If you are running a property management company like Property Management London or are thinking of getting into the business, how about the possibility of expanding into short term rentals? This is an opportunity that you might not have thought very hard about but is a way of increasing your income base. Short term rentals are exactly what a lot of people going on holiday often find is hard to locate or so much of a headache that they either don’t bother or end up opting for more expensive hostel or guest house lodging.

The idea is to offer an online marketplace for short term rentals, either for people who are working on short term contracts or for anybody who is on holiday. The online market would allow anybody who owns or manages property to market their properties specifically for the short term market. Your company website could present information about the rental such as price, availability, contact information and photographs.

Families in particular looking for holiday accommodation often complain that a single hotel room is often too cramped for them, especially if they have older children, but two hotel rooms can be quite expensive for a few weeks holiday. The problem is that there is no easy way of finding short term rental accommodation apart from contacting real estate agents. Most real estate agents tend to focus on long term rental accommodation and only have a small list of short term rentals. This often means that the casual enquirer may have to contact several different estate agents before finding something suitable. Because of the flat housing market at the moment there are usually a good stock of second homes in most places including holiday locations and the smart property management company could take advantage of the demand for short term rentals together with the number of property owners no doubt willing to rent their properties out on a short term basis while they are waiting to sell them.

If you are serving an area which is a natural holiday area or holiday destination then you may consider the possibility of adding this service to your portfolio. Other possibilities are for short term accommodation in university towns or capital cities or industry hubs where people might want to come and stay for extended short periods and are looking for something which is somewhere between the hotel option and a long term rental. Most long term rentals now are for six months minimum, which seriously limits the availability of accommodation for anybody wanting something decent to live in for more than a week or two but less than six months. The six month rule is great for the average landlord who wants to let his or her property out for as long as possible to the best tenants who pay regularly and keep the property in good condition, but the rule then makes it prohibitive if both the property owner and the potential renter want a short term arrangement only.

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Issues for companies like Property Management London include the managing of healthy and safety in buildings. If your company or business uses hazardous substances such as chemicals then you are required to have safeguards at hand that keep total control over the release of these substances. First of all a risk evaluation has to take place and be compiled in a written form followed by emergency plans if any substances happen to be released into the environment. Employees should be involved in training programmes to ensure they are aware of the presence of hazardous substances and know what action to take if any of the substances are released into their work environment.

In the evaluation process it is essential that employers identify the dangers that are related to their industrial processes and equipment, including any potential possibility of accidental releases of extremely dangerous chemicals into the environment. Comprehensive operating measures must present directives for every stage of the process, including maintenance procedures. Employers must put into practice written out procedures to ensure the proper maintenance of mechanical equipment including those that do welding, cutting or brazing

Employers must put together a written employee participation plan. This should contain a description of how permanent employees and those on contracts will have access to safety information. Employers have a legal obligation to ensure employees receive adequate training on safe operating methods and any contingency plans to be used in time of emergency. Also if the employees need to be updated on any new hazards then they should be informed immediately.

Any new equipment has to have a safety review before it is put into place. Employees must receive training on any new processes before they go into operation.

All employers have to develop and put into place an emergency plan that outlines any action that has to be taken in the event of a hazardous chemical release. Employers must thoroughly investigate any incident that either results in a disastrous release of hazardous chemicals or could have resulted in a disastrous release. The investigation must be take place straightaway, but no more than forty eight hours after the event. Employers must immediately act on an incident inspect their discoveries and suggest recommendations

All Employers have to undertake audits to make sure they are following all the required regulations. The audit ascertains that all necessary measures have been put in place and are working to plan. Employers must indicate they have assessed their status at least every three years. All employers have to record this audit, which must include any findings of any measures taken to put right any negative issues.

Employers have to provide all facts and figures that are required to sufficiently assess workplace dangers including the practical operation of hazard prevention procedures and complete investigations of accidents. There is some information that can remain confidential if the company so wishes.

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If you are a company like London Property Management and look after offices, apartments and other property you will have a lot to do with all sorts of tradesmen including electricians when it comes to fixing things up. What sort of qualities should you look for when it comes to electricians?

• Any good electrical contractor should be easy to reach. This means that a real human being not just tinny music or an answer phone should always be able to answer the phone during business hours. There should also be an after hours number for use in an emergency.

• The electrical company should have sufficient staff so that somebody can physically come out and fix something that has gone wrong on the spot. Particularly if you manage office properties and there has been an electrical fault in the evening you want to be assured that it will be fixed quickly even if it is just switching on a flipped circuit breaker or something a little more serious is at fault.

