General Advice for Landlords

Mortgage

If you have a mortgage secured against your property, you should obtain your mortgage lender’s writ-ten consent allowing you to let out the property before it is advertised for rent. They may require you to include additional clauses in
the tenancy agreement. If this is the case, you must inform us of those changes. If you are unable to get your mortgage lender’s consent, we can refer you to our partner agency who may be able to assist you.

Sub-Letting

Sub-letting is usually prohibited unless the tenants have written consent from you. Should you agree to allow subletting, we will require written confi rmation of your consent.

Insurance

You should ensure that your buildings and contents insurance provides suitable cover for a rented property. Your policies may be deemed invalid if you fail to inform your insurance providers that the property is now rented. If required, we can refer to you our partner agency who will give you profes-sional advice and recommend a suitable policy specifi cally designed for landlords.
BILLS AND REGULAR OUTGOINGS We recommend that you arrange for your regular outgoings to be paid by standing order or direct debit, for example, your mortgage payments, service charges and maintenance contracts.

Council Tax

When a tenant is occupying the property, it is their responsibility to pay the council tax. During tenancy periods and tenant changeover, we will advise the council on your behalf of the change in occupier as well as providing forwarding addresses for outgoing tenants. During vacant periods, the coun-cil tax charge reverts to you as
the owner. Councils may offer a discount of up to 50% on vacant
properties. This is at the discretion of your local council and you should contact them directly to confi rm the discount available to you.

The Inventory

In order to provide a complete and effi cient service to you, we will draw up an inventory of contents and detail the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy period; this helps us to avoid misunder-standing and disputes at the end of a tenancy period. Without such safeguards, it will be impossible to prove any loss, damage, or signif-icant deterioration of the property or its contents. With the exclusion of ‘fair wear and tear’, the tenant’s security deposit will cover the fi rst instance of damage to the prop-erty. Extensive damage would be covered by the relevant insurance policy, assuming appropriate insur-ance is in place.

Tax

If you are a resident in the UK, it is entirely your responsibility to inform the HMRC of any rental income received through renting out your property, and to pay any tax that is due. If you are not a resident in the UK, we are obliged to retain an amount equal to the basic rate of income tax from the rent received, less certain expenses, and forward this to the Inland Revenue on a quarterly basis, unless we have the appropriate exemption certifi cate. An application form for exemption and further information can be ob-tained from the Inland Revenue.

Preparing the property to let

In our experience, a good rela-tionship with tenants is the key
to a smooth-running tenancy. As Property Managers, maintaining that relationship is our job, but it is important that the tenants feel com-fortable in the property and that they are receiving value for their money. Our policy of offering a service of quality and care therefore extends to our tenant applicants
too, and we are pleased to recom-mend properties to rent that con-form to certain minimum standards. Quality properties attract quality tenants.

Mail Forwarding

We recommend that you make use of the Post Offi ce’s redirec-tion service. Application forms are available at their counters, and the cost is minimal. It is not the ten-ant’s responsibility to forward mail. Likewise, at tenancy completion we recommend the mail redirection service to the tenants, since it is also not your responsibility to forward their mail.

Information for the tenant

It is helpful for you to leave infor-mation and manuals in the property showing the tenant how to operate the central heating, hot water sys-tem, washing machine and alarm system for example. Details on refuse and recycling collection Schedules is also helpful.

Keys

You should provide two sets of keys for the tenant and one set to us. We would also recommend that you retain a set of keys yourself in the event of an emergency. These keys should include all access doors, garage and windows.

General Condition

Electrical, gas, plumbing, waste, central heating and hot water systems must be safe, sound and in good working order. Repairs and maintenance are at your expense unless we are able to establish misuse. Third party service contracts are often a good idea, since they usually include cost of parts and labour. The older the property, the more attractive these policies can become. If you have a preferred contractor for a certain type of re-pair, please notify us on our proper-ty details sheet and we will attempt to use these contractors fi rst. If they are unavailable or unable to respond to an emergency repair quickly, then we would pass the