Saving money with Landlord Law

If you are not good at or don’t enjoy dealing with paperwork

This is bad news.  Proper paperwork is critical nowadays to managing rented property within the law.  For example, you will need:

  • Tenancy documents such as a properly completed and signed tenancy agreement
  • Certificates such as the gas safety certificate and the EPC
  • To ensure that deposits are dealt with properly
  • Careful records of rent payments, and
  • Proof of service of important documents (otherwise you may not be able to rely on them in Court)

If you fail to deal with ANY of these properly you could find yourself in difficulties.

If you find keeping detailed records impossible or are hopelessly confused by paperwork, then DON’T self manage.

You will almost certainly get into difficulties and may make yourself liable for an expensive fine or even be the subject of a criminal prosecution.  In some circumstances, your tenants may be able to apply for a Rent Repayment Order.

Don’t think that Judges and those in authority will be sympathetic towards you because you are ‘just an ordinary person’ – because they won’t.  Tenants are consumers and those in authority expect those providing a consumer service (which is what a landlord does) to deal with things professionally.  They will expect you to know and abide by the law and ignorance of the rules will be no defence.  Quite the contrary in fact.

If you can’t cope with paperwork, then you should either not be a landlord at all and should invest your money in some other way, or you should find and use a decent letting agent to do this work for you.

Landlord Law can still help you though as we have guidance on finding and using letting agents.

If you just dislike the paperwork:

Mind you, most people, even if they don’t like paperwork very much, are able to manage if they are able to get a system going and follow it carefully.  One of the reasons Landlord Law was developed was to help landlords with the paperwork and we have forms and checklists which can help.

However, you MUST take the paperwork seriously and keep records of everything.