Property Managers are responsible for ensuring their properties are profitable, properly maintained and their tenants have a quality living experience. Their role, as a link between owners and tenants, involves balancing interests that can often be in conflict.
Risk of Infestation in the Property Management Sector
Property Managers need to act quickly at the first sign of a pest risks and problems to prevent an infestation from spreading throughout the property and neighboring buildings. Rodent populations increase rapidly, cockroach populations can expand explosively, spreading through ventilation shafts, piping and cables to infest entire properties in no time.
Any pest infestation involving rodents, ants, flying insects, bed bugs and cockroaches in a property severely tests this relationship. Tenants understandably expect a pest free living and working environment. Often, poor pest management will result in rent reductions or high vacancy rates.
Potential Impact of a Pest Infestation
- Termination of leases
- Vacancies leading to revenue loss
- Compensation claims
- High cost of delayed pest control treatment
- Maintenance and repair costs
- Tarnished reputations of the owner and property manager
Pests pose a serious health and safety threat with the potential to contaminate food, transmit pathogenic germs and cause extensive damage to equipment and buildings. Rodents gnawing on wires, for example, can short-circuit electrical systems while corrosive pigeon droppings cause costly damage to a buildings exterior.
The primary reasons properties are susceptible to pest problems are – the many sources of entry to a building presented by structural defects and – a lack of awareness among tenants of the need for active pest prevention.
Pest Portal Zimbabwe’s expert Technicians can act as the Property Manager’s eyes and ears during planned preventative inspections, helping them protect their investment. They will provide recommendations from their inspection to reduce the risk and severity of any pest problem.
Source: jcehrlich.com