Property Management Question

Hi All

Going to be renting our place out long term or holiday let - you hear of so many horror stories of so called "hobby" management companies my question is what do property management companies need to hold to be legal in order to minimise my risk of anything going wrong

For instance I have heard that my insurance is invalid if the key holder is not legal is this correct

Thanks

The most important thing regarding a 'long term let'  i.e. up to 11 months, is the correct wording on the lease, and if possible build a good relationship with the tenant.  Marie on this forum can advise you on the lease.

Hi Bluepawn

Anyone doing Property Management should have Public Liability Insurance and in some cases if using contractors for any work E&O as well. One thing which is obviously not disclosed to Owners is that while PL insurance is easy to come by having a policy that includes keyholding is not. Alot of policies are excluding this now, not all but alot, for property management companies because the keys are not securely held by the Agent. I am just going through the process of my insurance and have had a safe fitted and the keys are coded (no addresses on the keys) and the codes and addresses are held in a  file with 128bit AES encryption. May sound a bit extreme but a friend at my old company did me a favour for the insurance but insisted on the security.

If using a friend or non-legal company to look after your house then yes there could possibly be legal issues with insurance if anything does go wrong but best thing is talk to your insurance company about that.

Dave

 Hi Blueprawn, a lot of insurance companies have a section is small print citing that the insurance is invalid if keys are not held by a fully licensed property managment company.  Check your policy to make sure.  A fully licensed company should have their license displayed in their office.