Student Advantages

Bills inclusive of rent .
 
Last letting season 2007-2008 we introduced Bills inclusive of rent - this was a great success and therefore we shall be offering this product once again for the letting season 2008-2009. The tenants are defintley feeling the benefit now in the winter months - their homes are lovely and toasty.

We have been talking to our student tenants and have had nothing but encouragement  - any Landlord can offer bills inclusive of rent, in fact it is common place in the large student hall complexes.
We offer all our rents inclusive of bills but the difference is  that we use the  green option using 100% renewable energy resource for the utility bills wherever possible aswell. It is about time we started to think about what impact we have on our environment. Our student tenants also benefit from not spending time on paying bills.
We have  double glazed all our current stock of student properties in the last year, a major step in undertaking the programme of energy conservation work on its own housing stock for their tenants. Our aim is to eradicate students continually worrying about fuel bills and under-heating their home as they think it will cost them too much to heat it properly.

We understand that providing warmer homes will improve health and comfort and ultimately customer satisfaction.

Students ultimately think about their pocket, and we know a lot of students feel passionately about green issues so this is one way of taking that leap for them towards the right direction. A lot of students are already aware that our rents are already competitive – we are  offer rents inclusive of their gas, electricity and water from £66.50 per week.

24 Hour Maintenance Team.

We can sanction maintenance requirements immediately without any delay to the tenant which is a great advantage for tenants. There are no third parties to deal with as we only manage our own properties.
We can afford to be confident about the service we provide— the key, is being landlords who can respond within 24 hours to the smallest of maintenance requests which is a nice position to be in.

 “Anything we ask for gets done the very next day – even something as small as the bathroom lock being stiff, it was mended straight away!”  says Gemma King  a student now in her second year with Pickard, 2006, 2007

 “After speaking to friends who rent through private Landlords I know how much trouble they have with problems that don’t get fixed. They are constantly chasing their landlords but nothing ever gets done! All the staff at Pickard’s are so friendly and helpful, I would recommend renting a house with Pickard Properties to anyone.”

After 40 years experience wehave a finely tuned maintenance team of which some members have been with them since they began in 1967.

PICKARD VOTED NO.1 LANDLORD BY THE STUDENTS OF LEEDS

Pickard was ranked top by the students who completed the Leeds University Union survey, one of keys things to come out of this research was to pinpoint good landlords, and Pickard were survey winners! See the union website at www.luuonline.com/house_hunting for the results.

‘It is very satisfying that all our hard work has paid off. We are genuine landlords and therefore are pleased that our efforts over the past 40 years have been recognized through this survey. It is important there is a healthy respect between students and landlords which we have always striven for – to be leaders in providing a service that achieves this, alongside providing safe and well maintained properties. We have a good product, providing good accommodation, exemplary service, a 24 hour maintenance team, an excellent post-sign up service, the option of bills inclusive and of course complying with the codes of standards set out by the governing bodies. We want students, especially students new to letting private accommodation, to be educated in what are acceptable standard of property – there are many sub standard landlords who don’t carry out repairs but still manage to let their properties. It is all too often a student rents substandard property which does not fair well for responsible landlords such as ourselves. As a company we continually push to raise the standards of accommodation in Leeds and therefore welcome any measures to enforce this even more. We hold student’s wellbeing in high regard and this is probably why we were voted no.1’ Miles Pickard