"Fully managed" is the least standardised phrase in lettings. At one agency it means everything short of watering the plants; at another it means rent collection plus a phone number that rings out, with the actual substance of management sold back to you as extras. The percentage on the fee page tells you very little until you know what is inside it.
So here is what I believe a fully managed service should include, as a checklist you can put in front of any agent. Including us.
The set-up, done properly
Marketing, viewings, and referencing that is actually thorough rather than performed. Then the legal machinery of a compliant tenancy: a written agreement that reflects current law, the deposit registered in a protection scheme with the prescribed information served on time, right-to-rent checks, and the required documents (gas safety, EPC, How to Rent guide) issued and evidenced. Since the Renters' Rights Act, the paperwork at the start of a tenancy matters more than it ever has, because possession now runs entirely through the legal grounds, and the grounds run on evidence.
Ask whether tenancy set-up is included in the management fee or invoiced separately. You will learn a lot from the pause.
The compliance calendar
Gas safety annually. Electrical installation report on its five-year cycle. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. EPC validity. Licensing where the borough requires it. A managed landlord should never personally remember a renewal date again: the agent's system should surface each one before it is due, book the engineer, and file the certificate. This is the unglamorous core of the job, and it is precisely what protects you if a tenancy ever goes wrong.
Rent, and what happens when it stops
Collection, statements, and (the part that matters) a defined arrears process that starts on day one of a missed payment, not week three: contact, a written record, a payment conversation, and escalation you are consulted on. Ask any prospective agent to describe their arrears procedure in detail. Fluency here is experience; vagueness here is a rehearsal you will pay to watch.
Maintenance with judgement
A tenant reports a fault; what happens next defines the service. You want vetted contractors at honest prices, small issues resolved without ceremony, and genuine spending decisions referred to you above an agreed threshold. You should also ask the pointed question: does the agent add a commission to contractor invoices? Some do. The answer belongs in writing.
Eyes on the property
Periodic inspections, with photographs and a written note, catching the small things (the sealant going, the overflow dripping, the mattress against the garden fence) before they become the large things. An agent who never visits is managing a standing order, not a property.
Ongoing tenancy administration without a toll booth
With assured periodic tenancies now the norm, the focus is ongoing administration rather than fixed-term renewal cycles. Rent-review support, routine tenancy administration, tenancy set-up and deposit registration are inside our fully managed fee (12.5% inc. VAT, published openly on the fees page) rather than being sold back as routine extras.
The test
Take this list to any agent, ours included, and ask one question of each line: included, or extra? A management fee is not high or low in the abstract. It is high or low relative to what is actually inside it, and you are entitled to that answer in writing before you instruct anyone.
What to do next
If this article has raised questions about your own property, the next step is a calm conversation. I can look at the property, the market evidence and the practical choices in front of you, then give you a clear view of what I would do next.
Would a measured valuation help?
For calm, evidence-led advice about selling or letting in Wimbledon, speak directly with Brenchley’s.