late rent

March 11, 2013

Management of communication

Good communication between your Letting Agency, your Landlords and Tenants is a vital tool in keeping your customers happy and retaining them going forward. The office phone will usually start ringing from 9am until 5pm with numerous queries or information from tenants and landlords; where is this month’s rent? Can I have a breakdown of my accounts? There is a problem with my washing machine! The radiator in the main bedroom doesn’t work!

If you manage rental properties you will surely have heard some of these topics or issues arise from landlords and tenants. The problem today is there are too many ways of communicating issues or problems into your office and the information can get lost if you don’t set down some rules or guidelines.

I list below some of the main communication channels used by landlords and tenants when contacting you or your office.

Management of Communication

via Telephone

The trusty telephone is still the number one way landlords and tenants will communicate with letting agents and property managers. If you use this as your main point of contact for your customers, expect to get a deluge of messages come Monday morning on rent and property management issues. Depending on the size of your rental management portfolio you may need to hire a receptionist to take care of the queries coming in.

via Email

This is a very popular and a preferred way for some agencies to communicate with customers, especially with landlords who may be in a different time zone. With access to Smartphones, it is easier than ever to communicate with tenants and landlords and you can sync your work email up to your Smartphone easily. The downside is, you may never be off work with emails popping up frequently, and the communications never stop. The main danger here is that if you get an email in the night time, come the start of the next working day, you may have forgotten to act upon it.

via Text

Text message is another way of communication management used and sometimes preferred by your customers. It is usually used in non-urgent situations by tenants looking to rent a property or to alert property managers to issues within the property. Tenants along with potential tenants who have poor oral English will send a text as they tend to be better at writing than speaking over the phone.

via Office

You will still get some landlords and tenants who will call into your office to speak to you as they prefer a more personal approach to all of this (old/new) technology stuff. The good reason for having a nice office is to be able to welcome your landlords and tenants in for a chat. If unavailable, the best approach here would be to log the issues in a diary or leave a message with the designated property manager who will deal with the query if you are not there.

via Social media

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter could be used to communicate with your customers but should probably only be used to promote your brand or notify of an emergency or announcement. This is open for debate and some Letting Agencies may prefer to communicate with people via social media as they can be seen to be proactive at dealing with things.

via distributed messages from different communication channels

Imagine a property manager using his diary to write down a call from a landlord, communicating with a tenant via text or emailing a landlord their invoices. If your agency uses all of the above to communicate with landlords on rent and property management issues it is vital you use a good tool for the management of communication. A good CRM or online diary with a task manager is a vital tool in your armoury because your information could get lost if it is not noted down or logged.

What form of management of communication do you use in your letting agency? We would love to hear and share with other letting agents and property managers what works best for them. Let us know!

by Colin Napper

July 24, 2012

Product Development: Partial Payments on Rentview

How to record a partial rental payment from Rentview on Vimeo.

Welcome to the latest product development blog where today i’m going to give you a quick update on our latest property management software feature set to go live this week.

Receiving a partial rent payment

When you are managing rental payments, you make get some tenants who don’t pay the full rent amount each month. We spoke to agencies who were having this problem and now the Rentview platform allows and agency to record and manage partial rent payments.

Example of Rent schedule : In this case the rent due is €800 from the tenant as per the rent schedule image below.

Unfortunately the tenant has only come up with €700 in rent for July’s payment meaning the €100 will have to be paid at a later date, previously on the software you would have to add a new payment term to manage this issue. Now with partial payments it automatically alters the payment schedule:

Above : Marking the payment of €700 received on time (20Th July 2012)

Below : The new and updated Rent Schedule – €100 Rent arrears due

Thats it for now, like to keep the product development blogs short, for more information visit the website and make sure to follow Rentview on Twitter. Thanks to Colin for the help on this one too. Goodbye , Cormac!

July 17, 2012

Property Infographic: Landlords and Property Management

Rentview are always busy looking to provide some useful information to the rental market and our latest Infographic looks at some of the key trends/issues landlords are facing with their rental properties today. Take a look at our findings.