• If you want new work done you would want a good contractor to make an inspection of the job and provide a written quote for what it is likely to cost in advance. The sort of work that is common in property management situations includes the rewiring of newly acquired property, upgrades to electrical panels, installing new electrical equipment like boilers, stoves and power outlets.

• You should be able to get an honest and accurate estimate of the sort of work that is required. This means that the job is appraised sufficiently and the contractor has had enough experience to be able to give a proper estimate without saying when the job has been completed that it wasn’t expected that certain complications had arisen. Obviously there are always some exceptions where complicated work is undertaken and it’s hard to be able to give a totally accurate idea of what it might entail, but generally well experienced contractors will know when it is likely to lead to complications and allow for that eventuality.

• The electrical contractor is bound to be in contact with some of your tenants and you would expect a friendly, but professional attitude. One would hope that the contractor would also know what sorts of answers should be given to the inevitable questions that might be asked. These questions should be answered so that the tenants have access to the information they want on a need to know basis.

• When the job has been completed you would expect to be told as well as the tenants and that he has checked to make sure everything works properly and has cleaned up after himself.

• The electrical contractor’s accounts staff should be able to provide itemised and accurate bills which give a clear account of what the money has been spent on for the property owners you are managing the property for. As noted earlier, there should be somebody in the office during business hours who will be able to answer any questions you might have about the bill.

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The design and installation of a mezzanine floor can increase the usable space inside a building quite dramatically. The decision and process of installing a mezzanine floor is an investment that re pays itself over a period of time. Property Management London sees great advantages in installing a mezzanine floor for businesses as they know that a mezzanine floor ends up far surpassing expectations.

In the earlier days it was a mammoth task measuring up and building a mezzanine floor. It took up so much time that it held back the full functioning of the company for a very long period of time. More importantly, the old style mezzanine floors did not look very visually appealing and it was not such common practice to install them in commercial premises.

However, the most innovative technology of making and fitting mezzanine floors has taken away the disadvantages of installing them. The businesses who install mezzanine floors use up to date designs for forming mezzanine floors to the customer’s preference that initiate all sorts of space needs as well as looking visually appealing.

Today, mezzanine floors are made up of robust and hardwearing stainless steel which is a great addition to the attractiveness of the area where it is being fitted. The mezzanine floor is made in separate parts inside the business’s workshop, after which it takes only a few hours to be assemble and fit into just about any type of building.

Mezzanine floors are of particular use in warehouses where the need of more space is always an ongoing issue. Mezzanine floors are also of great use in offices, shops and industrial storage areas. So, if you think there is a need to multiply the usable space within your building, then the fitting out of a trendy mezzanine floor is the best alternative. Mezzanine Floors are not just standardised sizes but come in all shapes and sizes and can be moulded to adapt to your space requirement.

There is no better time than in the current economic climate rather than relocating to bigger premises you can solve space problems by making the decision to have a mezzanine floor fitted for you. It is a good idea first to actually figure out how much it will cost you. This will basically mean that you have to organise a bit of fundamental research and even a feasibility study to ascertain the cost effectiveness and usefulness of a mezzanine floor. Once you have made the decision to go ahead you will soon discover that mezzanine floors are very functional and most suppliers will also organise the designing, producing and installation of them as well.

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So you are now a landlord and have become part of an increasing number of buy to rent investors. Maybe you have just inherited a property or have moved in with a new partner and have a spare property available or you have just started a work contract abroad or are sailing around the world and won’t need your property to live in the U.K. for a few years. Whatever the reason, you are probably now looking around for a suitable property management company like London Property Management to look after your assets for you.

If you are still living in the U.K. you will first have to consider whether to look after your surplus property yourself or use a property agent to do the job on your behalf. The rule of thumb here is that if your property base is quite small and you live locally, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have a go at managing your own property yourself. Obviously, the further away you live and, especially if you have a busy job overseas, then it is highly unlikely you are going to be able to deal with any of the day to day issues yourself and this is where a property manager would most be of benefit.

Property managers can do pretty well as much or as little as you want. You may want them to oversee the vetting of prospective tenants, the advertising of your rental property and make up the paperwork and legal documents if necessary. You may then, having engaged them to do all this initial work, decide to take on the ongoing day to day maintenance of your own properties yourself. On the other hand, if you are satisfied with what they have been doing, you may decide to keep their management service and expand their role so that they are involved in tenant liaison, rent collection and maintenance of your facilities, carry out repairs, pay utility bills and so on.

