Are Today’s Property Landlords Prepared for the Winter Ahead?

Andrew Harris, Gas Services Manager from Aspect Maintenance, advises that now winter has set in, landlords should be getting their boilers checked…

Now that the cold snap has begun, homeowners and property tenants have begun to turn their boilers on; boilers that have been sitting dormant for months. Break downs inevitably occur, and, companies like Aspect Maintenance experience a 100% increase in emergency calls outs.

Trying to get a tradesmen in the winter months is not always an easy task. More often than not there is a backlog of similar calls the company needs to plough through before they get around to answering yours.

At Aspect Maintenance, our policy is to try to get someone out to look at the problem on the same day you call our switchboard, and to begin fixing it within 24 hours.

Landlords should seriously consider having the boilers across their properties checked now, or to look at upgrading their old system. You may think that the 10-year old boiler is still working, so why change it? Upgrading your systems will not only create cost savings, but will also help to avoid unnecessary call outs (particularly for landlords).

The Worcester Bosch boilers we now install offer a five-year guarantee, and the knowledge that if something goes wrong, an engineer will be out to fix it right away – offering real peace of mind.

Another way of providing increased longevity to the operation of a boiler and its associated controls is to undertake preventative measures such as boiler servicing and mechanical ‘Powerflushing’.

It is strongly recommended, and a condition of many manufacturers guarantees, that a boiler receives an annual service. In much the same way as servicing your car, you can expect real benefits in fuel savings and limiting breakdowns.

Powerflushing of the radiators and associated pipe work will break down and remove the scale build up within. This allows the system to reach temperature far more quickly, thereby reducing your fuel costs and putting less strain on the boiler function. Moreover, the boilers internal components are less likely to be affected by scale and see your tenants through the cold snaps.

Today’s energy efficient boilers also work towards helping households to become ‘greener’. At Aspect Maintenance, we also install solar renewable energy, and strongly encourage our clients to consider this option.

This type of system can be used in conjunction with a specially-integrated boiler, and means the property owner will be doing more to protect the environment. In an age where the government, and local councils are all encouraging us to ‘clean up the UK’, shouldn’t we all be considering this option?

Aspect Maintenance can help landlords to maintain their whole property, from their boliers to the electrics, the drains to the roof. By working with landlord, Aspect Maintenance can help to reduce the fees they are already paying to estate agents. The company can hold keys on the system, and can be contacted directly by the tenant (with Aspect Maintenance reporting into the landlord).

By dealing directly with Aspect Maintenance, landlords can rest assured that they will pay the real price for maintenance undertaken, and that one of one of the company’s engineers can be onsite at any time of the day or night, should an emergency arise.

www.aspect-maintenance.co.uk