Now some quick notes on the data and areas for discussion :

Bank transfer is the most common payment method with over half of the landlords surveyed collecting the rent this way. Just under 30% are using a standing order to deduct the amount each month while 14% still physically collect the rent from their tenants. Which is easiest in your opinion?

Our next question we quizzed the landlords on was their experience in collecting the rental payments. Almost half (43%) of landlords have experienced some sort of difficulty in collecting rent. Definitely a worrying statistic which raises the question of quality of referencing tenants?

Following on from my point on the quality of referencing we questioned our landlord database on the various formats they use for issuing a reference to a tenant. Not surprisingly e-mail has taken over from some of the previously popular formats like phone and written.

A big area we wanted to analyse was how the landlord communicates with their tenants for management of the property. This is a big area in which Rentview help agencies save time and reduce the no of hours they have that phone held to their ear! Coming out on top was landlords who call their tenants and those who have hired an agent on their behalf to manage the tenant and the property. I have always been a conscious of using the phone when dealing with important tenant/landlord issues as it is in no way traceable if there was ever to be a disagreement.

And finally the stuff most of us don’t want to hear, how many landlords have had to issue legal notices to their tenants on rents unpaid. Unfortunately one fourth of the landlords have issued a rent arrears or eviction notice.

For more information on Rentview you can click here , and connect with Rentview on Facebook and twitter @Rentview_ .

by Andreas Riha

March 29, 2012

Payment of rent

The payment of rent on time from a tenant to a landlord is the golden rule in the rental industry. It is the most basic of expectations that rent will be paid on an agreed date. It may not be possible to keep a 100% record, but tenants should make every effort to pay on time and to save for emergency situations so the rent can still be paid. A simple way to ensure with relative certainty that it will be paid is to set up a standing order. With standing orders, money is transferred directly from the tenant’s bank account to the landlord’s, which removes the hassle of a manual payment.

Missing the payment date

Paying on time is a common courtesy, which should be enough of a reason to do so, but sometimes tenants need a little push. So if the rent does not arrive on its due date, a phone call may be enough if it is a genuine mistake, but if not, a landlord must notify the tenant in writing followed by the relevant action in your region. I would recommend seeking professional assistance at this stage is needed.

Outsourcing the management of your property

One of the benefits of renting a property through a letting agent is that they take over the responsibility of managing the payment of rent. Now whilst there is a fee for a full management service and rent collection, it is well worth it as they take over the stress. This can be a very stressful and time-consuming task and if not done so correctly it can result in being very costly. Time spent chasing tenants could be used much more effectively and as a result many leave it to the professionals.

Late payment penalties

There are ways to discourage late payments which both landlords and agents can make use of. The obvious one is having a fee for late payments, many leases which have a financial penalty clause for late payment of rent. Another option is to charge a slightly higher rent but give discounts for on time or early payments.

By Andreas Riha

February 10, 2012

Students and renting:Part Two-Paying the rent

Rent

Firstly although this may seem quite obvious to most, students must ensure that they are financially able to afford moving out from home before they even think of logging onto Daft, Myhome or any other property website to start viewing your potential accommodation. You will be surprised at the amount of tenants in the property market who after one or two months of paying rent realise they are unable to meet the monthly requirements in rental payments. If you are unable to pay the rent on a consistent basis there is a chance of possible eviction from the property and an increase in rent or late fee based on the poor punctuality of payments.

To avoid any of these issues make sure and set a budget for your intended stay in the accommodation and match that with your sources of financial income whether it be a part time job, financial support from your family or student loan can do the trick! Getting into issues over missing your rental payments is the last thing you want as a first time tenant as it will affect your future opportunities of securing high quality rental property on the market and the ability to provide credibility to financial institutions in the future. Obviously sometimes students can find themselves in trouble with rental issues over simple mistakes and sometimes easily avoidable issues such as:

A lack of documentation detailing rents paid and upcoming rents
Inconvenient payment methods between owner and tenant
Paying the rent on time
Poor communication between landlords/estate agent and tenant

Above (Two different snap shots of the Rentview property management software that allows tenants to see communication from property manager and upcoming/past rental payments.)

