Have you ever considered hiring a Project Manager for your next Build/Renovation/Extension?

Ever thought it seemed expensive and something that you can either do your self of leave to your builder or contractor to do?

Here we discuss why a GOOD (yes we highlight the good part) Project Manager could be worth their weight in gold or more importantly keep your project on track and on budget.

As experienced property professionals we have been fortunate/unfortunate enough to have seen most things during a build, extension or renovation, weather for a HMO, Single buy-to-let or a homeowner looking to do improvements. We can't say we have seen it all, as there is always things to learn and an ever evolving landscape of regulation and changes from the government which can and will catch people out but by being on top of this and regularly working in property we typically see them early and adjust just as quickly to keep our projects and our customers projects on track.

We recently were refurbishing a property that was a 7 bedroom bedsit/HMO into an 8 bedroom all ensuite HMO. One item which we were conscious of was the evolving landscape of EPC's in relation to rented accommodation.  

From NRLA:

Introduction

As of 1 April 2018 there is a requirement for any properties rented out in the private rented sector to have a minimum energy performance rating of E on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The regulations came into force initially for new lets and renewals, but extended to existing tenancies on 1 April 2020.

As of now it is unlawful to rent a property which breaches the requirement to have at least an E rating, unless there is an applicable exemption.

While most properties in the private rented sector meet this level comfortably, for some landlords this means that they will no longer be able to rent out their property if it has a rating of F or G.

Why is this important you ask? Well if you had renovated a property without having this in mind, especially if an older property where you were keeping parts of the old structure this could have caused issues with rentability in you property. When would you have found this out? Probably once your 10 years had expired on your EPC and then when someone tests it and gives the property a G or H...Of course at this point it's too late!

Easy you may think, next time I'll consider this, well yes, however at OneFourFour we are looking further ahead and seeing the sign of the times with energy efficiency our latest projects we are aiming at not only the current minimum of E but actually were aiming for a D as a minimum meaning we will be future proof until the next change is implemented which is likely to bring it up once again to a D, why not C you ask, well it's unlikely the government can stretch it that fas, also short of rebuilding it's quite hard and expensive to get much above a D with older buildings.

Whilst we are in the refurb process, adding some insulation here and there and checking for efficient boilers/heating systems etc will likely not cause you much additional cost or time in the planning. Going back at end and having external insulation or retrospectively fitting floor or loft insulation is much more costly and done under duress rather than planning in advance.

Another recent project we were discussing with a client who was working on their first project and wasn't familiar with some basics of the building control process. We were able to help guide them down the correct path ensuring they were meeting all the requirements of a safe building covering everything from Gas safety certificates, Fire Alarm, Emergency lighting, Tanking a basement, as well as showing throughout the areas of works being compliant in case of any issues during sign off.

A recent project where we were involved after a failed project with a builder who stressed they didn't need a Project Manager was one where it was clear they very much did. The budget was woefully shy of what was needed with no contingency. The builder had worked with customers previously and assumed this customer worked the same way where they provided the materials for kitchens, bathrooms and tiles/carpets etc and had not therefore budgeted for this, the client obviously assumed this was in the 'finished' price. The difference -£60k. When you factor in the materials, the fact the builder had left the job unfinished but with most of the money already gone as well as the cost of finance and not having tenants when expected, this quickly added up. 

Why an independent Project Manager?

A Project Manager can be the lynchpin between your trades, they can provide invaluable advise which will set the project up for success. If you involve a Project Manager from the very start they can help you design the project you actually want, help guide Architects, builders quotes, end to end considerations like those examples above and more, they will ask tough questions to focus your attention on the parts of the project which will really impact the usability of the product you are creating. for example, do you want an energy efficient house? A Green home, will you go with standard spot lighting throughout or have accent lighting. Do you need a designer, a heating engineer, Energy performance projections, What additional services you might need, Gas, Electric, Water consumption, landscaping, planning permission, party wall agreements, smart home, sockets and locations, networking around your home, security and many many more aspects, the earlier some of these decisions are made the better. If you decide at the last minute to clad your house in cedar but the architect drew and the planners approved a brick finish it might need to go all the way back to planning....This can add months of delays as well as cost to your project.

Once a PM is involved they can start to estimate your costs and timelines based on your requirements and tailor them to suit your budget and expectations. No point drawing up a 10m extension if you have the budget for a lick of paint and a new bathroom.

If you have no experience choosing or dealing with trades at all or in a certain area, the Project Manager can help guide you and point you in the direction of the questions to ask to get the best trades suited to your needs.

If you are not close to the project a Project Manager can be on site as regularly as needed to check on progress, unblock issues and provide status updates as well as photo's and videos throughout, allowing potentially early for you to see how things are going and adjust to suit if you tweak the plans.

If you work with an independent project manager they are working for you, keeping everyone honest on the job and can see between the lines of those who might otherwise be taken on a ride by a builder who isn't quite telling the truth on progress or monitoring progress.

Typically a project manager would charge around 10-15% of the cost of the build for their fees. We are different and can customise our costs based on what you need. We can provide a very competitive cost compared to traditional costs structures we are happy to work with you on your budget to provide the service you need, tailored directly.

Sometimes on projects you need very little input from a Project Manager, sometimes much more, it could be as simple as a kitchen refit or as extensive as a house built from the ground up, either way a project can quickly go from great to a nightmare in one decision and if this isn't being monitored then it could quickly add up in both time, money and your overall experience.

