The Leading Student Letting Agent

As you may know, the only other letting agent at York University had to leave his office on campus this year. This places me in an excellent position to market your properties to students of the University of York. Also my office in Gillygate will be re opening shortly which once again will enable me to provide an excellent service to landlords wishing to let to students from York St John University. With the increase in workload we now have 4 minibuses available to transport students to viewings.

Insurance for Landlords

I have negotiated a new buildings insurance deal with Bluefin Insurance Services Ltd for tenanted properties. Landlords that have moved are currently saving up to 20% so it’s well worth asking them for a quotation when your insurance renewals are due. For further details contact Graham Smith of Bluefin, 4-6 Ripon Road, Harrogate. HG1 2HH. Tel: 01423 700776 or 07736 907689. Please remember to mention adambennett.co.uk when you get a quotation.

Energy Performance Certificates

As you will know you now need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for any property that is marketed to rent.  If you have not yet commissioned your report, we have an arrangement with an energy assessor who charges £45 all in per property within the York area.  If this is of interest, please send me an email giving your name, contact telephone number and property address(es).

Services for Student Properties

The market for renting student houses was not too difficult this year, as again for the 4 year running, there was an over-supply of students.  With York St John University opening its new accommodation block for 232 students off Navigation Road and a planning application for a similar block of 282 rooms having been agreed on Hull Road, all the signs suggest that it will be a different story for 2011/12.  As a student landlord you need to keep ahead of the crowd.  Ideally your properties must be attractive to students, eg in the prime locations, clean and with modern furniture.  We can help you rent your properties with a selection of services ranging from basic tenant finding to taking over the full management on your behalf.  Our fees for student landlords have not increased this year and details of these services follow.

Tenant Finding

We offer a tenant finding service, which includes the following aspects:

• advertising
• accompanied viewings (usually with the option of a lift both ways in one of our minibuses)
• interviewing prospective tenants
• preparation of a tailored tenancy agreement
• obtaining guarantees and
• collecting the deposit

Full Management Service

The full management service includes letting the property and all the routine matters arising during the tenancy including:

• preparing inventory
• dealing with all other matters on tenant changeover
• collecting rent
• inspections
• arranging required repairs, maintenance and safety checks and
• dealing with all tenant enquiries

Rent collection Service

For all these services we DO NOT need you to complete any complicated application forms and there is NO small initial charge when we first take on a property. 

Third Party Costs

Obviously with both management arrangements, third party costs relating to repairs, maintenance and improvements are passed on.  When I established my first agency in 2005, I was approached by some tradesmen seeking similar arrangements to those that they enjoyed with other letting agents.  The arrangement that these tradesmen expected was to inflate their bills so that they were able to pay the letting agent a hidden commission. It is not our intention to ‘mark up’ any repairs needed.  The only private connection we have with our agency tradesmen is that I use some of them for work on my own properties on the same terms. Neither do we employ full time maintenance staff. According to some of our landlords that have previously used letting agents with full time maintenance staff we hear that despite claims of “free” maintenance they usually work out to be unbelievably expensive.

Tradesmen & Professional Services

I am looking to put a comprehensive list of tradesmen & professional services together on a new page on my website its free and for all to use if you have a web site it will also have a link to your site. Please drop me a line if you are interested.

For any queries on the above please call or email me.

M: 0775 611 611 2

E: sales@adambennett.co.uk

H: 01904 672327

W: 01904 414444

Yours sincerely

 Adam Bennett