Communication of the Vacate Process

Across all of the agencies we work with, this is one area of property management that whilst a company might have a great internal system, the system fails when it’s not communicated to the tenant or landlord thoroughly.

As a result, much time is spend toing and froing between the landlord and tenant arranging the vacate inspection, finalising payments, reporting on the inspection and finalising the bond.  A lot of client frustration and misunderstanding, and hence conflict, comes from a lack of communication of the process. Often we know that things are under control, or what the next steps are but we are not communicating this to our tenants and landlords.

We don’t make the invisible, visible.

Clients are more likely to get frustrated with us when they feel like they don’t know what is going on or when delivery expectations haven’t been set. We know from our end that things are being taken care of and a system is being followed.  However, from the outside looking in, the clients don’t know what we do every day that makes up the process and may feel that areas that have not been communicated to them are areas that are not in control. Cue instant relationship breakdown.

 To lift your success and avoid stress in the vacate process:

• Automate – automate how your vacate process is communicated. Instead of just sending a letter confirmation, give the tenant a step-by-step guide of how the vacate process will run. Can you send an automated reminder a few days before their vacate using “delay send” in outlook?

• Systemise – firm up your internal procedures for the vacate, when was the last time you had a review and you looked at how you can streamline the process?

• Over-communicate – Quick messages to the landlord and the tenant to tell them where things are up to, even if you know they are under control, will stop them chasing you for an update on things, saving you time and stress.

How can you improve your vacate process?

Hermione Gardiner 

Real+