Comprehensive Property Management
Taking care of your property is our primary objective. We will ensure that your property complies with all current legislation to ensure a smooth trouble free let.
Furniture and soft furnishings
All furniture and soft furnishings you provide as part of the tenancy must meet the Fire and Furnishing Regulations 1988.
Gas Safety
Under the Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations 1994, you must have a valid gas safety certificate for the property before the start of the tenancy. We will arrange this for you. There will be a charge for this, currently £70.00. We will take this charge from the money we receive from the tenant, and send you the balance within 7 working days of the start of the tenancy. We will add VAT at the rate that applies at the time. If we are required to attend the property in order to give access to an engineer or supervise a visit this can be arranged and a member of staff will attend the property at a pre-arranged time and date.
The Low Voltage Electrical Equipment (Safety)
Regulations 1989 and Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 deal with the safety of electrical appliances and wiring. Although you do not have to meet these regulations by law, if our policy says you must follow these, we will tell you before you sign any agreement with us.
Insurance
We strongly recommend that you tell your insurer when we let the property for you. You should get specific advice from an insurance professional about insurance cover that makes sure that you and we are not responsible if the tenant or any visitors are injured in the property. You should get advice about all other insurance needs from an insurance professional before you let the property. We do not provide advice on insurance matters, however our business partners will be happy to find you the right insurance for your needs. Our tenancy agreement says that you are only responsible for your tenant’s belongings if they are damaged as a result of your actions.
Gardens
If there is a garden, you need to tell us how you expect the tenants to maintain it. Like all aspects of our managed service we will tailor our service to your needs.
As an example you may require that the gardens are :
Maintained according to the time of year. We recommend this if there is not much garden and it just needs to look tidy.
Maintained in the following manner. Mow the lawn, trim the hedges and weed the garden regularly. We recommend this if there is a lawn and some hedges. You must provide the garden tools the tenant will need for this, have a residual current device protected electrical supply (an electrical supply with a circuit breaker to prevent electrocution), and provide safety gloves.
Maintained by a gardener and that you pay 75% of the cost of this, and the tenant must pay 25% of the cost. We recommend this if the gardens are landscaped. The Office of Fair Trading says that tenants do not have a long-term benefit from the garden, so you should pay the greater share of the cost, as you get the long-term benefit.
Restrictive Covenants
You need to tell us if there are any restrictions in your lease or freehold documents, for example, conditions preventing you from parking caravans or commercial vehicles on the drive. Some may prevent you from letting the property, or restrict the age of the tenant. If you do not tell us about these restrictions along with any other restrictive covenants or wishes we will not be able to effectively manage the property. Effective management will rely heavily on you providing us with quality information prior to the onset of an agreement.
Advertising
When we are ready to advertise the property, we will use our database of possible tenants, advertise the property in newspapers, and put the details in our window and on the internet.We will have erected a TO LET board in a position that we deem to be most suitable unless otherwise instructed. We will do any or all of these depending on market conditions.
We will give you advice about the rent you are likely to get for the property, and agree a rental figure at which we will advertise the property.
We will show possible tenants around the property.
You must tell us about any items that are currently in the property but which will not be included in the new tenancy so that these are not included in the let.If you have any items in the garden that are valuable or have sentimental value to you, we advise that you remove them before we show people around.
Criteria
You must tell us beforehand about any tenants your insurance may prevent you from accepting, for example, smokers, people with pets, people on Housing Benefit and so on.
Pets
Will you authorise the keeping of Pets by the tenant at the above property. If so then an additional security deposit may be taken. Pets may not be a problem. Their owners may be. Responsible pet owners will rarely cause a Landlord a problem.
When we find a suitable tenant, we will contact a credit reference agency to make checks about them and their guarantor (a person who will promise to pay their rent if they fail to do so). The agency will search to see if the tenant has any county court judgements against them and that they are on the electoral roll at the address they have given us. Please remember that references give details of their past behaviour. They do not guarantee that the tenant will pay their rent in the future. We will also get proof of their current earnings, and ask their employer to confirm that their employment is likely to continue for as long as the tenancy lasts. We will not be responsible for any tenant references as long as we have acted with reasonable care and skill in carrying out our responsibilities under this contract.
