Landlord Information

Letting The Property

Once we have received your confirmation that you require us to let your property, we will begin the advertising process in the hope that we can find you a suitable tenant. We will carry out accompanied viewings, with keys provided by you. We will never let a property without first consulting you with regard to the interested parties. We will then begin referencing including checking ID, verification, once these details have been clarified we will arrange a suitable date for the commencement of the tenancy. Of course we can always arrange for you to meet your prospective tenants.

The Tenancy Agreement

Our normal paperwork will be prepared, in this case this will be an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement, usually for 6 months. If this is a short tenancy and you require the property back at the end of the 6 months, we can prepare the necessary paper work to end the tenancy on the agreed date.

Mortgaged Property

If your property is mortgage, we will need to see paper work from your mortgage supplier that they are in agreement for you to rent. Most mortgage companies will charge you a premium on top of your normal mortgage payment and you may wish to factor this into your monthly rental fee.

Leasehold Flat and Other Property

If the property you are wishing to rent is part of a leasehold situation then permission from the freeholder may be required.

Restrictions Etc. Affecting Your Property

If there are any restrictions in place regarding the property, ie no bonfires to be lit, no pets allowed, no caravans on the drive etc, we would need to see a copy of this before the contract is prepared.

Attic, Cellar and Excluded Areas

We would not ordinarily allow viewings in the attic, cellar and excluded areas. If there is adequate access to these areas, then we would proceed with caution. We would suggest that landlords do not leave personal possessions in these areas for storage etc. These areas would not be inspected on routine property visits, or on the inventory or check out.

Insurance

We would advise landlords to take out Landlords insurance on their property. It would be necessary for you to be honest with the insurance company as to which items were left in the property, ie curtains and white goods in the case of un-furnished properties. If the property is fully furnished this would also need to be declared to the insurance company.

Income Tax

We are obliged to tell Inland Revenue (if asked) of any payments to you from the rental of your property. If you are an overseas landlord, we act on your behalf, so are therefore required to deduct income tax at the basic rate from your rent payments and retain this money in a specific account, if you are unsure about these procedures you may wish to discuss this with your accountant or visit the Government website for information.

Deposit

We will collect a deposit from your new Tenant before the start of the tenancy equivalent to 5 weeks rent, as per guidelines. This money will be held with the DPS until the end of the tenancy. The process of registering this money means that we can only release this money if you and your tenant are in agreement. If there are deductions required following the check-out then we would discuss this with you and your tenant and hopefully come to a satisfactory conclusion. However the DPS do have a free litigation service should disagreements occur, and we will prepare the paperwork for you to aid the speedy resolution of such disagreements. We do receive any interest money on these deposits amounts.

Rent

We will collect rent money for you, under our full management service, usually on the agreed date if each month. If your tenant pays rent in bulk we will discuss the payment periods with you in advance. All rents received will be paid across to you usually within 5 working days of cleared funds. Obviously when these periods fall within Christmas or bank holidays this may vary. Should a tenant fail to pay rent on any due date we will let you know ASAP and discuss the non payment with your tenant immediately. We cannot be held responsible for non-payment of rent.

During the course of a tenancy, there may be need for other deductions to be made during the period between rent payments, if you require a fully managed service, we will obviously arrange for annual Gas Safety Inspections to be carried out, alternatively minor repairs will be carried out, any other costly repairs will be discussed with you and a series of quotes obtained. Landlords are expected to keep items like the central heating under good repair. These costs will be deducted from the rent payments and the remainder forwarded to you.

Bills and Services

Usually tenants will be responsible for their services, water, gas, electricity and council tax. Where you have opted for a fully managed service we will contact the utility providers for the property and let them have the readings listed on the ingoing inventory. We would encourage tenants not to change the suppliers although they are perfectly within their rights to source a cheaper supplier. Tenants are also able, if required, to install a water meter, where there isn’t one fitted.

Cleaning

It is important that the property is cleaned throughout before the start of the tenancy, this encourages the tenant to return the property in its original condition. There is now no legal requirement to ask tenants to carry out professional carpet cleaning after living your property with a pet. However, we will be adding this clause as part of their tenancy agreement, and pointing out that they have signed to this affect. If there is a garden with the property, it is equally important that the garden is tidy. You may wish to add the cost of a gardener to the monthly rent payment if you feel that this would be beneficial to your rental.

Inventory

Before the commencement of your rental, we will carry out a detail inventory of your property. This is a detailed document which includes many photographs and is a document which is used at the end of the tenancy for the check out. If the tenant does not return this signed within 7 days we would deem this document correct. This document would need to be updated for each tenancy. This would be an additional cost on top of your set up fee, and we would advise you of the cost before commencement.

Tenant Information

Tenant would be given full details of their obligations, and contact telephone numbers when they sign for their tenancy.

Legal Regulations

Legionnaires Disease. As a landlord of residential property, you have responsibilities for controlling Legionnaires disease. Health and Safety legislation requires that landlords carry out Risk Assessments for the Legionella bacteria which cause Legionaries disease, and thereafter maintain control measures to minimize the risk. Most rented properties are likely to be low risk, but it is important that risk assessments are carried out and control measures introduced by a competent person or company.

There are many legal requirements for the rental of your property and these must be adhered to.

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms - From October 2015 it is a legal requirement for all properties that are let out to include a working carbon monoxide alarm (where necessary), these should also be fitted if there is a working fire place and any room that contains a gas or oil burning appliance in the property, and should be fitted as per the guidelines. Smoke detectors should be fitted on all floors in the property. These alarms should be fitted and working at the start of the tenancy, and will be checked and recorded as such on the ingoing inventory. The responsibility for the continued maintenance of these falls to the tenant once they take possession of the property. If you have a full managed service, these will be checked on the periodic visits.

Working Fire Places – if there is a working fireplace in the property, we would require that the chimney is swept at the start of the tenancy, we would then include a clause in the contract that the tenant continues to maintain this, sweeping monthly, at the end of the tenancy we would expect the chimney to be swept and a receipt seen.

Fire Regulations - There are some strict legislation regarding fire resistance on soft furnishings, this includes items left in the garage or attic. If there are any soft furnishings left in the property they must have the relevant fire labels in place, and this will also be checked on the ingoing inventory, any items not displaying these labels should be removed.

Gas and Electrical Appliances – it is the landlords responsibility to ensure that the appliances in the property adhere to the strict guidelines. Failure to do so could lead to hefty fines. If you chose our fully managed service we will instruct a qualified technician to carry out an annual Gas Safety Inspection as and when it becomes due, the landlord would be responsible to repair of replace any defective items as soon as possible to bring the property back to a safe condition as per the law. Where there are electrical items in the property, usually white goods, we are required to ensure that there are safety instructions present and that there is a current PAT test certificate present, again this is a yearly requirement, and you may wish to remove these items from the property.

Housing Health and Safety Rating System – new guidelines state that the property must be a safe environment for tenants. We can help you check the property for all its safety aspects for the property is handed over to your new tenant. In other cases the tenant may wish for a member of the local council to come and check the property and produce a report under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. If this is the case the local authority holds a great deal of power over the landlord to make the property safe, often giving them time frames to complete such works. We do not carry out these works as part of our usual set up fee, and will advise you of the costs as and when this becomes necessary depending on the level of work involved. We would not encourage you to rent your property to sharers, as there are further guidelines regarding HMOS (House of Multiple Occupancy).

Routine Visits

As part of our fully managed service, we would carry out regular visits, usually we would visit within the first month and then every three months thereafter. We would check the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on each visit and send you a detailed report. As your tenants they do have the right to privacy, and would not expect you or anyone on our behalf to visit the property unannounced. It may become necessary to send the tenants a letter saying that we will be visiting on a certain date and time, using our management key for access if they fail to respond. We would then send you a detailed report of our findings. Whilst we cannot comment of a tenants choice of lifestyle ie cleaning, we can comment on things that are derogatory to the property. Obviously, at the moment during the current pandemic we would be unable to carry out these visits, but would resume them as soon as we are able.

Landlord’s Protection Insurance and Rent Guarantee

During the course of a tenancy things may go wrong, a tenant could lose their employment for example, this could then lead to issues with rent payments. These would be circumstances not necessarily available to the referencing company at the start of a tenancy. Whilst there are some costly ways of dealing with this like going through the courts, there are companies who offer rent guarantee insurance and would guard you against loss of income from your rental.

Problems with The Tenant

If during the course of your rental problems arise with your tenants, we will be able to discuss these issues with you. If a mutual agreement cannot be reached, then we can discuss with you the necessary steps to help you end the tenancy legally, and fill in the necessary paperwork as necessary, apart from our fully managed service, these costs are not included in our normal fee structure.

Pets

Whilst it is important to acknowledge that most families now own a pet, it is important that these are discussed prior to the signing of the tenancy agreement. If a tenant expresses the wish to have a pet during the course of the tenancy, then they would need to contact us and in turn we can discuss it with you and then upon agreement we would produce a pet addendum to be added to the tenancy agreement. We would not expect any tenant to keep a pet for the purposes of breeding. The addendum would state that they are to have any carpets cleaned and fumigated at the end of the tenancy, and any waste in the garden disposed off immediately.