Rent is usually paid on a monthly basis for most of property you are going to find this summer, on occasion a landlord may require you to pay on a weekly basis and I suggest you avoid this as speaking from experience (paying cast to a landlord) it is extremely inconvenient. Unfortunately there is no set method in the industry for collecting rent, you may be asked to do any of the following:

Pay the rent in cash
Deposit rent money into the owners bank account via your local branch
Transfer funds via the internet into landlord or agents account
Set up on a standing order with the agency or property owner

During my time renting I have experienced all four of the above methods for payment and a standing order set up by the agency or landlord is the best option to avoid missing your rent. Organising cash for a bank deposit or collection from the landlord can often result in someone not having the money on time, this has happened to me when house sharing with four others and it resulted in a 50e penalty fee. If you decide to house share with other students be careful about who choose to live for this reason as it can be unfair having to suffer from the actions of others.

If you are one of the tenants fortunate enough to move into a property where the agency is using the Rentview cloud based rent and property management system you will be provided with the following features through your agency account :

1. Access to your schedule of rents for the lease period

2. Comments from your property manager on your rent schedule

3. Automated receipts sent via e-mail when rent is marked as paid

4. Agency and property contact information

To access the information all you need is broadband connection and a desktop,latop or mobile device to login and stay up to date on your rental payments and communication from the property manager. This will help you ensure that the rent is paid on time and monitored efficiently so as to avoid any potential extra costs, communication errors and or disputes over payments. That’s all for today folks I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope students will find this information useful as they start to plan moving out for the first time. Please share the blog if possible and let me know your thoughts and comments on twitter @cormac_nugent!

In the next post I will cover further issues relating to your rent payments during a tenancy including proof of your payments and rent receipts, rent increases by the landlord during a tenancy, rent books and much more!

May 17, 2011

Choosing the right tenant and managing your rental payments

Choosing the right tenant

As an experienced property manager the most frustrating part of the job is chasing the continuously late-paying tenants. If you’re a property manager with a portfolio of property, a landlord with a portfolio or even a landlord of just one property, you will have had to deal with this problem, most likely.

The continuous calls which get unanswered, texts that don’t get replied, emails with ‘send receipt’ not accepted or letters not getting a response the majority of you will have experienced this.

There is just nothing more frustrating, but can we as property managers eliminate this? Well in most cases we can try our best to eliminate this stress as much as possible by choosing the right tenant.

To prevent late payments:

– In what ever lease you are using, if not already in the lease, place a late penalty clause. When going through the lease prior to signing with your tenant(s) make it clear that this will be enforced. Add a clause that for every day late the penalty will be 20 euro. This way at least if it’s late, you’re getting compensated and in today’s climate late rent could cause you or your client to have bank charges with unpaid direct debits or standing orders.

– Reference check your tenants; make sure you get legitimate references. If the reference is from an agency don’t just take it as gospel. Call up the agency and confirm it if it’s from a private landlord and if they only have a mobile number, ask the referee if is it possible to call them on a land line. Any tenant can give you a reference written from a friend with a mobile number on it but they won’t be as quick to give a land line on it. Most landlords will gladly back up the reference with a land line – after all they are in the same position as you.

– But what if they won’t? It can happen. Why not Google their mobile number, more than likely if it’s a mobile number on the reference it will be the same mobile number they use to advertise the property. This way you can confirm at least that it is a real landlord.

– Ask for a bank statement as part of your referencing process to see if the tenant is able to afford the rent in line with salary or bank balance.

– Insist on a standing order being set up, you can find all blank banks standing orders on the banks website in PDF format, which you can print and bring along to a tenancy sign up.

– Fill it out and drop it to the bank personally or post it (a standing order for a particular bank can be dropped into any branch which will set it up on the banking system).

Now just watch the money coming into your account.

