Portfolio managers have to keep a lot of plates spinning when they’re doing property portfolio management on commercial or residential properties. When you’ve got multiple dwellings or offices spread over a number of postcodes it can be tricky keeping track of what’s happening with each one. 

This can lead to standards slipping in your portfolio and, before you know it, you can have several properties failing to meet compliance guidelines set by the UK government. Failing to meet these standards can land you in trouble with the authorities and seriously endanger the welfare of your tenants.

Portfolio manager’s need to be constantly reviewing properties to make sure they’re fit and safe for human habitation. These checks are wide-ranging and include everything from drainage, heating, structural integrity and fire safety.

Keeping on top of all these can be tricky. That’s why we’ve put together this article which has our top three tips for keeping your property portfolio compliant.  

1. Landlords! Get to know all the necessary legal guidance for your property portfolio management 

When it comes to being a commercial or residential landlord there’s a lot of legislation and legal requirements you need to adhere to. These regulations are there to primarily keep your tenants safe but they’re also designed to safeguard your properties and investment.

Having a thorough understanding of all the different regulations your properties need to be following is a good way to avoid yourself getting blindsided by an issue that could end up costing you a lot of money. 

Becoming an encyclopedia of property regulation knowledge isn’t easy. But putting the work in and keeping a detailed record of all your properties legal requirements will help you avoid trouble in the future.   

The two key pieces of guidance you should familiarise yourself with as a landlord are  the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Guidance for Landlords: Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.

This documentation lays out your responsibilities as a landlord and what checks you must do to make your homes habitable and safe.

The 2005 fire safety order is solely focused on fire safety. To keep your property portfolio fire safe, conducting regular fire risk assessments with an accredited fire risk assessor like Total Fire Group is the best way to make sure all your properties are fire safety compliant. 

The Homes Act 2018 covers everything from the structural integrity of a building, to its heating and plumbing system. The goal of the act is to guarantee tenants are living in humane and liveable conditions. If a house has no running water, the heatings broken or windows are smashed, these are all unacceptable and need to be fixed if tenants are living there. 

Knowing what your responsibilities are as a property manager means you can act quickly when you see any of your properties showing signs of the above. Being proactive is better than reactive, and you could save yourself a headache in the long run by keeping on top of these compliance issues.  

2. Keep a central database of all your properties information (preferably digitally)

There’s nothing worse than trying to find something important, like a document when you really need it. Things like that have an annoying habit of disappearing when you need them the most. This is especially true when it comes to the documentation you need to keep your property portfolio compliant. 

Managing multiple properties can be very confusing. If you don’t have one central hub or database where you can easily access all the information you need it can make property management a nightmare. 

Using a digital, cloud-based software is, in our opinion, the best way to store your portfolio information. It means it’s on hand at all times and it won’t get destroyed if a computer beaks or the office floods.

For your fire safety management you can use fire safety software like our tool Aurora to manage all your fire risks assessments in one place. Aurora automates your portfolio’s fire safety management and gives you one less thing to worry about.

However you decide to organise your portfolio’s information make sure it’s structured, easily accessible and you’ve got backup. 

3. Make sure you have a digital paper trail for all the compliance work you’ve done 

Another advantage of having your portfolio’s data stored on a piece of software is that it gives you an easy way to look at any property’s history to see what work has been done. 

It also lets you prove to external auditors quickly and easily that you’ve done the work you’ve been required to do. Fumbling through papers and incomplete documents isn’t a great way to keep a record of all your assessments. By storing them on software, like Aurora for example you have clear evidence that you’ve undertaken any work you’re required to. 

This history can also help inform future portfolio plans. By analysing trends in your portfolio like when things break, when things need changing etc you can be proactive in remedying these issues by sending out people to fix things before they break. 

Property portfolio management: The best way to manage your portfolios fire safety 

If you’re looking for an easy and stress free way to manage your portfolios fire safety Total Fire Group has several options that could work for you. You could partner with us to use our fire safety consultancy service or hire us to undertake regular fire risk assessments. 

If you’re interested in using our Software, Aurora to help you manage your fire safety and store all your properties fire safety data book a demo here.