Something we are proud of at OneFourFour is we like to give the clients a great service, they maybe new to the game and need a little more detail that others, they may have been doing this a while and just prefer a more hands off approach. Either way we strive to ensure all the contractors and trades on a job are aligned, working efficiently and effectively on the build to ensure budgets are stuck too and plans are accurate. We give coaching to people where it's needed to ensure next time they are more informed, but most of all we ensure everyone finished the project with the outcome they expected.

If you are looking for some help on a small or large project from a kitchen or bathroom refit, to a HMO conversion, BTL set up or even an extension on your home, don't be shy to give us a call and see if we can help either in the project or just have a friendly chat to point you in the right direction, we love all things property and are always happy to help where we can. We operate in and around London, Kent and Sussex.

Welcome to our latest HMO conversion and our latest refurbishment project where we have created a 8 bedroom all ensuite HMO. To say this one was a challenge would be an incredible understatement, mostly but not entirely facilitated by our good friend Coronavirus. 

That being said and not wanting to get bogged own and depressed at how long it has taken us to get to this point please find a selection of photo's from our project.

This one is in Leigh, right near the high street, the area is becoming more desirable as lots of the local and surrounding areas are being converted or updated, it still has a way to go but it's in an ideal spot for locals to get the most from the local amenities as well as being close to major businesses and employers like Amazon etc.

So what did we do here.

Back to Brick

Basement conversion

Reconfiguration of existing rooms

Ensuites added to all rooms

New utility connections

Full internal refresh

2 boilers and all new heating

All new electrics

All new Fire alarm and lighting system
Fully kitted out and rent ready.

So how does it look now...

Kitchen and Living space
Designed to entertain, spacious and modern with a homely feel.

Some example Bedrooms

Designed to be modern, all are spacious and more than meeting minimum standards even after bathrooms are taken out.

Two are designed to be more private and the penthouse was 2 rooms previously which we knocked into one to create a great space for our new housemates.

Some example Ensuites

These are in every room and are all similar in their make up and style although differing in size.

Some examples of extra items we have added to the rooms for that little difference in the standard white room with identical Ikea furniture

USB sockets

Designer light fittings

Bespoke Desks and furniture

Art work

Most people start their posts with the before to show the progress. I however want to show the end result and highlight the work we have done, but given I'll get questions, here are a few select before pictures to show what we started with.

The pictures are not the same quality as the ones above but hopefully give a good idea of what we started with.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch with us on the socials and if you are interested in investing with us or working on a project in the future, please reach out to discuss options.

OneFourFour Property

As a planner for most of my career I have found the art of adding contingency something of a second nature approach to all plans which I build.

So going into the next project this was no exception, I drafted a rough project plan for our ground up, back to brick HMO refurbishment from a 7 bedsit with shared bathroom property to a 8 bedroom all ensuite with shared kitchen and living space. The design was high spec and the project was a big one tanking the basement, new connections for utilities, new layout and 8 bathrooms to find spaces and pipe work voids for. Showed the plan to a few local builders and priced the job up, gave the timings a tweak based on the information the builders had provided and settled on a plan to do this refurb which would take about 8-10 months (builders quoted 6). All good, let's do this.

So the project started and all was going well, we ran into the usual issues and found ways around them, something you are not told in property development before you start is the strangest of issues will crop up, most of which have never happened before and unlikely to ever happen again. The strangest for this project was we had a water mains pipe coming into our basement which had connections to both the neighbouring property, so when we cut the water supply, so were there water supplies cut, who ever thought this was a good idea when this was originally done was smoking something special.

We were mostly at the point of back to brick when we hit our newest issue which was not for-seen. COVID-19. Yeah Coronavirus this thing that started off as a problem half way around the world suddenly stopped us in our tracks. We were in lockdown and despite everyone feeling OK for the most part and some people happy to carry on working the biggest hurdle we faced was supplies, If someone had told me at one point in 2020 I would be bartering on bags of plaster like it was water in the middle of the desert I would have laughed in there face, but I was, I needed 30 bags of the stuff just to keep the project moving and it was sold out across the country for WEEKS. You can't plan for everything.

We finally managed to aquire bags of plaster in dribs and drabs to keep things moving along slowly but in the middle of it all we had an issue with the builder and then found ourselves mid lockdown with no ability to move anything forward. We were already running into our contingency but at this point we were looking at months and months of delays beyond our worst case scenario.

We pushed ahead leaning on contacts and people we knew locally, This project is 300 miles from my house, so not one I can pop to every now and again but when the times are tough you have to do what's needed, so as soon as things were looking better Covid wise we had deployed a new team onto this.

As with everything, new team means new issues, mostly as they all want to tell me how the last person didn't do things the way they should (meaning the same way they did) and everyone wants to start from scratch and rip out what's been done so far. Trade after trade, all the same.

We carry on, finding people and materials where we can despite people being massively busy now and supplies limited, but what are our options? Stop, Never, we are more resilient than that.

Anyway Long story short, a year and 9 months after purchase we have a completed HMO, it looks AMAZING!

Blood, sweat, tears, covid but it has all been worth it in the end. 

How do I know?

We have 6 happy tenants already and viewings daily

We have refinanced the property to pull out as much as we can

We have moved onto our next project.

What was the net impact?

1 Year longer than expected

and 50% over budget...

We learn from our lessons, they make us stronger, more informed next time, never give up...

Good luck for you and your projects. Fingers crossed for no more nation wide lockdowns impacting our projects...