LESSON 4 - The letting documents you need

In this lesson I run through all the documents you need to create a successful tenancy.

Remember before even marketing your property for letting landlords will now need an EPC.

It’s an invevitable part of the job of being a landlord that you will need a series of letting documents to formalise the tenancy. The most important is obviously the tenancy agreement. Landlords can download our free tenancy agreement through the Property Manager software. It is now also possible to email the tenancy document direct to your tenant for them to check it over first.

What many landlords do not know is that it is not necessary for there to be a written tenancy agreement to create a tenancy. A tenancy can be created verbally although we would never recommend this. The latest proposals from the Labour government in their reform of the private rented sector will make it a requirement of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy that there is a written contract.

As well as a tenancy agreement a landlord should ensure that they serve the prescribed information required by s213 of the Housing Act.

Failure to provide this information to the tenant could result in the tenant being able to claim up to 3 months in rent and the landlord not to be able to use a section 21 notice and the accelerated possession procedure.

A landlord really needs to complete a comprehensive inventory if they are going to avoid potential problems and difficulties when it comes to the ending of the tenancy and a potential dispute with their tenants over the condition of their buy-to-let property.

Here’s a quick guide to producing an inventory using Property Hawk’s drag and drop inventory creator.

Remember you will not be able to get away with just a photo montage of your buy-to-let property!

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