Guidance for people running property portfolios.
Practical writing on gas safety, electrical testing and tenancy compliance, from the team building PropertyOptix.
What a tenancy file audit should actually check
Most tenancy files look complete at a glance. A proper audit checks for the things that only turn out to matter once a tenancy is already in dispute.
EPC ratings and the minimum standard for a rented property
An Energy Performance Certificate is easy to treat as a box-ticking exercise until the rating itself becomes the compliance issue, not just the paperwork behind it.
What a property compliance platform should include out of the box
It's easy for a compliance platform to become a features list that reads well and covers half of what a letting agent actually does day to day. Here's what shouldn't be an add-on.
Managing repairs across a portfolio with different landlords
Every landlord has their own tolerance for spend, their own preferred contractors, and their own idea of what counts as urgent. A repair workflow has to hold all of that at once.
Prescribed information: the deposit protection paperwork that's easy to get wrong
Protecting a deposit is the part everyone remembers. The prescribed information that has to go with it is longer, more detailed, and where most gaps actually turn up.
EICR codes explained: what C1, C2, C3 and FI actually mean
An unsatisfactory EICR isn't one thing. The codes attached to each observation decide whether it's an emergency, a same-visit fix, or a note for next time.
Spreadsheets vs a property compliance platform: when to switch
A spreadsheet is a perfectly good compliance system for a handful of properties. The question isn't whether it's inferior — it's when it stops being reliable for you specifically.
Why a contractor register needs more than a phone number
Most agents have a list of contractors they call. Far fewer have a record of whether that contractor's insurance and accreditation are actually still current right now.