We will tell you when we find a suitable tenant and ask you for instructions about the length of tenancy you want us to offer them, and the date you want the tenancy to start. We will prepare an Assured Shorthold Tenancy in line with your instructions, and get all the tenants to sign it. You give us permission to sign all legal documents in connection with matters arising from the tenancy agreement on your behalf, except possession summonses.
When we have found a tenant, we will arrange for the preparation of an inventory stating the condition of the property and a list of its contents. The charge for this service will depend on the size of the property and whether or not you have included furniture in the let . The Independent inventory clerk will agree this list with the tenant. You should get professional advice about insuring the contents.
You should remove from the property any items which have sentimental value to you, and any items which are not included in the tenancy before we start showing future tenants around the property.
We will take the first month’s rent in advance, and one month’s rent plus one hundred pounds as a deposit. The tenancy will start when this has cleared in our bank account. The deposit is held in a Tenancy Deposit Scheme, and we will give you details of that scheme. We will also provide details of the scheme and other information required by law to the tenant about refunding the deposit at the end of the tenancy.
Once the tenancy starts, we will arrange to read any gas and electric meters, and give the utility companies, (gas, electricity, water and phone companies) and the Council Tax department the new tenant’s details.
We will collect the rent from the tenant as agreed in the tenancy agreement. We will pass the rent to you within 5 days of it clearing in our account, We will pay this by cheque or direct to your chosen bank account. If you do not live in the United Kingdom, we must take off income tax at the basic rate, unless you have registered with the HM Revenue & Customs non resident landlord scheme.
Mid Term Visits
Every three months, we undertake to carry out a mid term visit. This will be conducted by an independent inventory clerk. We will be provided with a written report. If we cannot get into the property to carry out our mid term visit, we will tell you and recommend that you end the tenancy. If our mid term visit reveals that repairs need to be carried out, we will arrange for these to be done. We will give you full details of any spending we make on your behalf.
We recommend that you give us contact details for yourself at all times. If a repair becomes necessary and we don’t have the authority to arrange for the work to be carried out we will need to contact you. If we can’t contact you and the cost of doing nothing is higher than the cost of taking action, we will instruct our contractors to carry out any necessary repair. In that case, you agree to pay back the amount we have spent. We will do our best to make sure that you lose as little as possible.
If the tenant breaks any of the conditions of this agreement, we will arrange for a solicitor to prepare a
Section 8 Housing Act 1988 notice
However, you will have to take any further legal action. If the tenant is late paying the rent, we will write to them once the rent is seven days late. If we do not receive a satisfactory response to that letter, we will issue a Section 8 notice when we have two months of rent arrears.
If you want the tenant to leave the property at the end of the agreement, we can prepare a section 21 Housing Act 1988 notice and give it to the tenant.
Two months before the end of the agreement, we will find out whether you (and the tenant) want the tenancy to continue. If the tenancy is going to be renewed, we will prepare a new assured shorthold tenancy agreement in line with your instructions.
At the end of the tenancy, the inventory clerk will check the condition of the property and the list of items included with the tenancy. They will make allowances for fair wear and tear. If any items have been damaged, we will negotiate with you and the tenant an appropriate figure to compensate you for your loss. By law (Human Rights Act 1998), if you and the tenant cannot agree the appropriate figure for compensation, as agents, we will inform the DPS or My Deposits that there is a disputed amount and this will be settled in accordance with the adjudication procedures of the tenancy deposit scheme we have joined.
At the end of the tenancy, we will read the gas and electricity meters, and tell the utility companies (gas, electricity and water ) and the Council Tax department that the tenant has moved out. When the tenant leaves, we will secure the property. We will either turn off the water supply or leave the central heating on a low setting to prevent damage by frost during the winter.