I know it's a shameless play on Shakespeare Richard III but the sentiments are very real.
The temperature drops and immediately it brings to light issues with your tenants central heating which they either have been hiding from you or only become apparent when the heating become a regular feature.
After my own central heating issue and a leak it's highlighted to me how difficult it is to track down a decent, affordable and reliable plumber. My regular plumber of several years has disappeared from view, leaving me in the unenviable position of having a few plumbing and heating issues but no one to fix it. How then do you find a decent plumber? Ideally, I would go on personal recommendation but my regular contacts have been unable to provide me details of somebody they can recommend. So for me it was straight to the internet and Yell. The service now has pretty much moved online with the added bonus that you do get Trip Advisor style reviews which can be helpful (you obviously have to use your own discretion as to the genuine ones). I like to employ a local strategy when trying to get hold of a good plumber. Think like them. Most plumbers don't like doing the annoying the fiddly jobs that most landlords need them for. This is because - they have to travel a long way and it might only be 30 mins work which they can't charge much for but takes up half of their day. So if you can get a plumber that is round the corner from your buy-to-let, they are often more than happy to pop in on the way back from a full days fitting of a new boiler or bathroom. One thing that I did find on my search that the good ones are often booked up until Christmas. Where this is the case get them to recommend somebody. That's what I did and now my leaky washer has been fixed and the heating system on another is back up and running (faulty room digistat).
GOOD LUCK!
Do I need boiler insurance?
Have struggled with this problem for many years, sometimes even DIY-ing the smaller jobs out of sheer frustration that no professional was willing to attend.
ReplyDeleteThese days, I find the bigger property maintenance companies are quite a good solution - not particularly cheap but they do at least have a team of employed plumbers who are happy to do the smaller jobs (as they work on a fixed salary)...
Thanks for sharing this post. DIY is good but for me it is really better to seek the help of a plumber.
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