The main point about whether to go it alone or use a manager is the time you will be spending. You obviously have to pay more money to get the management company to do whatever role you agree on, but this would otherwise take up a great deal of your own time and in the final analysis it depends on how you value the time that you would be spending on managing your own properties. The other argument is that the extra income that can be gained from having your properties run efficiently and without too much time wasted on transition between different tenancies would almost certainly pay for the fees of the management company, anyway.

If you’re not sure about the economic benefits, it’s worth sitting down with a calculator and working out all various scenarios.

If you are a buy to rent investor then it certainly pays to talk to the property manager about the ideal sort of tenant for your property that you have available to rent and whether your property should be let furnished or unfurnished. In the past, there was a tendency for landlords to rent out furnished accommodation as there were more legal safeguards as a landlord to do so. These days, the differences between furnished and unfurnished accommodation are a lot less and unfurnished rentals are much more common.

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Property managers are very competent at ensuring that suitable time management takes place in any office as it increasingly more important than ever before to economise on time. Simply falling behind by just a few days with office work can bring about having to try and catch-up for many days following. This is not the sort of situation that many offices can afford these days. Property Management London will tell you that the greatest time waster in an office environment is the use of out of date technology. The newest technology is always geared towards saving time if correctly used. Staff will be able to churn out far more material if they are proficient at using the most up to date computers and software programmes.

If your business is involved in rental properties and you have to receive cheques from tenants every month then it is worthwhile setting up a system so that your tenants can pay online. This is of particular use when it comes to hundreds of properties and a lot of staff hours are spent processing paper payments. When depositing money online automatically, tenants are given an automatic receipt and they can gain access to their rent payment history. This gives them more confidence in the record keeping process as well as reminding them when their next payment is due.

Another aspect of the rental property business is filling the property when it becomes vacant. So often time is wasted showing prospective tenants around a property who are clearly not interested. By spending a few additional minutes conversing with applicants can markedly reduce the time wasted taking people around properties which are not the right type. Discovering more about what they’re actually after will help to stop time wasters. In the end you will b e able to take them around to suitable properties and fill those vacant ones much quicker.

The prospective renter is obviously very important to the profits of your business but wasting time on inappropriate people is an utter waste of time and has no business sense. Even if you send one of your lower paid workers around with the prospective tenant to view the property and they are obviously not suitable means that your worker has not only not filled a vacancy but has also wasted a lot of time of valuable time not doing anything productive. This is not the worker’s fault but the fault of the manager who has failed to run the office in a cost effective manner. Guidelines provided to workers on interviewing prospective clients will help in the long run as it will ensure they get the best clients without wasting too much time on time wasting clients.

When getting down to basics just investing in some technology and putting in a bit of thought can turn your property management office into a mean, lean office environment.

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As a company that deals in property management like London Property Management, you will have all sorts of difficult situations to deal with from time to time and one of these is whether it is sensible and good business practice to allow tenants to have pets in the property that you manage. The article below discusses the pros and cons of the pet question.

The main concern for property owners and managers when they rent out their houses and flats is the worry that animal inhabitants might damage carpets, furniture, screens and curtains, there might be claw marks and scratches on door frames and then there is the problem of various nefarious odours permeating the atmosphere. All of these potential problems could have an effect on the value of the property or make it more difficult to rent the property in future. There is also the problem of potential noise on the neighbours. Some pets, however lovable, are quite noisy at times: cats shriek when they fight, dogs bark and howl; even parrots can screech.

Taken at face value the temptation to make a blanket ban on pets seems to be the logical one, but maybe this is not a good business-like decision. One has to approach the pet question with a level head and not bend to emotion. What is best for you as the manager of property or its owner who wants to obtain the highest reliable return on their rental arrangements?

Britain, like a lot of Western countries has a very high pet ownership per capita: one of the highest in the world. Even a lot of the people who don’t have pets would like to have one or more if they could get one or if it was convenient. An increasing number of renters are single people or people living on their own who want a pet for companionship.

Looking at it from this angle one might suspect that a blanket ban on pets in rental property might make it less likely to get regular renters as many might be put off and look elsewhere for a more pet friendly arrangement. The conclusion might be that a higher rate of return on rental accommodation might come not from excluding pets but by making the rules and conditions for having pets safeguard the value and condition of the property while at the same time allowing the majority to exercise their need for a furry or feathery friend.

There is considerable anecdotal evidence that those rental properties that allow pet ownership are securing up to fifteen percent more rent than those properties that do not. Other reports indicate that seventy percent of enquiries about renting come from people who do indeed have pets.

