 Renting property without an agent
Solicitor Tessa Shepperson explains how this can be done, with the help of Landlordlet.com and her online legal information service www.landlordlaw.co.uk
If you are a landlord you will generally have expenses to pay on your properties, for example mortgage interest. As many of these expenses are going up, many landlords are experiencing problems in meeting these payments and need to cut their costs. One way to do this is to use a web site site like Landlordlet.com to find you a tenant. This article explains how you can then manage your properties with the assistance of Landlord-Law.
One reason why a Landlord will normally use a letting agent is that they have (hopefully!) had training in lettings law and practice, whereas you have not. However with Landlord-Law you have a huge resource of online information, drafted by a solicitor, which you can refer to any time of the day or night. For example, topics include, repairing obligations, the gas regulations, and what to do at the end of the tenancy. Any queries which are not answered by the online information can be put to me (Tessa Shepperson) in the members discussion forum. Members are also kept up to date on new developments via a monthly electronic newsletter.
Landlord-Law has a huge selection of tenancy agreements for use in different circumstances. Most landlords will use the standard AST for a whole house or flat. However as well as this, we have agreements for use where the landlord pays all or part of the bills, for where the tenant is renting a room in a shared house, and with a guarantee or break clause. There are also agreements for use where the tenancy is not an AST, for example where there is a rent over £25,000, the letting is to a company, or where there is a resident landlord, a special tenancy agreement to use when letting to tenants with pets, and also guarantee documents. If you have special requirements we can draft an amended agreement for you for an extra charge. In a separate section of the site there is information about tenancy agreements and guidance on preparing an agreement.
here you can either use the Landlord-Law forms, or the inventory service provided by Landlordlet.com.
All deposits taken for an AST must be protected with one of the government authorised schemes. We have information about the different schemes you can use, and a form of notice you can use to serve on the tenant to comply with your statutory duty.
- Increasing the rent/renewals
Agents often charge for this. However you can easily increase the rent and renew the tenancy using our standard tenancy renewals form. Or, if you do not want to give the tenant a new fixed term, you can use the online notice of rent increase (which must be in the proper form).
All our forms are in pdf format and can be completed on screen before printing off, to give a professional look. They are however only available to Landlord-Law annual members.
Many landlords join Landlord-Law so they can use our professionally drafted possession notices. We also have detailed guidance notes, and covering letters you can use.
If the tenant fails to vacate after a notice has been served, you can either use our fixed fee repossession service or purchase one of our online kits,
to obtain a court order for possession.
Where the tenant falls into arrears, we have a special Rent Arrears Action Plan to help landlords deal with this from day one
Landlord-Law is a long established and reputable legal information service. It is run by me as part of my legal practice. I am a qualified solicitor, and my firm is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Landlord-Law is regularly used by many landlords to help them understand and comply with their legal obligations and for the professionally drafted tenancy agreements and other notices and forms. By doing this many of them have saved large sums of money which would otherwise have been spent on agents and solicitors fees.
If you have not used Landlord-Law before visit www.landlordlaw.co.uk and take a look at the explanatory information you will find linked from the members information sections. For example you will find links to general FAQ about the service , information about the repossession service and
some testimonials.
If you decide to join, this can be easily done online, and you can be downloading the forms and reading the members only information within a couple of minutes!
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