What is Landlord Law?

This is every landlord’s nightmare.  How can you pay YOUR expenses if you are not getting in the rent?

We have a special section of the site designed to help you here.  It is called the Rent Arrears Action Plan and it contains:

• Preliminary things you need to be considering, such as why your tenant may be withholding rent and looking to see if you are compliant with the various rules
• Guidance on what you  need to do from the day after your tenant has failed to pay – with draft letters and checklists
• Suggestions about how you can help your tenants – without having to resort to court action
• Guidance on what you should do if rent has been unpaid for more than one month – with guidance on creating a schedule of arrears (with our self-calculating forms) and on possession notices.

Members will find the plan here

If your tenants are ‘can’t pay’ (as opposed to ‘won’t pay’ tenants who are best evicted) you may want to try to help them pay.  We have extensive guidance on this in our article  Helping Tenants in Arrears of Rent.

Helping tenants to pay is ‘win win’ as you will get your money and your tenants will be able to stay in their home.

If your tenant still fails to pay despite your efforts, you may have no alternative but to bring possession proceedings.  See more on this below.

We have a great tenancy agreement service!

Our special ‘plain English’ style tenancy agreements are appreciated by both landlords and tenants alike – as they are so easy to understand.

Tenancy agreements are created via our onsite ‘Document Generator’ system which will allow you to adapt your tenancy to suit your specific circumstances.  For example:

• If your property is in Wales
• If you are renting a room in a shared house
• If your rent is paid weekly rather than monthly
• If you pay some or all of the bills
• If you are renting to a limited company
• If you are a resident landlord
• If the property is managed by an agent

There are also additional forms you can use if:

• You want to allow your tenant to keep a pet (this is a very popular form)
• You have agreed to allow your tenant to run a ‘home business’ at the property, and
• If you are willing to let the tenants take in  a lodger

All of which have special clauses which will protect your position.

Then there are two types of guarantee deed plus a renewal form you can use if you do not want to issue a new tenancy agreement.

If your situation is slightly unusual – we can help you draft special clauses if you ask us in the member’s forum area.

Note that our English tenancy agreements will be updated in time to comply with the new rules under the Renters Rights Act 2025, which comes into force on 1 May 2026

It is not nice to have to evict your tenant but sometimes there is no alternative.  But how do you do this and how much will it cost?

Here at Landlord Law we have guidance on the whole procedure.  See our page here or read on …

• We have our (free) Which Possession Procedure Guide to help you work out if you can evict and if so what procedure you should use
• We have various other diagnostic tools such as our Section 21 Guide and the Tenancy Deposit Compliant Guide to help you with specific issues
• We have all the possession notices for you to create with covering letters and guidance on service.
• Then we have our Eviction Guide (Business Level members only) which has full instructions on how to bring standard eviction proceedings without using a solicitor, including how to complete the forms, going to court and using the bailiffs to evict.
• Business Level members also now have access to the recordings of talks at our Possession Proceedings Training Day from September 2021.

If you have questions on eviction (or any other) issues, you can ask us ‘Quick Questions’ in the members’ forum (if you are a member!).

Helping landlords with eviction of tenants is an important part of our service.

Many agents are wonderful but sadly others are not.

Quite a few landlords have come to Landlord Law desperate to know what to do about their terrible agents who often insist on expensive commission payments despite doing nothing – or worse, actively upsetting your tenants and causing trouble.

To help with this we have our Problem Letting Agents Guide.  This goes through all the things you need to consider when dealing with problem agents and provides help and guidance.

There is also quite a lot of other help in our ‘About Letting Agents’ topic where we look at letting agents’ legal obligations to landlords under agency law.

There are four different types of HMO but in a landlord and tenant context most people think of the type of HMO which requires a license from the  Council.

We have a huge amount of information and guidance for landlords managing HMOs.  You will see a complete list here.

Tessa can also answer any tricky questions that might arise in the Landlord Law Forum.

On 1 December 2022 the law governing rented property changed with the coming into force of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2022.

Landlord Law has a lot of content for Welsh landlords:

• We have a large number of FAQ and articles which explain the new laws
• We have ‘occupation contracts” (the new name for tenancy agreements in Wales) which comply with the Welsh rules AND protect your position as landlord
• We have a special set of ‘checklists‘ which explain the process of renting out a property in Wales.

Find out what we have on our Wales page here.

We have a huge amount of content on Landlord Law.  So the best thing is to have a look through the Topics or the A-Z index and see if there is anything specifically on your problem.

There often will be.

If you are stuck you can (if you are a member) ask a ‘Quick Question’ in our member’s forum.

Or if you need a bit more help, you may need to purchase some solicitor’s telephone advice.

Provided your problem is on a landlord and tenant related issue (short lets), we can help.

To check you are compliant now, you should use our Audit Kit.  This is a step by step guide which covers all the main areas of regulation you need to comply with so you can ensure you are within the law.

The Audit Kit is a part of Landlord Law (and we recommend all new members follow the kit immediately after joining), but it is also available for sale as a stand-alone product.

For help in managing your properties, our Landlord Law Checklists are what you need!

These are detailed step by step guides telling you what you need to do at various stages of a tenancy.  With videos and links to other content on the site if you want to read more.

Use them as a reference guide, and then you won’t forget anything!

You have come to the right place.

Even if you don’t want to join Landlord Law, you can sign up to get our Free Weekly Bulletin which will keep you up to date with legal news.

We are constantly updating our content and adding new content for members.

Then we have our monthly Training Webinars which all members can attend.  These are then recorded and put online as a (Business Level only) video.

We also run (pay extra) training courses both online and in person and put on free webinars from time to time.

Many landlords have managed their properties themselves for many years with our help.  For example: