Landlords
Informative
webinar for landlords
Intercity Accommodation has been
established since 1980.
We do not sell properties nor do we sell any
financial products. Consequently our experience of the letting
market and knowledge of the Housing Act 1988 and the 2004
Housing Act is not diverted in any way. Our levels of service
are maintained by our policy of strictly limiting the number
of properties managed at any one time.
Since 1980 our occupancy rates have averaged at over 90 percent
per annum with prospective tenants currently being referred
to our offices by the Housing Advice Center, Leeds City Council,
the Tourist Board and the Trading Standards Department to
name but a few. A judicious allocation of our annual advertising
budget attracts a sustained level of inquiries throughout
the year.
Many people are renting properties for the first time and
there may be questions that are particular to your circumstances
that you need assistance with, or perhaps you simply want
a general outline of our industry or a certain point explaining
a bit more.
We aim to provide a high quality,
reliable and personal service at fees which we believe are
the lowest in the area.
1.
What services does Intercity Accommodation offer?
We offer a:
- full management service
- tenant finding service
1.1
Full management service
If you ask us to provide our
Full Management Service we will:
-
Provide you with advice relevant
to the proposed letting.
-
Advertise and generally market
the Property.
-
Interview prospective tenants,
obtain written applications from them, and subject their
application to appropriate credit and reference checks
-
Prepare the Tenancy Agreement
in our standard form and provide copies to a designated
advisor or building society
-
Take a holding fee from the
tenant if, in our opinion, it would be advantageous to
do so
-
Take and hold a tenancy deposit
(bond)
-
Prepare an Inventory of the
property and its contents and agree this with the tenant
when we hand the property over to them
-
Arrange on your behalf safety
inspections of the gas and electrical installations and
appliances (if any) and maintain appropriate records of
the checks
-
Read the gas, water and electricity
meters at the start and end of each tenancy and advise
the utility companies and local council each time a tenant
moves in or out
-
Hand the property over to
the tenant
-
Hold the tenancy deposit
(bond) until the end of the tenancy when the Property
and contents have been checked for fair wear and tear
and then refund or distribute it appropriately
-
Collect the rent monthly
-
Pay the rent to you by direct
bank transfer to the account specified by you
-
Inspect the Property at appropriate
intervals in order to confirm that the Tenant is maintaining
the Property
-
Co-ordinate the repair or
maintenance of the property and arrange for tradesmen
to attend the Property and obtain estimates where necessary
-
Make payments on your behalf
from rents received for such expenditure as you shall
specify
-
Carry out a property inspection
and inventory check at the end of each tenancy and resolve
to your satisfaction matters relating to unfair wear and
tear before releasing the tenant's deposit
-
Carry out such additional
items as shall be agreed with the you
-
Continue to repeat these
actions for each new tenancy
1.2
Tenant Finding Service
If you ask us to provide our Tenant Finding
Service we will:
- Provide you with advice relevant to the
proposed letting.
- Advertise and generally market the Property.
- Interview prospective tenants, obtain written
applications from them, and subject their application
to appropriate credit and reference checks
- Prepare the Tenancy Agreement in our standard
form and provide copies to a designated advisor or building
society
- Take a holding fee from the tenant if,
in our opinion, it would be advantageous to do so
- Take and hold a tenancy deposit (bond)
- Hold the tenancy deposit (bond) until the
end of the tenancy when the Property and contents have
been checked for fair wear and tear and then refund or
distribute it appropriately
- Collect the first month's rent and hand
it over to you (less our fee)
2.
What would my responsibilities as the landlord be?
If we were providing a full management
service you would normally be responsible for:
- Arranging consent to the letting from any
mortgage lender and/or head landlord
- Arranging the insurance of the property
- Arranging (or authorising us to arrange)
maintenance and repairs for which you are responsible
as the landlord
3.
What are Intercity Accommodation`s business aims?
We aim to provide a first class,
high quality, reliable and personal service at a fair cost
to our clients.
We aim to enable our clients to take
advantage of the opportunities offered by the residential
rental market, free of the chores and worries sometimes associated
with letting property.
We aim to deal fairly and equitably
between the owners, landlords and tenants of properties we
manage, and to build up a good relationship with our tenants.
We realise that this gives our clients the best safeguard
against tenants mistreating properties or failing to pay the
rent.
We recognise, however, that our primary
responsibility is to the owner or landlord who instructs us.
4.
Would I need to sign a contract with Intercity Accommodation?
We would ask you to sign our standard
Agency Agreement authorising us to act on your behalf. We
can incorporate special terms if appropriate.
