Navigate through the property-letting minefield with ease

YOU HAVE a residential property that you’re renting out. Your tenant isn’t paying and you’re travelling in a foreign country and depend on the rental income; the neighbours complain of noisy parties; the police raid the place after reports of drug deals; a mother with two children is squatting; the place is shared and two tenants complain of theft from the third one. What to do?

With the recent glut of rental accommodation flooding the market and with property owners losing up to R870 million a month in non-payment of rent in total, it’s not surprising that there is a growing reluctance to invest in residential developments.

Much of the problem lies in many property owners’ failure or inability to implement or comply with the complex minefield of laws governing the relationship between landlords and tenants.

No matter how long you have been a landlord you cannot know everything. Each tenant is different. Their situation is different. And while there is much advice available online on how to deal with these issues, finding it during landlord panic time is not easy. at your fingertips offers the answers.

This book provides detailed information about what is possibly the most important investment in life. Author David Beattie believes that property investment is a business and should be treated like one.

In his book he shows you how, whether as a first-time buyer or as owner of a portfolio of properties.

Beattie is a property investment expert and manages 2 000 properties across the country. He is the founder and director of residential property rental agency, Chorus Letting. He also founded PocketLet, a tool for private landlords to effectively manage their own properties.

His book starts out with a tale of two landlords, Thabo and Sunette, and their experience with property management. He asks which do you want to be – the accidental property investor or the active investor?

The next step is the decision of whether to do it yourself or outsource, to furnish or not, how to advertise to attract the right tenant, to manage enquiries, prepare the property for viewing and screen people.

Then there’s the lease, the deposit, the handover and the rent collection, not to mention late payment and evictions.

This book, however, is not all about the landlord. For every terrible tenant there is a despicable landlord or managing agent. Beattie places emphasis on keeping the tenant happy, their rights and being proactive in looking after the property and maintaining it with the least effort and money. There’s a whole section on smoking.

His best advice is to put everything in writing, keep records and where necessary, keep photos, evidence and correspondence.

There’s also a glossary of resources and tools and templates for all the documents the prospective landlord needs.

This book is a keeper, with useful ideas on organising filing, setting up systems and routines, bookkeeping (argh), tax season hassles (double argh) and mileage tracking. One thing the writer does not provide are details on how to change a lease during Cape Town’s drought.

But that said, whether you’re a professional landlord or it’s your first time, this book will assist every step along the property-letting way.