The Top Five Pain Points for Landlords and How to Overcome Them with PropTech

Whether you’re a Build-to-Rent (BtR) developer or a housing association, being a landlord isn’t easy, especially today, when rental properties are so highly sought after and competition is at an all-time high. 

But what are the biggest challenges faced by today’s BtR and social housing landlords, and how can PropTech help?

In this blog, we explore the top five issues faced by landlords today, with guidance on how to use PropTech to solve them.

Payment Issues

Despite obtaining references and background checks, unfortunately, there are times when tenants do not make their payments.  This might be a rental payment, facility booking fee, service charge, or paying for an annual parking permit, for instance. 

Dealing with missed payments can be a delicate matter and one that should be avoided wherever possible.  ‘A key skill for any successful landlord is having the ability to manage rent payments effectively,’ says Tom Entwistle, a residential and commercial landlord since the 1970s.  But what can you do to ensure rentals, or other payments, are made swiftly?

As the old adage goes, prevention is better than cure and one of the surest ways to decrease, or even eliminate cases of missed payments is to ensure you’re offering your tenants a quick and easy payment method.  Using a PropTech solution that includes an automated payment system offers both landlord and tenant peace of mind.  As Property Manager Insider advises: ‘From rent collection to maintenance requests, automated systems handle it all, saving property managers valuable time and resources.’

As you can also use these applications to send out notifications, you can make your tenants aware when they have payments due with a gentle reminder, thus saving you the worry about souring the relationship between landlord and tenant with an awkward conversation.

So, when choosing a PropTech solution, be sure to invest in a platform that allows you to automate payments and send notifications out to your tenants.

Onboarding

Meeting with a new tenant to discuss the property’s rules, obligations and regulations is a stage of the tenancy process that can help you make your mark as a dependable, conscientious landlord.  ‘The tenant onboarding process is important for setting the tone for the rest of the relationship between landlord and tenant,’ explains Jeff Rohde in his blog for Stessa.  But why is this a pain point for landlords and what can be done to prevent issues arising?

When it comes to onboarding new tenants, ‘The process has traditionally involved a substantial amount of paperwork, meetings, and manual checks,’ explains Go Roboted.  This time-consuming and laborious aspect of the process is not onboarding at its most efficient.  PropTech allows property managers and landlords to complete these tasks more efficiently and in a much shorter timeframe than was previously possible.

‘More than 80% of property management companies are adopting tech-driven solutions for tenant onboarding, resulting in a 30% reduction in the time required by previous landlords to complete the onboarding process,’ Go Roboted reveals.  So, moving over to a digital onboarding solution allows you to save valuable time for your team – increasing their ability to focus on the important job of securing more tenants.

Safety Information

‘Landlords have a significant responsibility to ensure the safety of their tenants,’ advises lawyer Clair Phillips from Moore Barlow.  Citing the Building Safety Act 2022, Phillips explains that landlords must, ‘Establish a Residents’ Engagement Strategy to ensure that tenants have access to information about building safety and are involved in safety discussions.’

However, involving residents in discussions about building safety can be a tall order with conflicting tenant schedules and channels of communication often hard to open.  Providing tenants with safety information can prove a paper-heavy and time-consuming task, especially when information needs updating and changing on physical documents.

PropTech can offer a solution if you choose a platform that includes a digital library, where safety information can be stored and updated with ease.  This allows tenants instant access to safety rules, regulations and instructions, as well as protocols that must be followed in the case of emergency, such as fire safety routes.

It is also wise to choose a platform that provides a service for distributing and collecting surveys, as these can be used to gain resident feedback on the building’s safety and help you understand areas for investment and improvement.  Additionally, a PropTech solution that allows you to send calendar invitations across the development could prove an effective way of arranging resident group meetings to discuss issues of safety.

As Phillips warns, ‘Non-compliance with the Building Safety Act can lead to significant penalties, including fines and potentially imprisonment.’  So, investing in a solution that will help you fulfil your obligations is a wise decision for any landlord.

