Part 2 - Before you rent

This part of the course is perhaps most relevant for new landlords, but old hands may find it helpful too!

Before you rent out your property, you need to be sure that you have complied with all the rules and are not renting out the property illegally.

Here are some of the most important things you should check:

• If your property is leasehold, you need to check that your lease allows you to sublet. Some leases prohibit this altogether, others require you to get permission from the freeholder or management company first. You may have to pay a fee.
• If you are a short-let tenant note that almost all tenancy agreements prohibit subletting altogether. For example it may put the landlord in breach of his mortgage and insurance policy. If you sublet without permission, you are putting yourself at risk of eviction, or even injunction proceedings – and being ordered to pay your landlord’s legal costs of doing this.
• If your mortgage is not a buy-to-let mortgage you need to get permission from your mortgage company
• It is also possible that you will need planning permission – although this will normally only be if you are converting a property to an HMO

Tips and Practice points

Here are some important things you need to get done before you advertise your property to let (note that many of these topics will be discussed in more detail later in the course):

• Make sure your property is signed up for Propety Alerts at the Land Registry (see the video linked below on this)
• If your property is in Wales – register with Rent Smart Wales. If you are going to self-manage, you will also need to get licensed.
• Make sure you have proper insurance
• Register with the Information Commission Office
• Register with a tenancy deposit scheme
• Set up a system for keeping records – it is ESSENTIAL that you keep proper records
• Make sure that your property complies with all the relevant legislation and regulations relating to its condition
• Consider setting up a separate bank account or service for all your property-related transactions – this will help with your tax. For example, see the services from Alphaletz and Hammock.
• If you are not going to use a letting agent – make sure you do some training on your legal obligations! (Or even if you are using an agent – its always good to be well informed!). Non-compliance with the rules can carry heavy penalties.
• If someone tries to get you to sign up to a ‘rent to rent’ scheme – be very careful! This can work well but can also cause massive and expensive problems if not done properly.

How to find out more

Free resources:

Video on how to protect your property against fraud << PLEASE WATCH THIS!
The Landlord Law Insurance Mini-course
David Smith’s talk on Rent to Rent

Landlord Law members:

• The first part of our Checklist which is on getting the property ready to rent. The Wales version is here. (Non-members – find out about the Landlord Law Checklists here.)
• Our Essential training video on before you rent
• A video with Dave Princep on things to check when preparing to let
• Video An Introduction to reading leases with barrister Brooke Lyne

This is just a short selection from the Landlord Law content on this topic.

So far as training and keeping up to date is concerned, Landlord Law members have access to my training webinars once a month (all of which are recorded and can be watched online), plus there is a huge amount of training content on Landlord Law. Further training can be purchased via the Landlord Law Shop.

You can keep up to date via the weekly bulletin and the Newsround posts on the Landlord Law Blog.

The next part of this course looks at legislation dealing with the condition of the property.