Leasing property for supported living | 3 maintenance wins

Leasing property for supported living | 3 times Zetetick maintenance saved landlords trouble in February

#maintenance #lettings #landlords #repairs #supportedliving

Have you ever considered leasing your property to a social housing provider?

Zetetick is a registered charity providing supported living homes to adults with learning disabilities and autism to help them lead more independent lives. We source properties on the open rental market, forming mutually beneficial partnerships with landlords, letting agents, and property developers.

One major benefit of leasing property for supported living is that in the course of supporting our tenants, Zetetick also looks after your property for you with our in-house maintenance service. We provide intensive housing management in order to help our tenants with the day-to-day upkeep of their home. This means your property gets extra care compared to a normal rental home and is maintained to a high standard.

So how does this look in practice? Well here are 3 stories from February showing how landlords have benefitted from our maintenance service.

1. Under pressure

Remember those freezing cold snow days? It wasn’t a good time to be without heating. On one chilly Saturday our on-call maintenance officer Horace came under pressure when he received 5 reports of broken boilers in the space of 3 hours.

Horace loaded up the Zetetick van with electric heaters and set off to visit the properties which were spread across Lambeth and Croydon. He realised that 2 or the 5 boilers had low pressure which he could fix there and then. The remaining 3 needed more major repairs so Horace set up our tenants with electric heaters to keep them warm and referred the issue back to the landlords.

Horace’s heroic efforts that day saved the landlords a lot of trouble. 2 out of 5 landlords didn’t need to be involved at all, and the rest only became involved when the crisis had been averted, with a temporary solution in place and an initial assessment of the problem by a professional.

Responsive and reliable

Zetetick maintenance are always available when something goes wrong in your property. We have a 24/7 on call service for urgent repairs and have an efficient online reporting system for requests and enquiries. All jobs are monitored according to strict targets. During the current lockdown the team have met targets for 100% of urgent repairs.

2. Why DIY?

When you are leasing property for supported living with Zetetick, there is no more need for DIY. We operate a 3 year rolling programme to paint and decorate the interior of all properties and also provide a full property service including window and carpet cleaning. Here is a photo of one of our newly decorated properties.

As you can see, it’s not just a lick of paint, but meticulous work of outstanding quality from floor to ceiling.

Garden makeovers

One area that can be challenging for landlords to maintain in their properties is the garden. Without consistent efforts from your tenants the garden can easily spiral out of control. You can avoid this problem by leasing property for supported living.

Zetetick knows how important outdoor space is for our tenants’ wellbeing and looks after all gardens, giving them a makeover if necessary and tending to plants, lawns, and hedges.

Adding value

Zetetick’s work not only saves landlords the cost and fuss of redecorating and maintenance, it can even increase the value of your property.

3. No cause for alarm

The maintenance team recently received a report of a faulty smoke alarm sounding off in one of our properties. Aware that the loud noise of a smoke alarm can be distressing for some of our tenants who have autism, they wasted no time in arriving to help. The problem was quickly resolved, putting the tenant at ease and ensuring the rental property is well protected by fire safety measures.

It’s the little things

As this story demonstrates, leasing property for supported living means no fuss for landlords and letting agents, who can trust their properties are being frequently attended to and inspected by Zetetick staff. Intensive housing management ensures that, as well as dealing with big things like boilers, the team are on hand for the little jobs around the place like changing lightbulbs, unblocking sinks, and cleaning windows. In this way, minor issues are dealt with before they can escalate and are less likely to become a problem for the landlord.

Security and satisfaction

Stable income

In addition to maintenance, Zetetick offers many other benefits to landlords. Leasing property for supported living means earning a secure income with no vacancies and no voids. Zetetick holds the contract with the landlord, paying rent by direct debit each month as well as utility bills and council tax. Because we match properties to our clients’ needs and give them proper support, tenants often end up staying there long term, creating stability for the landlord as well as the tenant.

Making a difference

By leasing property for supported living you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are changing the life of an adult with learning disabilities and autism, giving them a home of their own and enabling them to be more independent. Learn about why community-based support and housing for people with learning disabilities is so important here.

If you are interested in working with Zetetick and leasing property for supported living, don’t hesitate to get in touch.