Maintenance

There are two main challenges faced by landlords in regard to property maintenance.  One is the maintenance that they themselves are responsible for and the other is the maintenance that is the responsibility of the tenant.

Firstly, then, we will address the issue of property maintenance that falls on the landlord’s shoulders. ‘Repairs and maintenance, where it is not caused by the tenant is a responsibility of the landlord,’ advises The Tenants Voice.  Unfortunately, landlords, currently with an emphasis in social housing landlords, can live in the shadow of a bad reputation when it comes to property maintenance.  Cases of untreated mould leading to ill health and even death have recently made national news headlines, and this has an impact on the reputation of the sector.

Maladministration is often cited as the cause of the delayed repairs, so what can be done to improve the time-scale and efficiency of carrying out repairs?  PropTech can significantly reduce the chances of defects and issues being missed by landlords, by streamlining and digitising the reporting process for issues within the home.  If you choose a PropTech solution that offers an issue reporting feature, be sure to choose one that will give an immediate response to the report, as well as escalating the issue to the relevant member of your organisation, wherever necessary.

Choose a platform that uses an AI ChatBot to respond reported issues with a series of questions to offer advice to the tenant. This way you will find that many of the issues that previously caused a backlog are minor issues, which the tenant is responsible for fixing themselves.  When the ChatBot receives an issue report for a problem you’re responsible for repairing, such as damp and mould, then the correct member of your team will be notified and can respond to the resident directly.

This immediate response from the ChatBot helps the tenant understand their issue and feel reassured that the problem is being addressed.  It also wheedles out the minor problems at this early stage, giving your team more time for the serious issues that require their attention. 

Secondly, there is the issue of property maintenance from the tenant.  A reasonable amount of wear and tear is expected to occur throughout the duration of the tenancy, but when the cosmetic appearance of the property has been significantly diminished, this will require some investment from the landlord before the home can go back on the rental market.  Ideally, landlords want tenants to look after the property as if they owned the home, and sometimes this only requires an increased level of understanding about what it actually means to maintain the property effectively.

When you choose a PropTech solution that includes plot-specific guidance on all the fixtures and fittings within the property, as well as instructions on how to maintain them to keep them looking and working their best, you are providing the tools your residents need to keep the home as visually and functionally pleasing as it was the day they moved in.  So, be sure to choose a PropTech solution that helps your residents understand their home and what they need to do to maintain it effectively.

Tenant Satisfaction

The Tenant Satisfaction Measures were introduced by the government to evaluate the standards of the social housing rental market.  ‘The Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard requires all registered providers of social housing to collect and report annually on their performance on a core set of defined measures to provide tenants with greater transparency about their landlord’s performance,’ the government explains.  Through these surveys, tenants are able to have their say about the experience of living in one of your properties, while prospective tenants can gauge your offerings as a landlord before choosing whether or not to move into one of your properties.

But tenant satisfaction isn’t only important for social housing landlords.  High levels of tenant satisfaction are important for private landlords of BtR developments who want to keep their rental homes occupied, and with long tenancies.  But how can PropTech help?

PropTech solutions that offer a survey feature can be invaluable in the case of understanding the tenant experience you’re offering and where you would be wise to invest to make improvements.  Surveys can be carried out periodically, to evaluate progress in areas where you have previously not met the needs of your customers, and see where your service might still require improvement.

Through this digital platform, you should also provide details of key contacts so that when your tenants want to speak to someone, they know the right person to get in touch with.  It is also a good location to outline your complaints procedure, illustrating to residents that you will handle their complaint effectively. 

Finally, to optimise tenant satisfaction levels among your residents and ensure you’re providing the best tenant experience, then investing in one single application that includes all of the above mentioned tools is a must.  To find out how Spaciable Living can help reduce all your major pain points as a landlord, while making sure your tenants are happy living in one of your homes, get in touch.