Why going paperless will help you, your client and the environment

How many times have you wished for easier Handovers? Or wanted to find an important project file quickly but couldn’t find it? Going digital may seem daunting, but it can make the entire process so much easier and more efficient for everyone involved, throughout the life of the property. 

Digitising the Handover process can help to reduce admin costs, time, and post-build issues, improve transparency and brand perception, and stop paper wastage – making your company more competitive and environmentally friendly.

Going digital with inndox is a win-win situation for everyone!

inndox helps you maintain your biggest asset

How do I set Maintenance Reminders

inndox has a property maintenance feature to help you care for your property.

Step 1. Go to the Maintenance Reminders section on your inndox dashboard

Step 2. Select the View all button

Step 3. Click on Add maintenance button

Step 4. Enter in the details: Title, Due Date, select if Recurring & End date, if additional person for reminder, Who it is scheduled for & add any notes

Step 5. Finally click on Add maintenance item 

Your important maintenance reminder is now scheduled and you will receive alerts from your inndox app, 2 weeks in advance.

Examples of some typical maintenance checks:

• Annual Termite inspections

• Annual Pest Sprays

• 6 monthly gutter cleaning

• Annual Smoke Alarm battery replacement

• Annual air-conditioning service

• 6 monthly window cleaning

• Monthly garden maintenance

• Annual timber deck re-coating

• 5 yearly hot water system valve replacement

• Annual water tank service

• Annual water filter replacement

• Annual pressure wash of pavers, driveways

• Fortnightly pool checks and cleaning

• Annual pool equipment inspection

• Annual carpet cleaning

• Annual curtain & blind cleaning

Here are some consequences for not caring for your property:

***spending thousands of dollars on repairs such as structural integrity issues (a result of not having your property's timber decking recoated)

***potential fire hazard or drainage issues by not having your guttering cleaned on an annual basis

***termite infestation due to unexpected termite invasion by not having annual termite inspections 

By using inndox to manage all of these important tasks, you will feel more relaxed.

For example, you will have peace of mind that your painter gets notified two weeks in advance when the timber decks need re-coating, your plumber will be notified two weeks before the water tanks, hot water system and refrigerator filter services are due, the air-conditioning technician gets advance notification that you want your air conditioning units serviced, and the window cleaner gets notice that your windows need cleaning. 

No more diarising or simply forgetting. You can become a paper-less and care-free property owner.

Practical Completion: 3 Key Items

The 3 Key items that need to be considered for Practical Completion are:

1.   Minor defects and omissions - these should be recorded on a signed defects document, signed by the Builder (or their representative) and the Client (or their representative). This document should formally acknowledge the times, issues and defects that have been agreed on, and also the defects where there is disagreement. 

2.    Contracted work completed properly. The contracted work needs to be completed in accordance with the Building Codes, Standards, relevant laws, and contract documentation.

3.    Certificates. Some contracts require provision of all inspection certificates, collection of all the necessary Form 16s, and the final inspection certificate known as Form 21. 

These key items are often a condition for the final payment from the Owner. 

Once Practical Completion has been reached and the final payment has been made, all the relevant files are provided to the Owner at handover.

inndox can help you manage your handover and provide the next level of service - a digital handover in a convenient app that helps Owners manage and maintain their biggest asset.

No more worrying about warranties with inndox

Warranties are important to be included in the Handover to the Owner.

Noting the Warranty expiry dates for all the products and household appliances is usually overlooked. It's not until something goes wrong with the equipment, that the Client will search through their Handover records to find the product Warranty that may have already expired. This results in the Client often missing out on a legitimate claim causing them undue expense and inconvenience.

What if a Client calls asking for their Warranty information a number of years after completion? Would you know where to find them? Who was the person responsible for archiving those documents? Your client may expect you to retrieve those details and may get frustrated if a seemingly simple task takes hours to be accomplished.

When using inndox, your Clients get an easy-to-use app with Warranty Expiry options that alert them when the warranty is one month before expiry giving them ample time to check the appliance and make a claim if appropriate. Both you and your Clients get peace of mind having access 24/7 to all the property information including the important documentation for product Warranties.

So next time you get that call from the Client asking you where the Warranty details are, just direct them to their inndox!

Home maintenance when you haven't got time for it

SPENDING SAVES YOU MONEY

JUST LIKE your car, a building needs maintenance. A typical home has many thousands of parts. When everything is well maintained you have a home that is comfortable, safe, healthy and energy-efficient. As a property investor you need to monitor the building, identify potential problems and fix these problems promptly. After you have purchased a property you are responsible for maintenance. This chapter will help you to know what to look for and how to fix it.

Remember that you are maintaining an asset that has the very important task of building your future wealth.

In Australia, the cost of property maintenance is high. Our tradespeople are heavily taxed and highly regulated so no wonder cheap labour is hard to find, but that is another story. The high cost of labour and materials means that it is more expensive than most people realise to maintain a property. Once investors have coughed up the huge amount necessary to purchase the property they seem to think, great now I can relax and watch the money roll into my account. An Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey conducted in 1999 found that maintenance costs seem to be around $2,000 per annum on a rental property. Interestingly, the same survey found 64% of people who lived in a house that was more than 60 years old said it had major structural defects. Hardly a news flash that older properties need more maintenance. Given it’s now 2016, it’s likely that maintenance costs have only increased.

WHY USE A PROPERTY MANAGER?