We would act as your agent until
you terminated our agreement. It is not our policy to restrict
our clients by contract, and you would be free to terminate
our agreement at any time without penalty if you were in any
way dissatisfied.
We would not terminate our agreement
without providing at least 3 months' notice unless you were
in serious breach of its terms.
5.
Is Intercity Accommodation a member of any regulatory body
or professional organisation?
We are a member of the National Approved Letting
Scheme (NALS) .
We are members of the the Tenancy
Deposit Scheme and are authorised to hold tenancy
deposits under statutory regulations introduced in April
2007.
All these bodies impose requirements or codes
of practice and we fully comply with all these.
All money which we hold on behalf of our clients
or tenants including deposits and rent is held in a Client
Funds Account which is fully protected by an insurance bond.
We also comply with the requirements of the
Code of Practice for the Management of Residential Properties
issued by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
and exceed the requirements in a number of areas.
6.
How would Intercity Accommodation advertise the property?
We employ the following marketing
methods:
- we advertise all properties on our own
web site and on a number of other web sites such as ToRent,
Gumtree, NetRent, Star Flats, The Sun, Craig`s List and
many more portals in the UK
- we maintain a register of tenants who have
called us and let us know they are looking for a property
to rent.
- we will erect a "To Let" sign at the property
unless you tell us not to do so
- we have links to many businesses in the
area who regularly need accommodation for new or temporary
staff.
7.
Who would show potential tenants around the property?
We would normally show potential
tenants around the property once you have given us the keys.
If you were still living in the property
until it was let it would usually be better for you to show
potential tenants around. In this case we would always make
an appointment with you, and accompany the potential tenants
if you wanted us to do so.
8.
What type of tenancy would be used?
We would normally advise you to
let the property on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy.
In some cases we may propose letting
the Tenancy as a 'Company Let'. This is sometimes necessary
if a company wishes to rent the property for its employees
to live in (a company is prohibited by law from renting on
an Assured Shorthold Tenancy).
9.
What about the rent?
We would agree with you the rent
at which the property would be marketed, and the minimum rent
which would be acceptable to you. Before concluding any agreement
with a potential tenant we would confirm that the proposed
rent was acceptable to you.
In normal circumstances we would
conduct a rent review on your behalf each year with a view
to progressively increasing the rent if appropriate.
We would deduct our fees from the
rent we collected from the tenant, and pass on the balance
to you on the same day each month. You could, therefore, be
assured of receiving the rent on the due date whether or not
the tenant had made prompt payment to us providing that the
tenant had not defaulted on the rent. The actual date on which
we would make the payment would depend on the commencement
date of the Tenancy.
We would pay the rent directly into
your bank account via the BACS system.
10.
What about deposits?
We would normally take a deposit equivalent
to at least 1 month's rent from the Tenant prior to them
occupying the property and would hold this as stakeholder
until the Tenant departed at the end of the Tenancy. This
deposit would provide security against damage to the property
or non-payment of rent.
For tenancies commencing on and after April
2007 there are strict statutory regulations governing Tenancy
Deposits. It is now unlawful for any person to take and
hold a Tenancy Deposit unless they are authorised to do
so. We are members of the Tenancy
Deposit Scheme and are authorised to take and
hold Tenancy Deposits
The process for distributing or refunding
deposits at the end of the tenancy can be complicated but
the basic process is:
- we have 10 days from the end of the tenancy
to tell the tenant of proposed deductions from his deposit
- the tenant then has 10 days to dispute
the proposed deductions
- we then have 10 days to attempt to reach
an agreement between the landlord and the tenant
- at the end of that 10 days any dispute
(and the disputed money) is passed to an arbitrator
- any undisputed part of the deposit is paid
to the appropriate person as soon as the payment is agreed
11.
What about maintenance and repairs?
You would need to notify us of
any ongoing maintenance problems with the property before
we negotiated any Tenancy Agreement.
If any repairs or maintenance to
the property became necessary we would ask you to arrange
appropriate works unless we had agreed an annual expenditure
limit within which we could authorise work to proceed. In
this case we would authorise essential repairs within this
limit and deduct the cost from the gross rents we collect
from the Tenant.
If you did not want to arrange the
repairs yourself we would obtain estimates from the contractors
we normally employ, and would arrange completion of the necessary
works once you had agreed the estimates.
In an emergency, or in a case of
a statutory obligation, we would authorise or arrange essential
work to proceed if we were unable to contact you. Tenants
are also entitled to arrange or authorise work in certain
circumstances.
12.
Would Intercity Accommodation arrange an inventory?
We would prepare an inventory of
the property and obtain Tenants' agreement to it prior to
their occupation.
