per property for qualifying works and £100 per property for QLTAs from the flat owner .

A landlord may be left stumping up the majority of the cost of works which may be very costly indeed!

Our thanks to the Commercial Team at AMD Solicitors for this advice. If you'd like to know more, call Tony Moore or Katie Hughes on Bristol 0117 989 8510 

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