Apr01
20 FAQs about property management
There are many reasons for having your property managed professionally. If you are uncertain about Quilantro managing your property, this FAQ may help in making up your mind.
Q1. Since when is Quilantro in business?
Quilantro started in 2016 with property management and buying assistance.
Q2. Does Quilantro have a liability insurance?
Quilantro has a liability insurance with a maximum insured amount.
Q3. How many properties do you manage? How many employees?
At the moment, Quilantro manages 20 properties and works with professionals rather than having employees. This way, we keep our prices competitive.
Q4. Why should I hire Quilantro?
I think the strength of Quilantro is its high and personal level of services provided to clients and tenants. Committed and responsible for all issues that arise.
Q5. What type of properties do you manage and where?
The focus of the properties is on apartments with one to three bedrooms within Madrid, most of them in the city center, some further away, but almost all of them within the M30 area.
Q6. Do you also do tourist rental, Air Bnb?
The focus of Quilantro is on long term and midterm rental, not on tourist rental. So rental periods from a few months up to one year (midterm rental) and periods for one year and more (long term rental).
Q7. How quickly do you respond to requests of owners and tenants and which channels do you use?
In general the response is within 24 hours, also in the weekends. This depends of course on the urgency of the issue. Many clients communicate with us by Whatsapp and telephone. Formalities done by email.
Q8. How long do tenants in general stay in the apartment?
This depends on the situation. If the focus is more on students, they will generally stay for a period of one year or shorter. Other tenants, couples and families stay longer, the average length is somewhere between one and four years.
Q9. What if I need the apartment for myself in the future?
That is possible of course. For long term rentals, we always include a clause in the contract that you can claim the apartment after a period of one year for yourself or one of your (close) relatives.
Q10. How long can the tenant stay in the apartment?
Since 2019, tenants have legal protection to live in a house for a maximum period of 5 years.
Q11. How do you market / advertise properties?
Basically through Idealista, the biggest real estate platform used in Madrid
Q12. Who is the average tenant?
We don’t have one profile tenant. However, most tenants are both Spanish or other European citizens. They work, either in a job or self-employed. In the latter case, in most of the cases, we ask for an additional person who will guarantee the payment of the rent, the so-called avalista.
Q13. How do you handle the deposit?
In order to be competitive with other properties, we strive to ask for one month deposit, to be deposited at the Instituto de la Vivienda de Madrid (IVIMA). It is a legal obligation to pay this one month's deposit to the institute. We will take care of filling in the forms and the payment of this deposit on behalf of you as an owner. If there is a change in the rental contract (change of tenants), we will take care of this as well. We will also claim the return of the deposit, once the rental contract has been terminated.
If we will ask for two months deposit, one month deposit will be paid directly to your bank account. After termination of the rental contract, we will check the apartment on any damages, request quotes for repairing possible damages and this is not ‘wear and tear’, we will give instructions to pay the deposit or a part of it, back to the tenant.
Q14. How long does it take to find a tenant?
This depends a bit on the area and the rental price. In general, an apartment can be rented out within one month or six weeks.
Q15. How do you handle late payment?
If rent has not been paid in time, we will first ask for this in writing in an informal way. Avoiding conflicts is the best strategy. And otherwise we will request payment of legal interest. In the worst case (fortunately, we didn’t have this experience yet), eviction might be an option.
Q16. How does the repair process look like?
It depends of course on the repairs that are needed.
Either we will contact the home insurance company for you (if the cause of the defect is for example water or an electricity problem, not caused by lack of maintenance). If it is a defect shortly after a renovation, we will contact the architect or contractor. If the defect is a lack of maintenance, we work intensively with some contractors, specialised in maintenance for property management.
Q17. What are the management fees?
For long term rental, the fee amounts to 9% of the annual rent plus VAT. For European citizens this property management fee is deductible from taxes.
Q20. Can you provide me with a draft of a:
Q18. If I am not satisfied with your services, can I cancel?
You can always cancel, taking into account a notice period of three months.
Q19. Do you also handle tax issues?
I understand your question. Tax has to be paid on rental income. We collaborate closely with a tax advise company, gestor. We will be either the intermediate for you or you can contact this company directly.
Q20. Can you provide me with a draft of a:
- property management contract?
- rental contract?
If you are interested in Quilantro’s services, please send a message and you will receive the information.
Bonus - Q21. Do you have any references?
In general, clients and tenants are very satisfied with the services provided. Here you will find some links of feedback of owners about the services provided.
We hope these answers give you a good insight of how we work, who we are and how we deal with issues. Should you have any further questions, please let us know. You can always contact us.
© 2020 Quilantro - Lilian Hermans