Unless special arrangements were
made this would be a summary inventory listing removable and
significant items and their general condition. You whould
need to advise us of any item which was of particular value
to you or which you would wish to be specially listed in the
inventory.
We would provide a draft copy of
the inventory to you prior to letting the property (unless
your instructions to let the property quickly prevented us
from doing so).
We would check the condition of the
property and the contents against the inventory when a Tenant
departed and would only return the deposit to the Tenant when
we were satisfied that the property and the contents were
complete and in at least as good a condition as when the Tenant
occupied the property (fair wear and tear excepted) subject
to the rules regarding tenancy deposits.
13.
Would Intercity Accommodation give the tenants instructions
about the property?
We provide a leaflet entitled "Tenants'
Instructions" to all incoming Tenants. This provides general
information about the property and includes instructions relating
to safety.
We would provide a draft copy of
the instructions to you prior to letting the property (unless
your instructions to let the property quickly prevented us
from doing so). It would be particularly important to include
any safety features as their inclusion in these instructions
would help to establish, in the unfortunate occurrence of
an accident, that the Tenant had been given the information.
14.
Who is responsible for maintaining appliances?
Our standard Tenancy Agreement
would make you liable for maintaining essential services including
fixed heating and water heating appliances (you cannot legally
avoid this responsibility)
Under the terms of our standard Tenancy
Agreement you would not be responsible for maintaining other
appliances in working order. If they needed repair the tenant
could choose to have them repaired at his/her own expense,
or to manage without them.
15.
Would Intercity Accommodation take care of general safety
matters?
We would make a general check of
the property before letting it, but we could not undertake
to detect defects.
We would provide you with advice
concerning any aspect which you drew to our attention, and
we would assist you in obtaining and dealing with specialist
advice if you wished.
16.
Can Intercity Accommodation help with the gas appliances?
It is a legal requirement that
the gas installation and any appliances provided by the landlord
are checked annually.
If you wished to arrange the annual
check yourself you would need to instruct any CORGI registered
gas installer.
If you did not wish to arrange this
check yourself we would arrange for the check to be completed
and would deduct the cost from the net rent we pay to you.
The statutory Safety Check does not
include servicing or repairs. We strongly recommend that gas
appliances are serviced at regular intervals. This not only
improves their efficiency but, in our experience, also reduces
maintenance bills in the long term.
We have negotiated special rates
for gas central heating systems and other gas appliances which
can include all or some of:
- annual Landlord's Gas Safety Checks
- annual "parts and labour" maintenance contracts
- annual service contracts
17.
Can Intercity Accommodation help with electrical safety?
The recommended method of ensuring that the
electrical installation is safe is to obtain a "Periodic
Inspection Report for an Electrical Installation" from a
contractor approved by the NICEIC..
Although these checks are not mandatory by
law we insist that any property let or managed by us is
covered by a current certificate.
We can arrange this inspection and normal
remedial work
18.
Can Intercity Accommodationhelp with electrical appliance
checks?
We require that all portable electrical
appliances provided by the landlord are checked by a competent
person to ensure that they are safe to use.
We have negotiated the special rates
for this work with a local contractor.
19.
Can Intercity Accommodation help with the safety of furniture
and furnishings?
All upholstered furniture (excluding
carpets, curtains, bed-clothes and furniture made before 1950)
provided by the Landlord of rented residential property must
comply with the Fire and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations
1988.
We can arrange a professional inspection
if required.
20.
Can Intercity Accommodation help with other safety items?
We can arrange the supply and/or
fitting of the following items which you may wish to install
in the property:
- smoke alarms
- fire blankets
- fire extinguishers
21.
Can Simply Rent help with insurance?
We are able to arrange insurance
tailored to the needs of Landlords at preferential rates.
22.
Can Simply Rent help with mortgages?
We can offer advice on availability
of mortgages for rental property.
We do not, however, recommend any
particular lender.
This information is offered free
of charge as part of our normal management service.
23.
What will happen to my mail?
You should inform as many people as possible
of your new address if you have been living in the property
yourself.
Identity theft is an increasing problem in
the UK, and mail addressed to you arriving at a property
at which you do not live is dangerous if it falls into the
wrong hands. We strongly advise all our clients to divert
as much mail as possible at source, and to use the Royal
Mail redirection service to catch the remainder.
If we managed the property we would
ask tenants to forward mail for previous occupants to us for
onward forwarding to the addressee, but they do not always
do so.
If you would like a rental valuation, please contact us Intercity
Accommodation
Residential
Landlords Association
back
to Page 1
|
