Renovation & Refurb Services

Repairs, renovation and furnishing, managed for you.

DevelopRent Properties offers renovation and refurb services for property investors. As well as sourcing properties to specific briefs, we will manage any repairs, renovations and furnishing that will be required to obtain optimum rent from the property. We work with a team of skilled and experienced tradesmen that can help you with anything from a minor repair to a fully property renovation.

Get a refurb scoped

See the trades we cover

Minor repairs to full renovationsSingle properties or portfoliosLondon & Birmingham

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One point of contact

You deal with us, not with eleven separate trades and their diaries.

What the service covers

A single service, built around the property

We provide a unique and comprehensive service tailored to meet your needs both for single purchases or portfolios for Landlords. We can source removal companies, builders, plumbers and even organise boiler inspections and have access to a range of skilled tradesmen.

Scoped before it starts

We walk the property, write down what actually needs doing and separate it from what would merely be nice. You get the works list, the reasoning and a cost estimate before anyone lifts a tool.

Priced in writing

Quotes come to you in writing, itemised, with our fee shown separately from the trades’ costs. If something is an estimate rather than a fixed price, we say which and why.

Supervised, not just booked

Booking a builder is the easy part. We hold the programme, check the work as it goes, chase what slips and deal with the surprises a refurb always turns up.

Specified for letting

Choices are made for a rented home — finishes that survive tenancies, layouts that let, and a standard that matches what the local rental market expects rather than what looks good in a brochure.

Compliance built in

Gas, electrics, alarms and the certificates a let property needs are handled as part of the job, by registered engineers, with the paperwork handed to you.

Furnished and ready

Where a property lets better furnished, we arrange it — measured, delivered and installed, so the property goes to market complete instead of half finished.

Costs are scoped, not guessed. Every figure we give you is an estimate until the works are specified and quoted, and older properties can turn up problems no one can see from a viewing. Where that happens we come back to you with the revised cost before the work is done, rather than after. We do not carry out gas or notifiable electrical work ourselves — that is done by registered engineers.

The trades we cover

Access to a range of skilled tradesmen

These are the trades we hold relationships with and use regularly. Because we bring them repeat work, we can usually get a date sooner than a one-off enquiry would.

Joiners — doors, kitchens, staircases, skirtings and the fitted work a refurb turns on

Handymen — the snagging list and the small jobs that hold up a let

Electricians — rewires, consumer units, and the EICR a rented home needs

Gas Engineers — Gas Safe registered, for boilers, heating and the annual gas safety record

Roofers — tiles, flashing, flat roofs, gutters and the leaks that damage everything below

Plasterers — skimming, patching and re-plastering, including after damp work

Damp proof contractors — diagnosis first, then the right fix, with a guarantee where one is offered

General Builders — structural work, extensions, knock-throughs and full refurbishments

Decorators — finished to a standard that photographs well and survives a tenancy

Window replacement — new units where the old ones are failing, certificated on completion

Furnishing — specified, sourced, delivered and installed, to the standard the local market expects

Plumbers, removals and boiler inspections — arranged alongside the rest, so it is one job and one contact

Not every property needs every trade. We put forward only the work the property actually requires, and we will tell you when something can wait until the next void rather than being done now.

How it works

From a look round to a finished property

We look at the property

Either one you already own or one you are buying. We note the condition, what letting it will demand, and anything that looks like it will cost real money.

You get a works list and a cost

Itemised, in writing, split into what must be done, what is worth doing for the rent it returns, and what can be left. Our fee is shown separately.

You choose the scope

Take the lot, take part of it, or take the list away and think about it. Nothing is ordered until you have said yes to a scope and a price.

We run the works

Trades booked in the right order, access arranged, progress checked on site, and you updated as it goes. If a surprise changes the cost, you hear it from us first.

Handover with the paperwork

Snagging closed off, certificates and guarantees collected in one place, and the property ready to be marketed — by your agent, or by our landlord service.

Letting standards

The certificates a rented home needs

A refurb on a property you intend to let is not finished when it looks finished. These are the items we build into the works so the property is lettable on the day it is done.

Gas

Annual gas safety record

Any gas appliance in a rented home must be checked every twelve months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and the record given to the tenant. We book it as part of the works and pass you the certificate.

Electrics

EICR every five years

Electrical installations in privately rented homes in England must be inspected at least every five years, with any C1 or C2 faults put right. A rewire or a new consumer unit is the moment to get this clean.

Alarms

Smoke and carbon monoxide

A smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any such room with a fixed combustion appliance — gas cookers excepted. Cheap to do during a refurb, disruptive to retrofit afterwards.

EPC

Energy performance

A home generally needs an EPC of at least E to be let today. The government has now confirmed a single deadline of 1 October 2030 for privately rented homes in England and Wales to reach EPC C, with a cost cap of £10,000 per property and some exemptions. Insulation, glazing and heating decisions taken during this refurb are far cheaper than a second one later.

Regs

Building regulations

Structural work, notifiable electrical work and replacement windows all need to be signed off properly. We make sure the certification comes back with the job, because a missing certificate surfaces years later at sale.

Records

One file at handover

Certificates, guarantees, appliance manuals and what was actually done, handed over together. It makes the next inspection, the next tenancy and an eventual sale much less painful.

Rules change, and this is a summary rather than advice. Requirements differ across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and are amended from time to time. We work to the standards in force at the time of the works and will tell you what applies to your property — but for anything turning on your own circumstances, take advice from a qualified professional.

Common questions

What landlords usually ask us

Do I have to be buying through you to use this?

No. Plenty of the properties we refurbish are ones the client already owns, sometimes for years. If you are buying through our investment service the two simply join up, but the refurb service stands on its own.

How is your fee worked out?

It depends on the size and length of the job, and it is agreed with you in writing before the works are ordered. It is shown as a separate line from the trades’ costs, so you can always see what the works cost and what the management of them costs.

What happens if the cost goes up mid-job?

Older properties hide things — a floor comes up and the joists are worse than expected. When that happens we stop, price the change, and come back to you for a decision before the work continues. You will not find out from the final invoice.

Can you do just one small job?

Yes — anything from a minor repair to a full renovation. Very small jobs can sometimes be quicker for you to book directly, and we will say so if that is the case rather than adding a layer for the sake of it.

Do you work on occupied properties?

We can, and often it is the only option. It needs more planning — access, notice to the tenant, work sequenced to keep the home usable — and some jobs are genuinely better done in a void. We will be straight with you about which is which.

Are the trades insured and qualified?

The trades we use carry their own insurance, and work that is legally restricted goes to someone registered for it — gas work to a Gas Safe registered engineer, notifiable electrical work to a registered competent person. We can provide the relevant details for the trades on your job.

Get in touch

Why not get in touch?

Tell us about the property and what you think it needs. We will come back to you on what the works are likely to involve and how we would run them.