Some of the arrangement that could be put in place for pet owners could include the following:

• Any pet owners should provide a record of pet registration and vaccination where applicable
• Make a rule about pets outside only if that is what you are most comfortable with
• Flea control at the end of tenancy to be made compulsory
• Any damage to the property by pets to be paid for by the tenant at the time of the tenancy expiry
• A random check on such things as pet droppings or odour or stains on carpets or the stairs due to toilet accidents during any routine property inspections.

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If you are beginning to acquire quite a lot of property as a means of using it as a source of income you will soon get to the point where trying to manage it all yourself can be quite a demanding exercise and it will be time to start thinking of using a property management company like Property Management London to look after much of the details for you. A lot of landlords do choose to manage their property portfolio through a professional management company rather than do all the work themselves.

This is probably especially the case for landlords who do not normally live in the place where their properties are located – they may have city rental apartments and live in the countryside or overseas, for instance. By having the property management company handle the day to day management issues it means that the particularly onerous work of dealing with tenants like collecting rents, making sure that the properties are kept in good condition and so on are dealt with by the company which is a real bonus. The larger property management companies often have their own qualified experts who deal with different aspects of property management. They may very well have their own tradesmen who deal with electrical, plumbing and building faults or they use sub-contractors to do this sort of work They also may have their own lawyers or their own arrangement with a lawyer to sort out legal issues to do with rent fees, eviction processes and maintenance issues that are liable to involve some sort of legal action. The biggest benefit of using a property management company is that it does free up your time immensely while you still make decent profit from the rental of your assets. Especially those owners who own large apartment buildings it can be an absolute headache being called up by tenants in the middle of the night who have had plumbing or electrical disasters or by those tenants who have issues with other tenants living next to them in the same apartment block. A good property management company will know how to keep the property managed and improved so that it is making a decent income. In particular this means making sure that the right sort of tenants are occupying the property and that the transition between one tenant occupancy and another is smooth and as short as possible.

Quite often it is the loss of income in these transition periods caused by the delays in making sure the apartment or house is up to scratch and interviewing prospective tenants which is one of the most important reasons for using a property manager. The realities of buying a property these days, especially for first home buyers, means that the number of people renting is greater than ever. This means that the opportunities for making good money from rental properties are better than ever. All it needs is to treat your growing property assets with a degree of professionalism by investing in a good, reliable property management company to lighten the load of responsibility and ensure an efficient management of your property is maintained.

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As well as PAT Testing microwave ovens they also need to be tested for leakage. Property managers like London Property Management who specialise in testing electrical equipment can test microwaves which are located in the home, business or tenancy occupied property.

Microwave ovens do have a very strong construction and the test on them is not difficult to carry out as it is quite easy to establish an Earth connection on the metal work which is behind the oven. Otherwise the screws that attach the cabinet into one piece can be used. It is necessary to ensure that the power switch is on when carrying out the test.
As microwave ovens can be well used and sometimes not treated correctly in a hectic kitchen environment which is preparing food for large numbers of staff and customers, they can over time become broken and even rusty, if not cared for correctly.

It is quite commonplace to come across microwave ovens with broken door hinges, worn or destroyed door seals, damaged door catches and sometimes cracks to the glass in the door..
Although, these ovens are initially produced to operate well and keep the microwaves sealed inside the oven, it is extremely important that there are no gaps at all in the metallic seal.
When ill health from being exposed to microwaves takes place, it normally comes from dielectric heating that takes place in the body, the same type of heating that actually cooks the food. Too much exposure to microwave radiation can result in the production of cataracts by affecting the lens in the eye. Exposure to heavier doses of microwave radiation that may occur when the oven door is left open while the food is cooking can bring about heat damage in other tissues as well which may include serious burns which may not be noticed immediately, because microwaves heat deeper tissues with higher levels of moisture content. This makes it all important to check the leakage from microwaves when they are actually being used. There are special devices which are able to do this called Microwave Leakage Checkers.

Generally aging or poor door seals most commonly cause microwave leakage. Banging the door shut or accumulation of dirt in the seals can bring about damage of seals so that the door doesn’t shut properly. This situation will most likely bring about leakage from within the oven that can bring about long lasting damage to humans.
It does not matter whether the microwave is situated in the home or the office environment, precautions should be taken to protect both the family and workers from unnecessary exposure to microwaves. It only takes regular testing and maintenance to ensure the microwave is kept in perfect condition. There is nothing worse if you are an office manager and it is reported to you that one of your workers is sick from being exposed to microwaves and it was in your staff kitchen.

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