Legal help, services and support for private residential landlords
It sets out the rules under which your tenancy will operate and contains (or should contain) important clauses to allow the tenancy to operate properly.
If some of these clauses are missed out it can result in big problems for you:
For example:
Different tenancy types need different clauses. If you use the wrong one you can get into difficulties. For example:
If you are a self managing landlord, or a letting agent, you really need to know the different types of tenancy and the clauses that you need to have.
So you can be sure that YOUR tenancy agreement will protect your position properly.
By understanding the rules that apply to rented properties and how these affect tenancy agreements
I’m Tessa Shepperson, a specialist landlord & tenant solicitor. For many years I ran my own solicitors firm and now I provide training and information services to landlords and letting agents.
Quite a few years ago I became concerned about the tenancy agreements on offer which tend to be stuffed full of jargon, difficult to understand and set out in a confusing way.
I decided I wanted to offer something different and so I developed my own tenancy agreement templates. While doing this I considered and re-drafted every single clause, thinking about every word used, and the readability and enforceability of the clauses as a whole.
Since then I have regularly updated my tenancy agreements to take account of legal changes, and also the views and wishes of my Landlord Law members, many of whom made brilliant suggestions which have been incorporated.
As a result of doing this over the years, I have gained a huge amount of knowledge and insight into drafting documents generally and tenancy agreements in particular.
In this course I want to share that knowledge with you – so you will be able to understand the rules that apply, and produce the best documents possible for your tenants or (if you are a letting agent) your landlords.
To help you this course includes training on:
After you have completed the course you should:
In short – you will be able to deal with your tenancy agreements in a professional manner and to your best advantage.
One of the problems with most training courses is that they tend to be boring – full of jargon-filled manuals which are difficult to read and absorb. You may even find yourself drifting off to sleep!
I can’t guarantee that will never happen with this course, but I have tried to make it as interesting as I can.
For example, we have:
For example, you may prefer reading text on the page – so you will appreciate having the pdf versions which you can print out.
Or you may find learning through watching videos easier. Some people love listening to podcasts and appreciate being able to download the audios which you can listen to in your car.
Practically everyone enjoys the ‘test yourself’ sections that we have at the end of the lessons. They are a learning process in themselves – as if you get the answer wrong, that will help you learn what the right answer is!
We try to ‘switch things up’ as much as possible to create variety – including using pictures and diagrams which can also help. It all goes to create a more enjoyable learning experience for you. Which will help you learn better!
Lets now take a look at what the course contains.
Here is an outline of the main content:
Bonus material
Including the Landlord Law Legal Basics courses.
A tenancy is a legal document conferring a significant legal right to your tenants. It's important to do it correctly. If you have a good background knowledge of the rules that apply to tenancies and occupation rights generally you will understand why things need to be done in a certain way and will be far less likely to make mistakes
Because they are complex legal documents, people who are unfamiliar with the rules can easily include clauses which are unenforceable, or just plain wrong. Which can cause problems for both you and your tenants. If you understand how this can happen you can prevent misleading content in your tenancy agreements.
Although many tenancies are granted to one person living alone, probably the majority are to people sharing with others. In order to set these tenancies up properly, you need to know what the options are so you can choose the best one for your situation. A 'bog standard' AST with everyone signing the same tenancy agreement may not be appropriate for you.
Tenancies tend to be long documents with lots of clauses. You may wonder why this is necessary and why you can't have a nice short agreement which saves paper. However when you learn about the different clauses and why they are there you will be less anxious to remove them! These two sections will give you a good working knowledge of the main types of clause which are necessary to create a good working tenancy agreement.
This is the section with practical guidance on how to actually create a tenancy agreement properly. It is also where were give advice on amending a pre-drafted agreement. Landlords often change tenancy agreements but because they are not lawyers they do not realise that their amendments can have the opposite effect to what they intended! In this section we give guidance on what you can change safely and what things you need to leave to the professionals.
As this course is all about drafting tenancy agreements I thought it would be helpful to make some of my documents available to you.
