4 Tips to get your student lets sorted this summer
Student lets can be a trial
Lettings agents face a number of labors in the course of their work, and dealing with students brings along a set of pain points that are even more acute. Speaking with friends who have let to students over the years, I’ve learned about quite a few of these problems, so here are some tips for getting these sorted over the summer season.
Clueless about upkeep
Your student tenant, let’s call him Rich, may be a whiz at programming or able to wax poetic on phenomenology in French films, but how well does Rich do when the lights go out?
I’ll bet that 9 times out of 10, he’s straight on his mobile, ringing you about his ‘emergency’. If you send round a contractor, or head to the property yourself, you’ll be quick to discover that he’s simply tripped a fuse.
This may not be an everyday occurrence, but when it does happen, it both wastes your time and is financially costly to both your clients and your business.
What mum didn’t teach them
A simple solution to this problem is ensuring there is a system of guidance in place, that’s where Fixflo comes in.
Rather than jumping straight on the phone, our pal Rich now visits your agency-branded repairs app directly from his smartphone—which, let’s face it, is his native method of contact, anyway. He taps through the fault tree for Electricity issues, and is quickly and easily guided by the images to identify his problem, where he is then shown how to check the fuse box.
With this filter in place, Fixflo ensures that when emergency calls do come through to the office, they are indeed emergencies, not just confused students.
What do you mean I have responsibilities?
Just to make sure we aren’t always picking on Rich, let’s choose another student-tenant – Becky. Becky notices “some black-stuff” between the tiles in her bathroom, or discovers that her kitchen light bulb has blown.
Let’s face it, most students ‘maintenance’ experience was previously limited to cleaning their bedroom! Mum was always around to worry about pesky mildew, and who even knew that light bulbs don’t simply last forever?
Unaware that both mildew & broken light bulbs are usually a tenant’s responsibility, Becky calls your office asking to know when you plan to send a contractor round to clean the tiles or change the lightbulb…
Filling them in
Except now, you have Fixflo, so Becky clicks the maintenance request button on your website and is taken straight through to your maintenance system.
After clicking through the images to diagnose her issue, Becky learns that both issues are actually her responsibility and follows the simple instructions on how to deal with them.
Bonus points: Your office is spared having to explain—for the 1,000th time—that you don’t clean tenants’ bathrooms for them.
Language barriers
According to the Times Higher Education Supplement, the number of international undergraduates has jumped from 39,000 in 2005/6 to 75,000 in 2013/2014, when the last figures were released.
Though their understanding of English may be fairly strong, it all gets a bit trickier when it comes to explaining maintenance issues—for instance, even as a native English speaker, coming from America, I wasn’t sure what you call a breaker in the UK, I was told to say fuse! Now imagine how a non-native speaker might struggle to communicate.
When working with international tenants, you are either faced with decoding vague emails and long-winded phone-calls, or more often than not have to set aside the time to go to the property yourself to figure out what is actually going on.
Automating the translating
Fixflo translates from over 40 languages into English (with repair reports being processed by live translators, to ensure accuracy!). So, not only can your foreign students view all maintenance guidance in their own language, they can report in their language, and all of that information will be translated straight back to you in English!
With student-lets, it doesn’t rain it pours
Move-in periods, check-out periods and after holidays—there are certain times of year when your offices are flooded with maintenance issues, largely dictated by the student calendar. This is definitely not something that a typical agency has to deal with.
The problem arises when your office is faced with so many issues shooting in from different directions; emails, calls, voicemails, texts, etc. It can be hard to keep track, and repairs may slip through the cracks. With the changes to the Section 21 processes, even your response to a repair request can have dire consequences on a landlord’s ability to regain possession of their property.
Fixflo’s time-stamped archive
Rather than having issues scattered across the office, all maintenance reports are collected and stored in a secure central archive, along with the exact time and date of the report.
Your students can report issues from their phones, computers or iPads, with all the information & photos you require. This information stays on file, and can be accessed weeks or months down-the-line in case of disputes.
And, with Fixflo, your best-practice adequate response will be sent to the tenant, helping to ensure your landlord’s ability to serve Section 21 notice.
So, here are your next steps:
1) With over 1,400 letting agency branches across the UK using Fixflo, there is a good chance that an agent in your area is using our services. Get in touch with them to get feedback straight from the horse’s mouth!
2) We offer free remote demonstrations to show you how the system works. CLICK HERE to contact us to arrange a 20-minute session for you and/or your property management team and you will be prepared for the next academic year & student influx!
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