LANDLORDS
FAQs
LANDLORDS
Not in the slightest!
Co-Lux Living rent properties from landlords and then offer accommodation to professional tenants from highly reputable companies from a spectrum of fields and industries.
Our services maximise the value of your property via effective, continuous, hands-on management.
That’s much closer to the mark, yes. We sign fixed-term contracts with our landlord clients, typically ranging from three to five years, taking charge of your property by becoming your tenant. During this time we will be paying you a guaranteed rent every single month, irrespective of whether or not the property has tenants occupying it. We also ensure that all of our properties are regularly maintained to our high standards, without you having to lift a finger. Sourcing and vetting the references of our tenants, as well as making sure they have everything they need in their homes, collecting rent from them, etc. also becomes Co-Lux Living’s responsibility, you get to rest assured that your property is in good hands, is properly maintained and that the tenants will be treating your housing with the respect it deserves while being paid promptly every month. What’s not to like?
Our vast property portfolio covers a large range of different types of properties, be it a new build, beautifully refurbished family-style home or an older building in need of a bit of love and attention, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, as we believe we have the expertise to transform any home into the perfect Co-Lux Living environment.
We like to enter agreements to rent directly from our landlords in a fixed-term tenancy agreement, paying a guaranteed monthly income to our tenants that we believe are incredibly competitive, if not higher than the current market rates. Our valuation process is based on quite a few contributing factors, for example: the location of your property, the current condition of your property, size, etc.
We keep the process simple and easy:
First of all, we arrange a time convenient to you for a visit to the property in question to conduct an on-site valuation, doubling up as an opportunity for you to ask us any other questions that you might want answering about who we are and how we like to work.
· We then put together a formal offer in writing within the next twenty-four hours, setting up a follow-up phone meeting to discuss things further.
· Once we’ve come to the perfect agreement for both parties, we will send you a contract on the very same day.
CONTRACTS
We provide our landlords with a commercial agreement that is almost custom-made for our business model, making Co-Lux Living your sole tenant for the entirety of the contract (typically ranging from three to five years in length), while also giving us the freedom and authority to manage your property on your behalf.
Once both parties are happy and the home has been set up and furnished to our exacting standards, we start the process of looking for and vetting tenants that we believe will fit perfectly in your property, usually this involves a twelve-month tenancy agreement with a break clause of six months and extend from there (the average tenancy lasting around fourteen months total). Occasionally we may alter this to be more flexible in incorporating a shorter tenancy (for example, if the tenant is only placed on a temporary contract with their place of work), however, we much prefer to work with tenants with a view to the long term, priding ourselves on our ability to form harmonious communities in the properties we manage.
Not at all!
By signing a contract with us, we are now for all intents and purposes your tenants; as such we will be paying you rent on time, every month for the duration of the tenancy agreement we sign, regardless of whether or not there are any occupants in your property.
We hope you never have to find out first hand, but we believe this is a very important question and we always strive to be as transparent as possible:
In short, for the remainder of the contract we have with you, if we did go out of business, the rent that the tenants we have placed in your property were paying us will now revert directly to you and their deposits will remain in the safe hands of the Deposit Protection Service in the case of any damages to the property or in the unlikely event that rent goes unpaid in the future.
MORTGAGE ASPECTS
We will not have security of tenure in our contract agreement, so we don’t anticipate there being any issues with your mortgage provider.
We do however recommend that before entering into any contract that you do seek authorisation from your lender, it never hurts to be sure. We have plenty of documentation, which, when shown in conjunction with our contract, we believe will appease any potential concerns that your mortgage lender may ever have.
That’s right!
As we are contractually your tenant, we will be paying you rent directly & in full each month.
While we do prefer to pay our landlords on the first of each month, we will always do our best to accommodate any specific needs on that front.
