This was our first property in the Welsh valleys, and gave us just about every learning experience possible. What initially appeared to be a simple redecoration job turned into a much bigger project.

The property itself had once been a shop, and had been massively extended, way beyond what is usually expected in a Welsh terrace. This created the opportunity to divide the space to generate a higher rental income. We partitioned off a hallway to divide the front living room, creating a bedroom and access to the second reception room. Upstairs the huge front bedroom was also split to create two rooms, giving us a total of 5 bedrooms.

The kitchen cabinets were in poor condition, so we replaced the kitchen, and the downstairs shower room was a derelict shell, so underwent a full renovation. As the building was being changed from a family house to a shared house we needed to meet safety regulations. This meant working with the environmental health officer to ensure that we had appropriate escape routes, interlinked smoke alarms throughout, and fire doors on every room.

The first major learning experience was in tenant type. Up until this point we had dealt with working professionals. In this area the majority of people looking for shared accommodation are single males on benefits. These guys needed a lot of support, and we quickly learned that managing this tenant type at a distance is not a great idea.

The next lesson came from circumstances beyond our control. The plumbing system kept backing up. We thought it was down to tenants putting things that they shouldn’t down the toilet (which they were), but after repeated plumbing call outs, it was clear there was something more. A drains survey with a camera revealed that the shower room toilet wasn’t connected properly to the main drain, but to a soakaway, totally not suited to waste! Lesson learned: Just because a room has a toilet in it, don’t assume that it’s correctly plumbed.

We had the toilet plumbed in properly, but soon afterwards we experienced more plumbing problems. This time a camera in the main drain revealed that the drain had collapsed entirely and wasn’t doing its job at all. Fixing this was a big job. We had to arrange for a portaloo for the tenants, and had to have certified contractors dig up half the back garden to run new pipes into the mains drain. Lesson learned: Keep calm and carry on! Sometimes things happen that can’t be foreseen. Some of the rent money should always be put aside as a contingency for unforeseeable repairs. Fortunately these are few and far between.

Except in this house. As I mentioned, just about everything that can go wrong has gone wrong in this one. The icing on the cake was a phone call early one Sunday morning from one of the tenants to tell me there had been a fire. Another tenant had decided to cook while drunk, and fallen asleep, leaving a frying pan on the hob. Fortunately, because we had interlinked smoke alarms, all the tenants were woken up and able to get out safely, and the fire doors contained the fire to just the kitchen. Lesson learned: We now fit interlinked smoke alarms in all our properties, even when they are not required by the council, for the safety of our tenants and the property.

Even though this house has given us so many “learning experiences” it still brings in a good return on investment. It’s now rented as a family house rather than by the room, and managed by a local agent.