UPDATE: to make this clear, this is not a rant at British Gas engineers. Almost all of them that I have met at my properties have been knowledgeable and good at their work. This is a rant at the setup and administration of British Gas’s homecare product.

Normally, this blog is quite focused on ecommerce and digital media. One of my other activities however is property. This cold weather has been a bit of a bitch. One of my houses in Manchester reported that the boiler wasn’t working. While annoying, it’s no big deal. I have British Gas Homecare on my properties for just such an eventuality. I tell the tenant that they should call them direct to arrange the repair. That’s where it all starts to go south with British Gas.

Tenant rings back. British Gas will come out the next day (this is 6pm) – hardly an emergency no central heating service now is it? Negative temperatures ensued throughout the night and of course it was pretty cold for the tenants. I call British Gas. They say they will be there before 6pm tomorrow as long as nothing comes up. Adam, the customer service rep, says that the service is ’subject to availability’ and that in these conditions, things are a bit harder than normal. Two things strike me about this. The first is that emergency callout service should not be subject to availability. Secondly, I would appreciate it if, as I would do, plans were in place for adverse conditions, because isn’t that the time these things happen most? Crazy talk, I know.

British Gas finally arrive at 3pm the next day. Engineer locates the problem. Pipe from outside to inside is frozen. To repair he needs to get underneath the floor. No big deal I think, must happen all the time But no. British Gas engineers aren’t allowed to remove floorboards to gain access. So he cannot repair the issue. He leaves. I am shocked to my core when the tenant phones up to report this. I can’t stress enough how poor this is service wise. Not only did they takes ages to come out in an emergency (nearly 24 hrs) but they only diagnosed, and could not fix. Useless.

So I called a local plumbing firm I trust and they were out and fixed it within 90 minutes. Well done AW Plumbing in Manchester, you have my thanks.

So the moral of the story? British Gas Homecare is like most insurance type deals, fine until you need to use it. Fail British Gas, Epic fail.

Long time no post – rather than a ‘Hi I’m back’ post I thought i would actually start with a post. These days I do some property investment and one of my properties is in Manchester and is a multilet property (5 bedrooms) and so requires a lot more management than your standard single let.

I guess the reason for writing this post is pass on a few simple rules that I’ve been learning about managing tenants effectivley:

1. Do not assume: it’s not a good idea to assume that they ar not respinding or not paying the rent as a personal affront to you. It normally isn’t
2. Don’t let it dominate your thoughts: If someone is not responding then schedule a time to call, text or whatever each day and forget about it until then and after you have done it.
3. Keep it close: If you’re expecting to visit a property a lot, for gods sake make it close. Traveling to Manchester for me is a pain in the bum for what is normally a 15min visit maximum.

All good learnings and will keep adding more as time goes by.