Summer is officially over. The kids are back at school, the nights are drawing in and it won’t be long before the clocks go back.
As the mercury falls and Autumn arrives, it’s the perfect time to take stock and check the heating system in your property. Whether you’re a landlord or a tenant, taking steps to ensure that your boiler is working properly now could save you time, effort, discomfort and cost when winter arrives.
Avoid getting left out in the cold and ensure your properties stay warm and comfortable throughout the winter months by following these top tips.
Learning the Ropes
It’s amazing how many times our maintenance teams are called out to properties where ‘the boiler isn’t working’ – only to find the real problem is that the tenants simply don’t know or haven’t been shown how to use the heating system, timer, thermostat or radiators.
Before you start messing around with the controls, it’s sensible to familiarise yourself with the boiler model. Dust off the manual (or download a new one online), and make sure you know how to operate it, and what you need to do if it loses pressure.
Landlords – making things easy for your tenants by providing them with the manual at the start of the lease, and referring them to it in your welcome pack is a great start. Lots of the time, fixing a boiler can be as simple as re-pressurising it, which takes just a few seconds and a single switch on many models.
Testing Your Boiler – The Importance of Acting Early
You might think it’s a bit early to be worrying about the heating…but acting now will prevent headaches later.
If you wait until the temperature drops before testing and it isn’t working, it’s already too late. The start of winter is the most common time for boiler breakdowns, and it could be days before a heating engineer is available to provide a fix. Act now and beat the rush. If there is anything wrong, you’ll be able to get it sorted much more quickly.
Turn on the heating, check the boiler pressure and make sure all the radiators are working. You’ll also want to check the settings on the thermostat or timer to ensure they’re properly calibrated.
Prevention Over Cure – The Yearly Service
This is one for landlords – now is the perfect time to have your boiler serviced. Boilers that are serviced every year last longer. They are also more efficient and safer. As a result, you’re less likely to get a call from your tenant or property manager telling you the boiler has broken down.
A yearly service is also a great opportunity for the heating engineer to spot minor problems, and to fix them before they cause serious (and costly!) damage.
Again, it’s best to book your service well before winter sets in. If you leave it too late, heating engineers will be inundated, and you may have to wait several weeks.
Bleeding your radiators
Before you switch the radiators on this year, take a few minutes to bleed them. After months without using them, pockets of air build up in your radiators, and around your heating system.
These can cause cold spots in your radiators, or in serious cases, can prevent them from heating up at all. At the same time, this puts additional strain on your boiler, making it work harder, and costing more to run.
Bleeding the radiators releases all the air that’s trapped in the system, allowing the water to run freely. Use a screwdriver or dedicated tool to open the valves, and let the air escape. Once the water starts flowing, close it up again.
Looking after landlords and tenants at CJ Property
At CJ Property, we specialise in matching responsible tenants with high quality, well maintained rental property across Hull and East Yorkshire.
Whether you’re a tenant looking for a warm and comfortable dream home, or are a property investor/landlord that wants, dependable, honest and value for money professional management – our experienced, locally based team is here to help.
Call 01482 645270 today for further information, or to discuss your requirements with our team today.
