Property management in Preston

Most letting agents advertise a percentage and charge a good deal more than that percentage once the extras are added. The published fee sheet of a typical high street agent shows 13% of rent for full management with a £750 yearly minimum, a £295 tenancy agreement fee, £50 to reference each tenant, £25 for each Right to Rent check, inventory and check-in charges, a monthly charge to protect the deposit, a monthly compliance charge and £250 each time the tenancy renews.

Our rates are shown ex VAT, at 5% and 8%, rent guarantee available at cost, of rent collected. VAT is added at the standard rate and shown on your statement. There is nothing to pay to start, nothing to pay when a tenancy renews and nothing to pay to leave.

• Rent collected and paid to you within 3 working days of your tenant paying
• Your rent held in a ring-fenced client account, separate from Caso's own money, until it is paid to you
• Tenant calls and messages answered 24 hours a day, every day
• Repairs assessed, priced and arranged for you, charged at the contractor's invoice with no markup
• A monthly statement for each property, with every invoice attached, in your portal
• Late rent chased from the first day it is overdue, with a dated record
• Tenancy agreement drawn up and signed online
• Renewals, changes of tenant and legal notices prepared and served
• Rent reviewed every year and the Section 13 rent increase notice served for you
• Deposit protected with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme within 30 days, and the deposit paperwork the law requires served on your tenant
• Deposit deductions agreed and the deposit returned at the end of the tenancy
• Gas safety, electrical safety and energy certificates renewed before they expire, at cost
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms checked and recorded
• Council landlord licence applied for where your area needs one, and its renewal date tracked
• Optional: rent guarantee at cost, with no markup. You are paid even when the tenant does not pay.

Everything sits in one portal: the tenancy, the money, the certificates, the documents and the messages. You can see the state of your property from anywhere, at any hour, without asking anybody for an update.

• Selective or HMO licence (council licence): Preston City Council licenses houses in multiple occupation and can operate selective licensing in named streets, so we read the register for the address itself. We check the register against your exact address.
• Gas safety certificate (CP12): renewed every year where there is a gas appliance and given to the tenant at the start of the tenancy.
• Electrical safety report (EICR): renewed at least every five years, with urgent work done within 28 days.
• Energy certificate (EPC): at least an E to let today, with the minimum for new tenancies planned to rise to C from 2028.
• Deposit protection scheme: the deposit goes into a government approved scheme within 30 days and the prescribed information goes to the tenant.
• Right to Rent check: carried out on every adult before they move in, with the evidence held on file.
• Renters' Rights Act: assured shorthold tenancies move to periodic tenancies, section 21 no-fault evictions end, and rent rises follow one route once a year. We hold the dates and handle the paperwork.
• Non-resident landlord tax approval (HMRC NRL scheme): needed if you live abroad, otherwise 20% of your rent is held back. Included in management.

None of this is optional, and most of it carries a fine or an unenforceable tenancy if it is missed. The point of management is that the dates are somebody's job rather than something you remember.

Start with the free report on your address. It reads what is letting and what has sold around your postcode right now and gives you the rent your property should achieve, what it is worth, the yield and the Caso Ready to Rent score, which tells you what a tenant will notice before they notice anything else.

If you want us to manage it, you press one button on the report and the setup opens straight away: your plan, the management agreement to sign, who you are, the property, the safety documents and the account your rent goes to. It is one question a screen and it saves as you go, so you can leave it and come back. Owners in the United Kingdom answer five short stages; owners living abroad answer a sixth about receiving their rent in full, which we then handle with HM Revenue and Customs.

After that your property page shows the stages we are working through, what is still with you and what is with us, each with its live state. Nothing about your property lives only in somebody's inbox.