Emergencies

Hi. This is Phil from Sunshine. Given we’re in winter and we’ve already discussed the winter checklist, it would be useful to have a small video about emergencies. It is very important as a landlord that you make sure that the tenant is aware what to do if an emergency does crop up because the last thing you want at two o’clock in the morning is the tenant ringing you not knowing where the stopcock is or how to deal with the certain eventualities.

First and foremost, the tenant must be able to assess what the problem is, within reason. They must be able to decide whether it’s something they can deal with that evening or whether it can wait ’til the following morning and is not such an emergency, although it’s an inconvenience for themselves. It is very important that the tenants know where the mains are for the water, stopcock, the gas and electric, to turn things off, and if there is a problem, particularly with a fire or a flood, then those particular items are turned off straight away.

They then need to be able to have a look and make sure whether you need to be rung straight away, or whether it can wait ’til the morning. If you do need to be rung, they need to have a list of contractors who would come out on a 24 hour basis to advise, because it may well be it’s an insurance claim, in which case you need to make absolutely certain that the insurance company are informed as early as possible to avoid any voiding of the claim. The tenant should, with their phone, be able to take photographs of exactly what the problem looks like and the problems it’s actually has caused to the property at the time they report it, so there is fairly good documented evidence from the word go that the insurance company can then look at, rather than 24 hours later.