I personally use the services of professional property managers to manage the maintenance of the property in my investment portfolio. Yes, I could do it myself but my time is worth more than what they charge (and your time is worth more too).

OK, so here is how you make a list of maintenance on your own home easy. Set and forget. Have a look at the following example shown.

Gutters every 6 months by ACME gutter cleaning ph. 555 7788 dave@acmegutterclean.com

Window cleaning every 12 months by Sparkle Window cleaners ph. 555 123 jenny@sparklewindows.com

Air conditioning service every 12 months by Be Cool Air Con Solutions ph. 0455 456 789 Alex@becool.com

Schedule this maintenance using inndox so you get a reminder that is linked to your contacts and is there for the next owner. This makes your property more attractive as a buyer can more easily take over the management of the property.

 Why you should get one maintenance company to do multiple jobs

Save time by getting one company to do multiple items. For example, the guys who clean my windows also clean the pavers with high pressure water. Now they offer gutter-cleaning too. They call me once a year in September (our springtime) and two guys come and spend the whole day cleaning the gutters, then the walls and pavers and finally clean the windows. It costs about $800 after I get a discount for being a regular customer and packaging all the services together. They call me every year and we agree on a day. Set and forget. Now I just got back four weekends I can spend with my family and friends.

OMG my tenant died!

My tenant was 54 years old and lived on his own. I had only met him a week before he passed away. I got a call from my onsite manager advising me that he had just found the tenant sitting on the sofa wearing only a singlet. The onsite manager called the police and they came over to verify the man was deceased.

The coroner’s office came out and investigated the scene. They concluded there was no evidence of foul play and took the body away.

The onsite manager then arranged for the carpet and sofa to be removed. We agreed to tile the floor instead of using carpet again. The tiler could start straightaway and the floor was tiled within two days. The tenant’s family visited the property and removed his remaining possessions.

After the cost of the new tiles, rubbish disposal and unpaid rent I was out of pocket $500. The onsite manager who took care of the management of the unit was very professional at a difficult time. I really appreciated his efforts to show the appropriate respect for the tenant and his family while also getting the property ready for the next tenant and keeping me well informed.

 I have seen tenants make a huge mess of a property and cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage. This damage usually occurred over many years and the rental agreement was usually a handshake agreement between family or friends without professional property management.

Do you need the “extras” on your Landlords insurance?

The bond of one month’s rent is woefully inadequate when you get significant property damage. Landlord’s insurance is essential. Some policy extensions include malicious and accidental damage by tenants. I recommend getting these extensions if possible.

 Also take out building and contents insurance. I recommend that you obtain a replacement estimate from your building inspector.. Insurance companies sometimes have online calculators to help you arrive at a replacement value. In your estimate, don’t forget to allow for architects’ fees, demolition, council fees and rent for another property during a rebuild.

Ask your tradie for proof of license and insurance

When engaging tradespeople. Always ensure they are appropriately licensed and insured. For jobs that cost more than $500 I will usually get   a comparison price or two. Be respectful of people’s time and refrain from getting five quotes. The insurances that tradespeople need include: Workers Compensation, public liability insurance and home warranty insurance in some parts of Australia.

Who is responsible for maintaining common property areas?

If you buy a unit, flat, townhouse, apartment or other property that has common areas then I consider it essential that you arrange for a search of the body corporate records. These will help you to understand if there are any issues that may impact upon you or your decision to purchase the property (if you are in the process of purchasing the property). Often a search can be arranged by your solicitor as part of the conveyancing process. The building inspection will generally not include common property areas. Its a good idea to put all Body Corporate (Community) rules and correspondance into your inndox.

What is Subsidence of a house?

A property investor we know engaged a buyer’s agent to find them a suitable property. The buyer’s agent found a renovated, older style home on a large corner block near a major shopping centre that ticked all of the boxes and was about $20,000 less than comparable properties on the market. The buyer’s agent noticed that there was a 25mm gap between the floor slab and the skirting board in the living room and mentioned this to me at the time of booking the inspection.

Here are some of the observations made at the inspection:

1.     The external brick walls of the house had been rendered. Cracks up to 3mm wide were present in the rendered external brick walls.

2.     I noted neat rectangular patches of newer concrete to the paths around the external walls of the house.

3.     Some vertical joints had been cut into the external brick walls.

4.     The door frame to the garage was out of square by 60mm.

5.     The large timber patio was located only 500mm from the rear boundary.

6.     The garage was built right onto the side street boundary without a fire-rated wall.

Here is some of the advice given to the buyer’s agent from the Building inspector:

1.     It appears that the house has had significant damage from subsidence. The owner had the house underpinned, rendered and articulation joints were installed. Some damage, such as the tiled concrete floor of the living room being out of level and the garage door frame being out of square, were not rectified. Further cracks indicate that there has been more movement since the rectification works have been carried out.

2.     The garage and patio are built less than 900mm from the boundary without a fire-rated wall. This indicates that these structures are illegal.

The buyer’s agent decided not to proceed with the purchase mainly because:

1.     More damage had occurred since the underpinning. The long-term consequences of more damage could not be known. There is excessive risk of future repairs and therefore a chance of reduced re-sale value.

2.     Illegal structures will make the property more difficult to insure and could reduce re-sale value.

One day I hope that every property will have an inndox and serious defects like subsidence will be disclosed to buyers. Unfortunately we still have “Buyer Beware” laws operating in much of Australia and this means that it is likely that this property was sold to an unsuspecting buyer who will eventually learn that they have bought a problem.