One of the best aspects about signing a contract with us is that you will never have to chase a tenant up for rent throughout the duration of our tenancy agreement! In the very unlikely scenario that one of our stringently screened tenants doesn’t pay their rent, or is late on a payment, by the definition of our agreement it is entirely our problem, so it doesn’t affect you in the slightest. We will pay you the agreed rent guaranteed, every single month.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
While we aren’t your average tenant, as the landlord, you will still be financially responsible for all of the regular things a landlord has to deal with. The difference is, as the manager of your property, we will do almost the entirety of the organising and planning for you, while always providing you with competitive quotes before following through with any work and taking on the responsibility of property access for you, so that once again, you won’t have to get your hands dirty with the logistics, saving you time and the stress that comes with that process.
The two major categories of maintenance are as follows:
“Minor Maintenance”: this type of maintenance covers the typical small wear and tear that might occur in any property throughout the year, minor maintenance can involve anything from fixing light switches, re-grouting or re-applying silicone to tiles, issues with light sockets, leaky taps, touching up superficial damage to paintwork and anything in-between, where the work that is conducted costs up to a price of £100 per calendar month. If the minor maintenance cost looks like it’s going to exceed that price in any month, Co-Lux Living will contact the landlord before proceeding with any work. We don’t require any involvement from the landlord when it comes to minor maintenance, as we have a team that is very well versed in the maintenance of buildings, so we can promptly sort out any minor issues well within 48 hours of it being reported to us.
As Gas, Electrical, EPC, Legionnaire’s etc. Periodic Inspection Certificates are legal requirements in all properties, they do not feature under minor maintenance.
“Major Maintenance”: this covers the big-ticket items in the household, anything like structural repairs to the roof, issues with or the replacement of a boiler, plumbing work, etc. as well as high-end fittings in the property. After consulting with our landlords, we then provide a quote for the prospective work, managing the works ourselves, as well as coordinating with any residents in the property in regards to the carrying out of said works. In this instance, the landlord will only need to cover the cost of the works, we’ll handle the rest.
Of course!
While we have a great network of trusted tradesman of our own to draw from, we are more than happy to use your trusted contractors for any potential works on your property, we ask only that they be ensured fully and be legally certified.
As Co-Lux Living will be your main tenant, if any incident occurs at the property that after an investigation is adjudged to be the fault of one of our tenants, then we will, of course, cover the cost in full ourselves. If an incident occurs that is outside the range of our responsibility, then we will call you and inform you as to the problem, as well as bringing plenty of potential solutions to the table.
Due to the nature of our tenants being professionals and therefore often outside of the property at their place of work, there is much less wear in comparison to other kinds of tenancies (students, families, etc.)
Typically a property managed by Co-Lux Living will actually end up in a far better condition after a three to five-year contract than if it had been let out by an estate agent. This is because we install a regular regime of cleaning and maintenance to the property during our time managing it, as well as upgrading the property to be up to our high standards when we initially take over the tenancy.
Here are some bullet points that show the typical profile of a Co-Lux Living tenant:
· All of our potential tenants are put through a strict screening process, starting with a face-to-face interview with one of the Co-Lux Living team members, after which prospective occupants are referenced by their current and past employment, as well as any previous landlords. We leave no stone unturned in our vetting of applicants.
· Co-Lux Livings streamlined services and fantastic reputation in our field means that over 50% of our tenants actually come to us by word-of-mouth – be that in the form of employers reaching out to place their employees, colleagues, friends or family of current tenants, as well as previous Co-Lux occupants returning to the capital. We also occasionally advertise on online portals to expand our reach.
· Our tenants are all established professionals, coming from a wide spectrum of industries and companies in the fields of law, tech, finance, ICT, programming, marketing, medicine, media, etc.
· The average age of a Co-Lux Living tenant is early-mid twenties to early-mid thirties.
· We tend to let bedrooms in our properties out to single tenants only, although on occasion some rooms can be suitable for couples in special circumstances.
· The duration of contracts we offer to our tenants are typically twelve months long, with a six-month break clause. The average stay for tenants is closer to fourteen months, however.