Basepads is a small family property business.  Catherine runs the day to day aspects of the business.  You will probably meet Darren at some point too, but Catherine is the main point of contact.  We are not a letting agent company, we personally own all our properties and we have owned rental properties for over 10 years.

We are approachable and friendly.  We always ensure that our properties are maintained to a pleasant high standard.  Catherine has good contacts in the area to ensure that any maintenance/repair issues are dealt with promptly.

As soon as a tenant moves in to our property, they are provided with a list of useful contacts.  The main number on this list will be Catherine's, as she is available 24/7 for any issues you may have at the property.

As we have been renting our properties out for several years, we are happy to supply a long list of past/present tenants for our new tenants to contact.  The average time we have a tenant stay in one of our student properties is 2 years, but we have had people stay on for the full 3 years (where they didn't do their first year in halls).

I suppose what makes us different is that we really do care about our houses and the welfare of our tenants.  The best way to validate our statement of care is to speak to our tenants.  Our main principles are always treat our tenants the way we like to be treated, and don't expect our tenants to live in conditions we wouldn't.  Our tenants will never deal with anyone who doesn't really care.  Catherine is always just a text or phone call away.  We don't just want to go that extra mile, we want to complete an extra marathan to ensure our tenants are all happy :-)

Here's a couple of recent comments posted on our facebook page:

"If anyone is looking for somewhere to live next year in Nottingham, then I would highly recommend Base Pads. Cheap rent, all bills included and with no hidden costs! It's not a far walk from NTU and if anything needed doing to the house (electrics, plumbing etc) it has been sorted within days! Very happy here to say the least : )" Charlotte

"Rented accommodation from Base Pads for my final year at NTU and can say easily that it was the best and easiest renting experience I had whilst at uni. Landlords were extremely lovely and and problems we had with the house were dealt with very quickly and efficiently. Couldn't have asked for more! :-) " Christine

We offer as much or as little support as our tenants require.  We like our tenants to know we are approachable and friendly.  But we also appreciate when a tenant enters in to a tenancy agreement that they are agreeing to make our property their home, so it is important to respect our tenants privacy.  Our general rule is we leave our tenants to enjoy their home.  The only time they will hear from us if they need us for anything or there is a maintenance issue.

Normally the only time we hear from our tenants are if there is a repair required at the property.  We keep the repair reporting process as simple as possible.... just call or text Catherine.  In the unlikely event Catherine is unavailable, our tenants are provided with a list of maintenance engineers who will be available to help.  We can only assume one of the reasons why we have such a good long relationship with our tenants is because we sort all maintenance repair issues promptly and in a friendly manner.

As we are a small family business, fortunately we don't have the expense of staff and overheads.  This means that we don't have to charge administration fees.  Also, we make the rules, so if we want to change the rules to help our tenants, we make the decisions.  We can be flexible with rent payments, in all situations we are prepared to accommodate the needs of our tenants.

Whilst we are a small friendly family operation, there are a few important things we have to comply with.  Our student houses are classed as a 'House of Multiple Occupation' and are licensed by the council.  We have to ensure that we comply with the conditions of the license, which we are happy to do so as this also protects the health, safety and welfare of our tenants.  Also, where we may take a small deposit from our tenants, we protect this in the Tenants Deposit Scheme (TDS).  Once again, we would welcome new tenants to speak to past tenants about how speedy and efficient we are at returning deposits once a tenancy has ended.

We really would like any future tenants to speak to our past/present tenants so they can explain how flexible and understanding we are when dealing with our tenants.

We look forward to speaking to any potential new tenants :-)  Thanks very much for reading our profile!