Your Letting Agent Found the Tenant. What Happens Next Is Down to You.
Your letting agent may have found the tenant, but the legal responsibility never leaves you. In this week's article, Katie explains why ongoing compliance is ultimately the landlord's job, what you're responsible for after move-in, and how full management helps protect both your property and your legal position.
Your Agent Did Their Bit. The Law Is Still Your Responsibility.
Let-only agreements are pretty clear about what they include.
Finding a tenant. Running the referencing. Preparing the tenancy agreement. Handing over the keys.
What they are equally clear about, if you read the detail, is what they do not include.
Everything that happens after the tenancy begins. The ongoing compliance. The legal obligations. The documentation that has to be maintained and renewed for the entire duration of the tenancy and beyond.
Most landlords understand this in principle. The gap tends to be in the practice.
What you are responsible for as a landlord
Regardless of whether you used an agent to find the tenant, the legal obligations of being a private landlord in England are yours and yours alone.
A valid EPC provided before move-in. The property meeting the minimum energy efficiency standard. An annual gas safety inspection with the certificate served to the tenant within twenty-eight days. An EICR carried out within the last five years. Working smoke alarms on every floor. A carbon monoxide detector where required. The deposit protected within thirty days with the prescribed information correctly served. The current version of the How to Rent guide served at the start of every tenancy.
Miss any of these and your ability to serve a valid possession notice, or your exposure to financial penalties, changes in ways that can be very costly.
And the legislation has tightened considerably in recent years with more change on the way.
Who is keeping up with all of this?
A professional property management company follows legislative change as part of the core job. We update our processes when the rules change. Our landlords stay compliant because we stay on top of it for them.
On a let-only arrangement, staying current with all of this is your job. Which is fine if you have the time and the systems to do it well. A lot of landlords do not, and they find out at the worst possible moment.
Your action point this week
Spend half an hour looking at the current list of legal requirements for private landlords in England.
Then honestly ask yourself whether all your properties meet every one of them.
If anything is uncertain, get it sorted before it becomes expensive.
Legislation keeps moving and it is genuinely hard to stay on top of it alongside everything else. If you want a free compliance check across your properties, get in touch. It costs you nothing and it could save you a lot. Call 01204 659670, email katie@harrisonsnet.co.uk or visit harrisonsnet.co.uk.
Here's to your property success!
Katie
Harrisons Estate Agents
01204 659670 | katie@harrisonsnet.co.uk | harrisonsnet.co.uk