When you work in property management, a good tradesperson is worth their weight in gold. One of the hallmarks of a professional, on-the-ball property management department or agency is one that works with a network of trusted, fully licensed and insured tradespeople. A good property manager should be familiar with the going call-out and labour rates and which type of tradesperson to call for various repair and maintenance requests. A landlord should never have to have to step in and source their own quotes, particularly when they are paying a management fee to have someone look after those responsibilities. Unless you have a good system in place, dodgy tradespeople can sometimes slip through the cracks. How do you avoid this?
The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is true. If you think you are doing your landlords a favour by hiring the cheapest tradesperson for the job, think again. In reality, the cheapest option can end up being the most expensive, especially if the workmanship is so inferior that it needs to be redone or fails to add value to the property. Then there are the potential solicitor and court costs to consider if the landlord has to go down that road. What’s more, if your agency made the selection, it could be you that is up for the legal costs, not to mention the damage to your reputation.
Ensure you pay careful attention to your selection process when forming a network of trade professionals. Seek professionals that:
- Have a good track record,
- Really care about the quality of their work and understand that their reputation depends on it,
- Look and act professional (uniformed, sign-written vehicles, courteous with you, your landlords and tenants), and
- Have the appropriate qualifications and licences in place.
With thousands of complaints made against dodgy tradespeople annually throughout Australia, it is vital that you only recommend trusted professionals.
One way to avoid the uncertainty and the risk of using a dodgy tradie is to use a maintenance software application like Maintenance Manager. The simple-to-use risk mitigation and property maintenance system application includes a trade database containing all the details of your trusted network of trade partners. It even checks and verifies all insurances and licenses. The system provides instant notifications and messaging between the property manager, tenant, landlord and trade professionals. That’s just one of the reasons it is the trusted solution for property managers nationwide. Contact us if you would like a free demonstration of Maintenance Manager which makes managing maintenance and repairs easier than ever.