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Since the Homes Fitness for Human Habitation Act has come into force property maintenance is more important than ever.
If the property you’re renting out is poorly maintained and you don’t make efforts to fix it your tenants can now take you to court.
So, in this article we’re introducing you to or refreshing your memory on some key features in Landlord Vision that make managing tradespeople and property maintenance a breeze.
The Tenant Module Makes it Easy for Tenants to Raise Property Maintenance Issues
The Tenant Module makes it easier to manage tenants in Landlord Vision. If you give your tenants access to the module they can find some key information about the property, access their rent receipts, view upcoming rental payments and raise any maintenance issues they’re experiencing.
Tenants can add pictures to their maintenance requests, and you’ll get a notification when they are raised.
When an issue is raised this way, you can move the issue into the main Landlord Vision console with just a few clicks. From here you can keep a record of the issue, associate expenses with it and manage the contacts used to resolve it. If you’re unfamiliar with the Tenant Module you’ll find a list of Tenant Module tutorials here.
In the rest of this article we’ll go into more detail on managing property maintenance in the main Landlord Vision console.
Task Management Features in Landlord Vision Make Managing Maintenance Easier
Landlord Vision contains some powerful task management features. You can email tasks to suppliers (or print them off), manage invoices, refunds, assign due dates and see everything at a glance in your dashboard.
The task system in Landlord Vision allows you to add tags so you can keep track of specifics, for instance ‘plumbing’ or ‘callout charge’. This makes it easier to spot similar tasks in your overall task list. You can even set up recurring tasks for things you need to do on a regular basis, like property inspections.
You can add as much data to each task as you like, if you choose to email the task, any notes you’ve entered will form the body of the email.
Here you can learn how to use tasks in Landlord Vision.
Manage Job Sheets With a few Clicks
Imagine this. Your tenant has raised a maintenance issue in one of your properties. With a few clicks you turn this into a task in Landlord Vision. You add notes and assign a tradesperson to fix it, then you press one button that sends the tradesperson a job sheet. And just like that your maintenance issue is being dealt with.
It’s easy to create job sheets in Landlord Vision, and once you’ve created them they can be emailed or printed off for maximum convenience.
To generate a job sheet, simply hover your cursor over the related task so that a cog icon appears on the left; move your cursor over the cog icon and select ‘Worksheet’ from the list of options.
Record Maintenance Contacts
At this point it’s worth mentioning that many of the property maintenance features in Landlord Vision are easier to use once you’ve added your tradespeople as contacts.
The benefits of doing this go beyond just making the software easier to use.
If you’ve found a good (or a bad) tradesperson the chances are you’ll want to remember them. By saving your tradespeople as contacts in Landlord Vision you can easily keep note of them.
You can add all sorts of details to a contact, so if you’ve found a bad tradesperson you might want to add (DO NOT USE) next to the contact’s name, for instance. You can also attach notes to contacts which is a good way to document any conversations you’ve had or agreements you’ve made.
This tutorial will have you adding contacts in no time.
Maintenance Invoices, Expenses and Refunds
Property maintenance and invoices go hand in hand. Landlord Vision contains a robust expenses system that will allow you to record maintenance expenses correctly for tax purposes.
The ability to manage a whole host of expenses is one of the things that sets Landlord Vision apart from other property management software providers. Adding expenses correctly is important when it comes to filing your taxes. If you have any doubts at all when it comes to adding and attributing expenses in Landlord Vision familiarise yourself with this in-depth tutorial.
Now and again you may need to deal with a refund from a supplier. This tutorial will show you how to deal with a refund and make sure it’s correctly attributed in your expenses.
Are there any other property maintenance features you’d like to see in Landlord Vision? Head over to our User Echo page to leave a suggestion or to vote on new features that have been suggested by our landlords.
