Talking to landlords about property safety & compliance
Ailo
19 October 2023
With increasing costs, rising tenant expectations, and stricter regulation, Senior Property Manager Catherine Wells understands the growing pressure on property investors in Australia.
And property compliance is a large piece of this. Property investors in Australia need to ensure their properties meet the latest health and safety guidelines as stated by federal and state law.
We sat down with the leading property manager at Ray White Batemans Bay, Ulladulla, Batehaven, Broulee and Moruya Group for her advice on talking to her clients about the importance of property compliance and why she switched to Ailo’s compliance solution.
How has the focus on compliance changed over the years in property management?
When I first started in property management, property compliance wasn’t really seen as a big deal. And I don’t believe that I ever organised any water efficiency tests.
But it’s certainly changed, and today it’s more than just ‘are there smoke alarms?’ Now there are very specific minimum standards around where exactly they have to be installed in a house and how often they need to be checked and replaced – plus we need to watch out for corded blinds, safety switches and ensure we can prove relevant properties meet water efficiency standards.
If compliance isn’t done correctly, not only could it void an owner’s insurance it could also result in someone getting really hurt. You can’t risk mistakes when it comes to safety.
It’s a huge liability for our business, so it’s really important we are across it and have it under control.
How do you educate your clients about the importance of ensuring their property is compliant?
It can be challenging, because in the current economic climate finding savings is a priority right now. With increasing costs and stricter regulation overall, there is definitely a growing pressure on property investors.
Our previous compliance partner was cheaper, but they did not offer a comprehensive solution.
But once we took the time to explain all the legislation and the importance of being fully covered, it was a no brainer for our clients. It’s a few hundred dollars a year versus thousands of dollars in fines or voided insurance (or worse) if something goes wrong.
Honestly, this experience was also a great opportunity to just proactively check-in with our clients. We didn’t lead with ‘we’re changing providers’; we talked to them about their legal obligations as rental property owners and explained how we’re making investments in the right partnerships and technology, so we can continue to do a great job managing their investment.
I love the photographic compliance certificates we get with Ailo. We never used to get photos, and I love how they include photos of the smoke alarms and blinds and where they are placed and if they’re not compliant, you can literally see why.
It’s funny because some owners didn’t even know they had corded blinds in their house! So getting the full report with photos is really great.
That is the level of service they can and should expect from us as their property managers.
How did you manage compliance before switching to Ailo?
When we signed up a new management, there was a section in our management agreement where the owner would circle whether they wanted us to handle their smoke alarm compliance and whether they wanted us to ensure their property met the legal water efficiency requirements.
“Integration is super important. We want to keep an eye on things but have it happening automatically in the background. This is Ailo, and it’s amazing. Plus, I love how everyone on the team can see everything.”
— Catherine Wells, Senior Property Manager
If they circled yes, we’d log into a portal and manually subscribe them. And if not, we just left it. The old way was manual and inefficient, and frankly less effective and more time-consuming. If there was an issue, we’d log into a portal to submit a work order – but we could never easily see when the issue was resolved or who resolved it.
Compliance used to be a really stressful part of the job; it really weighed on our shoulders. Switching to Ailo’s compliance solution was a great decision. We can sleep at night knowing we are covered and our clients are happy.
What’s important to you when it comes to a compliance solution?
Integration is super important. We want to keep an eye on things but have it happening automatically in the background. This is Ailo, and it’s amazing. Plus, I love how everyone on the team can see everything.
We also were attracted to the subscription model and monthly billing. The cost of living has picked up and lump sum payments can be hard for some owners. We love giving them the option to spread the cost out over the year and avoid those large surprise bills.
A common theme we hear from property managers has been the time-saving. Has that been your experience?
It’s saving us so much time! Previously, we would get bulk email with invoices for properties, and we’d have to sit there and add them all in. Now it’s automatic – set and forget! It probably takes us two minutes to process an invoice, so with hundreds of properties under management that’s a decent time saving. Any bit of time back, I’ll take it!