House doctor? Providing accommodation for doctors and nurses in Bristol
October 18, 2007
News from Bristol of an arrangement to help house the city’s doctors and nurses. Katie, who works in our Bristol office met Sandra Perret at Bristol Royal Infirmary yesterday. Sandra (that’s her on the left) is the residencies manager at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, arranging accommodation for hospital staff - not just from the BRI but also from Bristol Oncology, St Michael’s, the dental and the eye hospitals and Bristol Children’s Hospital.
The infirmary does have its own accommodation of course but occasionally it can’t meet the needs of all of their doctors and nurses and they have to look to outside agencies such as Grant Management for help.
As many of you will know we have an ambassadors programme which allows us to financially reward people who make referrals to us but rather than receiving cash, Sandra has requested the equivalent in duvets and pillows for their staff accommodation, as the trust is always short of these. An ideal arrangement.
Addressing the issue of repairs in rented accommodation
October 12, 2007
It can be a frustrating business waiting for repairs to be carried out in rented accommodation. We know that. If you rent a flat from us we want everything to be working properly. However this summer we took a giant step towards relieving the pain of waiting for repairs when we increased the minimum amount which could be spent before we seek permission from the landlord.
This can cover all sort of items, including minor joinery or plumbing and electrical repairs. For example, if we need to replace an extractor fan, previously we might have despatched a trades-person to give us an estimate, then we would find the landlord to sanction the cost. Particularly during a holiday period this might be a lengthy process. Now, thanks to the raised payment threshold, we can get the job done quicker and everybody wins.
Finding rented accommodation for the Polish community
October 9, 2007
You may not have heard of it and, who knows, you probably don’t know to pronounce it, but Szkocja is one of Edinburgh most successful websites, You can probably guess by the way it is spelled that the site provides support, help and ideas for Scotland’s Polish community, greeting as many 650,000 unique visitors every month with news, listings and links.
Many of these Polish visitors are looking for accommodation in the UK and happily many end up at our Edinburgh office where Joanna and Gosia, our two Polish members of staff are able to find them flats or houses for rent and can provide support and help in the event of problems. Such is our commitment to our Polish tenants, several areas of our Grant Management website are translated into Polish.
Renting property now cheaper than buying says the BBC
October 5, 2007
A really interesting report just appeared on the business pages of the BBC website, quoting a study of property costs in England and Wales.
For many years, renting a home was thought to be just as expensive as buying one. But that position has been changed by the rapid rise in house prices.
Professor Steve Wilcox of York University, who carried out the analysis, said that in many areas, people who were unable to buy a house could still afford to rent in the private sector.
“Not too long ago, there was little difference between the costs of buying and renting,” he said.
“But while house prices tripled in the years since 1994, private sector rents only increased in line with earnings, and the costs of renting have as a result fallen relative to the costs of buying,” he added.
This should clearly interest anybody weighing up the pros and cons of renting versus buying property today.
Accommodation to let: you read it here first
October 5, 2007
Admittedly it’s not the most glamorous side of the business but we are working on a new to let sign for Grant Management right now.
A high percentage of potential tenants are really interested in the Carbon Neutral issue. It is one of the things which makes us really different from everybody else in the rented accommodation sector here in the UK.
Therefore, it seems like a good idea to make it a feature on our to let signs. Useful, informative, eye-catching? What do you think?
Note this is just a mock-up of a sign. What you can’t see in the picture is Louise’s hand holding it up out of the window.
Meet Barry, our property repairs manager
October 3, 2007
Yes, this is Barry. He’s our hero in charge of property repairs in Edinburgh and is usually first port of call when anything goes wrong. For example, that moment when the people upstairs leave their bath running and suddenly you’ve got a scene from the Titanic happening in the hallway. Let’s be honest, it happens.
Given that efficient and timely maintenance can prevent a whole wagon-load of problems, we’ve decided to give Barry his own slot here on the blog to pass on handy hints for all, whether you are renting a flat or a house or if you are a property owner. We’ll be kicking that off next week, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, I’d like to pass on a little tale he told me yesterday about a tenant - not one of ours - who didn’t have the best grasp of English. Nothing wrong with that - it just led to a comical misunderstanding the day she phoned tenant support and reported that her water boiler wasn’t working.
Tenant support contacted their favourite gas engineer who visited the rented property, checked the system but could not find any sort of problem. Much head scratching ensued until finally it was discovered she was talking about her kettle! Kettle = water boiler. Just one of those things…
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