These will be the same as the documents available to my Landlord Law members and are created via our ‘document generator’ – a sort of online mail merge system.
Needless to say – if you are a Landlord Law member you should not get the +Plus version as you already have access to all the documents as part of your membership!
The documents will be made available with Parts 6 and 7 of the course.
To allow you time to work through all the material we are delivering the course over a three week period as follows:
Your access to all seven parts will then remain until the end of your one year period.
All our content is hosted on a mobile responsive website, which allows you to read and study our training easily, and watch the videos on most devices, including smart-phones and tablets.
So it can easily be accessed, for example on your smart-phone, while travelling or waiting in a queue. Don’t waste that time! Use it!
If you find the course is unsuitable for you in any way – all you need to do is email us requesting a cancellation not later than 30 days after purchase, giving your reason why.
We will then cancel your purchase (and your access) and refund your money within 14 days.
A: You will get immediate access to parts 1 - 3. Access to the rest of the course will be granted over the following 2 weeks as set out above.
A: You will get access to the documents in the third week along with Parts 6 and 7. They will then be made available via a special 'Documents page'
A: You will get access for a period of one year. Access to all our courses is time-limited as the material becomes out of date after a while. However, you can download and keep the pdf and audio versions.
A: It should do, this is a standard WordPress website. However, if you have a problem you can always contact us via the green button support service - you will find the green buttons bottom right on all pages on the site. If the problem cannot be resolved, you can claim your money back under our guarantee.
A: No. We only accept payment via our online system. However, you can elect to pay by either credit / debit card or PayPal.
A: Yes it will be suitable for you. There are some differences but these will be flagged up in the text.
A: The course is written for rented properties in England or Wales UK only. Scotland has a different legal system, as does Northern Ireland. Sorry.
A: The course will be helpful for all landlords and agents and the material is different from the Landlord Law content (although some of the content may be similar - which is why members get a discount). However, if you are a Landlord Law member - don't get the +Plus version with the documents as you can get all the documents as part of your membership entitlement.
A: There will be a launch offer but this will end after 27 November. Landlord Law members can get a 10% discount if they are logged in at the time of purchase, and can offset their Landlord Law points.
A: You will be able to download the pdf version and the audios but the main course with the videos and questions is only available online.
A: The course does not include any ‘one to one’ advice element (other than for technical issues, such as access to the course). However, if you are a Landlord Law member you will be able to ask questions via our members’ forum.
A: Yes, but you will need to pay the difference in cost between the two versions at the time of upgrade plus a £15 admin charge. To upgrade, contact us via the support service.
We are not planning on providing any CPD but if there is sufficient demand we could provide this as an optional extra later. Note that there are 'test yourself' quizzes at the end of most lessons, but these are not formal CPD tests.
e.g. the Property Inspection Kit or another course:
You should log into the site first. Use your email (the one your used for your last purchase) your username and if you can’t remember your password, click the lost password link to get a new one.
Note that Landlord Law members can offset their points against the cost find out about this here (the page will open in a new tab or window).
Then:
If you are a Landlord Law member and have problems offsetting your points – buy without offsetting and let us know. So long as you let us know within 7 days, we will do a manual refund for you.
Here where you will be able to access the initial parts of the course. You should also receive several emails – one will be a receipt for your payment, the other will have information on how to access the course.
If you have any problems you will find guidance in the Help documents linked from the green button at the bottom right of every page or via the Help Docs link on the Services menu on the site header.
All courses are sold subject to our standard terms and conditions (the link will open in a new window or tab).
*Note – Do not buy the +Plus version if you are a Landlord Law member as the additional documents are included with your membership.
We have a free ‘HMO 101’ course which is written using the same software and in a similar style – which will give you an idea of what is on offer. Note that the course will open in a new tab or window:
The course is in seven parts as follows:
The +Plus forms are:
The course is in seven parts as follows:
(Get this version of you are a Landlord Law member – as you already have access to the forms as part of your membership).
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