Beware that a standing order may not reach you on the same day as it is due. If your tenant banks with a different bank than you do, it may take up to 3 working days to reach you. To solve this problem, insist that the payment date on the standing order is set accordingly if it needs to reach you on its due date.

What if your tenant(s) have not rented before?

Well is it worth the risk? Are they the only interested party? Why is that?

Well these are the questions you need to ask yourself, don’t just assume because they come across as nice people that they will be good tenants. If the only tenants interested in your property don’t have a previous landlord reference is it worth the risk? Why are they the only interested party? Well it could be for a number of reasons;

–The property could be overpriced and the only tenants that are interested are interested because they can’t find anybody else to take a risk on them. Look at the market in your area, view photos online and be honest with yourself. Is your property to the same spec? If not, stop wasting time and money and adjust the price to what the market will pay.

-If your property is something that needs refurbishment, DO IT. It will pay off in the long run. You would be amazed at what a couple of months rent can do to a property and it could save you all the hassle in the long run by placing bad tenants into a property that good tenants wouldn’t touch.

If you go with a tenant who has no previous references, look for a guarantor letter to give more protection if something goes wrong. Otherwise, try getting a higher deposit as a way of good faith.

choosing-the-right-tenant

Tenant chosen

Hopefully your reference checking and selection of tenants will ensure all you have to do is watch the rent coming in.

Managing your rental payments

Keeping a eye on due rents

This is the most important part of being a property manager or a landlord insuring the rent is coming in on time every month. Just because a tenant pays the rent on time every month for 9 months straight it doesn’t mean month 10 is going to be on time or paid at all.

Case study:

I recently spoke with a landlord who had a great tenant in place for the previous 18 months, the rent was on time every month and the landlord stopped keeping his eye on his bank account. This landlord got complacent and too comfortable with his tenant and rent coming on time. When the landlord checked his account there was 5 months rent missing. I mean come on! Even though the landlord only has one property, being a landlord is a business. I mean, if he was a shopkeeper he wouldn’t leave the store unmanned with the day’s takings in the till. Being a landlord or a property manager is the same thing taking your eye off the ball can have terrible results. Luckily for this landlord the tenant placed in the property was a well-referenced tenant whose standing order ran out of payments. He paid in full the following week.

The best way for an agency and even single property landlords to oversee due rental payments is to use software that does the hard work for you; tracking and managing it.

rentview-logo

So what to do if a tenant doesn’t pay his rent on time.

What to do when it starts.

Know your local law and your rights as a landlord.

In most countries, laws covering rented property give the advantage to a tenant. So don’t make any rash decisions, don’t go in all guns blazing putting all the tenant’s belongings on the street and changing the locks. This will most likely put you in a worse position than where you first started.

Illegal evictions at the time might seem right, but in the end can lead it large fines and even being forced by court order to allow your tenant reoccupy the property.

No one wants a tenant with a chip on their shoulder.

Check up on your local law and act accordingly

In Ireland for example, you first must issue a 14 days rent arrears notice and deliver in person to the tenant or by registered post. The Rentview application will create this legal document at the touch of a button. In my experience, this will show the tenants you won’t stand for any messing and normally pay up or give notice to quit the property before it goes further.

If the tenant fails to pay the rent after 14 days you must issue an eviction notice (the amount of time varies from 28 days if a tenant is occupying the house less than 6 months to 100+ days if they are tenants are occupying the house for years+

Note that these letters act as legal papers and as such need to be written in a correct format. One error on the document can set you back and you must start over with a new notice period to your tenants. So make sure if sending these yourself and not taking on the expense of a professional, that you do it correctly.

Listening to a tenant’s promise that the rent will be paid in full at the end of the week and taking the tenant’s word is not good enough. Back yourself up by sticking to the law and insuring you act upon late rent immediately.

You may not want to act to harshly on the first late rent payment as you may feel you will damage your relationship. This is a business, so treat it like one.

We hope this will help you in choosing the right tenant and managing your rental payments.