Guidance for people running property portfolios.
Practical writing on gas safety, electrical testing and tenancy compliance, from the team building PropertyOptix.
Cold, damp and an empty flat: what winter does to a portfolio
Condensation season, frozen pipes in void properties, and tenants who cannot reach anybody between Christmas and New Year. The three things that turn a winter repair into a claim.
Read the article →Section 21 has gone: the possession route agents use now
No-fault possession ended on 1 May 2026. Every route to getting a property back now runs through a ground, a form and evidence — and which ground you pick decides how much notice you give and what you have to prove.
Every tenancy is periodic now: what that changed in the file
Fixed terms went on 1 May 2026, and with them the renewal cycle most agencies are built around. Rent rises run on one form once a year, bidding is banned, rent in advance is capped, and the information sheet had a deadline.
Damp and mould: from a tenant complaint to a documented response
Damp and mould stopped being a lifestyle conversation some time ago. What landlords and agents now need is a response that is timely, recorded, and does not depend on the tenant complaining twice.
Damp and mould: the clock starts when a tenant tells you
Damp reports rise sharply from October. What to record at the point of report, how to triage without inspecting first, and why the file you build in the first week is the one that matters most later.
A seasonal maintenance checklist for managed properties
Some maintenance problems are entirely predictable by season. The properties that avoid them tend to be the ones that checked before the weather made the decision for them.
What to check before instructing a gas or electrical contractor
A Gas Safe card or an electrician's business card both look reassuring. Neither tells you everything worth checking before they're let loose on a tenanted property.
What to actually test in a property compliance software demo
A guided demo is designed to show a system at its best. Here's how to steer it toward showing you what a genuinely busy Tuesday would actually look like.
Reporting portfolio compliance to landlords without a spreadsheet marathon
Landlords reasonably want to know their properties are compliant. Producing that answer shouldn't mean rebuilding a report from scratch every time someone asks.