How R G Austin Handles Property Maintenance for Homeowners & Landlords
Property maintenance work ranges in duration from a few hours for single reactive tasks through to one or two weeks for larger concurrent programmes of repair. The scope and timeline are established during an initial site assessment that looks across the full breadth of work required rather than treating each task in isolation.
The most common difficulty homeowners and landlords face when managing a property is the coordination overhead of dealing with multiple separate contractors across plumbing, heating, drainage, joinery, and general building work. Each trade requires its own communication chain, its own scheduling, and its own supervision. Work that should proceed sequentially instead stalls when one contractor fails to complete before the next is due to start.
Our approach removes that overhead. A member of the Austin family conducts the initial assessment, establishes the full scope of concurrent or sequential repairs required, and acts as the single point of contact for the duration of the programme. Trades are coordinated directly under Austin family management. You communicate with one person throughout, receive one written cost proposal covering all agreed work, and pay one invoice on completion.
Over sixty years of continuous operation across Blackheath, Greenwich, Charlton, and Plumstead has given this team an accumulated understanding of how residential properties in this part of South London were originally built and how they have been altered over the decades since. Victorian and Edwardian terraces with original lime-mortar pointing, cast iron soil stacks, and timber suspended floors have specific repair requirements that differ fundamentally from modern construction. Applying modern materials indiscriminately to historic substrates causes accelerated deterioration. We know the difference — and we work accordingly.
Planning permission is not required for standard internal or external maintenance and repair work. Listed building consent is required where modifications affect the character or fabric of a listed structure, and we advise on this during the site assessment wherever it applies.
- Broad site assessment establishing full scope before any work begins
- Single Austin family contact coordinating all trades throughout
- One written fixed-price proposal covering all agreed scope
- 60+ years knowledge of SE London's historic building substrates and construction
- Full clean-up and responsible waste disposal on completion of every visit
