new tennant advice

[dsp]

ive just put my house in the hands of a letting agent and had a viewing which went well. today i recieved a letter from the people who viewed asking if they could rent privately from me without using a agent at all.im very dubious and not sure about what checks etc i need to do on these people or if this is even a good way to go..any advice would be much appreciated

[Trenners]

Hi DSP,

The thing to understand is that the letting agent is probably charging the tenant a fee (anything up to £250+VAT) for them to apply to rent your property through their agency. This is outrageous but, unfortuantely, fairly standard practice when renting property via letting agents.

The tenant obviously likes your property and is trying to avoid paying the letting agent the greedy fee.

Have you signed any binding contract with the agent ? If so, then it is going to be difficult for you to takes THESE tenants directly. If not, then you need to decide whether the tenants are suitable or not.

1st impressions are important when letting property. What was your impression of the tenants ? Did you like them ? Did they present themselves well ? Would you trust them with your property ?

If you are happy with 1st impressions then you should follow up with employment, character, previous landlord and credit references. www.rentchecks.com can help you with this for a small fee.

Finally you need to create a tenancy agreement - and a free copy of one of those is available from the homepage of this site.

Let me know what you decide to do ...... or if you need anymore advice.

Mark

[GPEL]

If they are the type to try and circumvent a business that has so far marketed your property for free and showed them the property in good faith, the question to ask is what else might they do during the tenancy.

[dsp]

cheers trenners/gpel...

well ive signed a contract with the agent so does this mean i couldnt now take them? or hope the agent didnt find out.the propossed tennants are 3 individual friends in there early twenties who want to share but all work full time.

also can you tell me what safety certificates i need as i have gas/electric and how oftern these need renewing

[lena]

Hi dsp

I've just joined the landlording business myself.

You absolutely need to have a CORGI inspection of your boiler and gas appliances. Mine was 65 pounds for the boiler and gas appliances are extra (my gas man was really nice and didn't charge me).

I had an electrics certificate done too. He told me that I had to do it every 3 years. But I've since read somewhere that you can go for 10 years. It's called a periodic electrics certificate. Ie. the existing electrics. If you've re-done the electrics completely, it'll be a different criteria.

Best of Luck.

[Trenners]

Hi DSP,

If you have signed a contract with the agent then you should honour your agreement if you decide to proceed with these tenants.

I must say 3 friend in their early twenties wanting to share are probably not the most ideal tenants (especially if the tenants are all male). Couples and families are always better that 3+friends sharing. Wild parties and all that.

Additionally, you are going to have lots of extra work if 1 of the friends decides they want to leave and the other want to stay or the others want to replace the leaving friend with someone else.

Mark

[Reg]

I wouldn't honour the letting agent and save your money. However,

three unrelated people (friends) would mean you would need a hmo licence, more agro. A family would be a lot less stressful. I wouldn't personally use a letting agent, i don't for my properties. I always put an ad in the paper, and vet tenants myself (letsure only costs £13 and is instant, over the internet tells you if they have ccjs, i also ring a previous landlord and work reference. Finally you could download a tenancy agreement from the internet. Best of Luck

[GPEL]

HMOs for 3 people don't usually need a license but do need to comply with local authority requirements. It could be argued that sharers are a good bet as there are 3 sources if income instead of one. If one leaves prematurely, you don't mis-out on the whole lot... but do need to be firm with existing tenant's if there's a shortfall. Stipulate joint & several liability in your agreement.

[fleming]

I agree with Trenners that if you have already a signed agreement with the agent, then you should honour that agreement. There are pros and cons with letting to 3 individuals but you do need to ask yourself "Will they try to bend any other rules while they are tenants?" If these tenants wanted to avoid agent's fees then they should have looked at the private ads section! Having decided to go to an agent this time round, you need to stick with it, unless you find someone privately who has not made contact with the agent and there is no sneaky clause in the contract covering this. Gas inspections on an annual basis are mandatory and the tenant should be given the relevant copy of the report. Electrical reports are not compulsory as far as I am aware but our previous agent insisted on older properties being inspected as you would be legally liable if anything went wrong. The report will state when the next inspection is due. Ours says 5yr. Hope you find a suitable tenant soon.