Southampton entrepreneur aims to help landlords' repair process with Fiixit

A 54-year-old landlord and businessman from Southampton, Hampshire has come up with an online property maintenance platform to help take the stress out of repair jobs for self-managing landlords.

Fiixit is described as 'plug and play' platform which is simple to use and cost effective, which will help landlords save time, money and maximise their return on investment, particularly those with houses in multiple occupancy (HMOs).

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It is the brainchild of Tajinder Sohal, the managing director of Big Rock Estates who lives in Eastleigh.

"Our purpose is to empower landlords with the tools they need to take command of their property maintenance, become more efficient and reduce operational costs," he said.

"I’ve been a landlord for over 30 years, even longer if I count the time, I spent with my dad in my teenage years managing his rental properties.

"One thing all landlords have in common – whether a full-time landlord with 50+ properties or a part time landlord with a handful of properties and a full-time day job - is that they have properties requiring repairs.

"The boiler is broken, the fuse board keeps tripping or any number of things that pop into inboxes without any notice. The organisation required and time spent going back and forth between tenants and tradespeople to fix the issue can really add up, especially with multiple properties. I founded Fiixit to help with this headache."

The tech solution means there is a transparent and consolidated workflow so all parties are kept informed of progress and updates. Using the system, tenants can create a Fiixit ticket that reports a repair or maintenance issue.

Landlords can then choose whether to handle the repair personally or assign the job to a tradesperson. Every action taken on a ticket is recorded in the landlord, tenants and tradespersons activity feed and dashboard.

Sohal added: "Using the Fiixit platform provides a stark comparison to how I used to do it, managing multiple WhatsApp threads, compiling lists and hunting through mails to then transfer the same information to different people."

Local landlords and property businesses in the Southampton area are now being offered a free trial of the platform to provide valuable feedback.

Southampton's largest student rental property businesses, Student No Fee, has been using it.

Founder Erica Fogg said that Fiixit had helped the firm to manage the repair workload more efficiently and effectively.

"The simplicity of Fiixit and how it meets our needs as a business is what appealed to us initially but on using it, it has become an integral tool for our core business," she said.

"Fiixit is really easy to use, you don’t need to give any training or instructions to anyone, you can find your way around it very easily.

"The entire team, both maintenance and office staff, and our tenants have all been really impressed. Going forward we will be fully transitioning to run all of our repairs through Fiixit."

People can register their interest in the new tool by emailing [email protected] or seeing HERE.