New Landlord need help?

greendale9061

Hi Guys,


Sorry if this has been posted before.


The company I work for has just renivated an old grade II building in Manchester City Centre, and turned then into a block of flats. I have been offered the position of Landlord, and need to find out what info & legislation I need.


The building work will be finished in August, so need to get my paper work together before I can start advertising. It has been gutted, so new electrics out throughout etc. No gas


What do I need to do first?



Thanks in advanced.

Planner

Talk about the deep end!

Lots of LLs on here struggle with just understanding the legislation for 1 property and your going in completley green with a block of flats?!!

You must have b*lls of steel!

00ec25

you need to get your compnay to pay for you to join a professional LL association (eg NRLA) and go on a LOT of courses run by them to learn the law as the risk (criminal and civil laws) facing you and the company is huge

no public forum is going to give you the extensive knowledge you will need to cope with the job even semi effectively

http://www.rla.org.uk/

Brallaqueen

Gas safety certificate for every boiler, on an annual basis.
Electrical certificates (not mandatory but very wise) this may be issued by the electricians you are using.
Individual AST's per flat,
Individual deposit protection accounts per flat,
You can't turf tenants out on grounds of - being noisy, being anti-social, being dirty, or in arrears of less than 2 months.
Find out how to serve notice properly on grounds of arrears and as a no fault Section 21 notice. C)cking up the dates will set you back another 2 months so really pay attention to this.
Don't let things escalate - the moment they prove to be a bad tenant get them out as quick as possible.
Don't let anyone move in without being fully referenced, checked and paid up.
DO NOT FALL FOR SOB STORIES

clutton_2

EPC ....... needed also

p.s. there are over 10 Statutes and regulations which cover landlords and tenants......

btw - you will not be a LL - you will be a letting agent.....

balls of steel indeed.....

lynzpower

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Gas safety certificate for every boiler, on an annual basis.
Electrical certificates (not mandatory but very wise) this may be issued by the electircians you are using.
Individual AST's per flat.
Individual deposit protection accounts per flat.
You can't turf tenants out on grounds of - being noisy, being anti-social, being dirty, or in arrears of less than 2 months.
Find out how to serve notice properly on grounds of arrears and as a no fault Section 21 notice.
Don't let things escalate - the moment they prove to be a bad tenant get them out as quick as possible.
Don't let anyone move in without being fully referenced and paid up.
DO NOT FALL FOR SOB STORIES

FULL AND PROPER HMO fire protection, find an accredited specialist PRONTO to certify the fire system as safe

Speak to Manchester council as to whether it needs to be HMO licensed for the common parts

Brallaqueen

lynzpower wrote: »

FULL AND PROPER HMO fire protection, find an accredited specialist PRONTO to certify the fire system as safe

Speak to Manchester council as to whether it needs to be HMO licensed for the common parts

This is a very good point, one would hope that HMO and fire safety regs would have been put in place during the constrcution/conversion but you never know. They'll need to be checked regularly too. The council in my area recommends on a monthly basis :eek:

lynzpower

Brallaqueen wrote: »

This is a very good point, one would hope that HMO and fire safety regs would have been put in place during the constrcution/conversion but you never know. They'll need to be checked regularly too. The council in my area recommends on a monthly basis :eek:

Indeed there needs to be a full fire log book, testing by an appropriate person , evacuation processes, meeting point, the full gamut.

Jowo_2

Surely they would want to engage a letting agent who belongs to a professional body such as ARLA to at least find, if not manage the tenants, rather than leave it to a total novice to navigate through all the dozens of regulations and complex housing laws for multiple properties?! Particularly as dodgy tenants love nothing more than an accidental landlord to hand over the keys after doing insufficient screening?

Do you realise that failure to protect a deposit means that the tenants can receive x3 the sum of the deposit as compensation? That if you enter a tenants property without permission, it could be deemed as harassment which is a criminal offence, etc?

This is not a job for the inexperienced or faint hearted. Properties that attract slum tenants because of poor management then become slum housing.

tbs624

The owner(s) of the property is/are the LL(s) and you would be acting as their Agent.

Unfortunately, there is no minimum requirement of qualification, level of expertise or training required before acting as an LA.


A good start for you would be to get in touch with th e private sector rentals team at Manchester City Council and ask for info on their LL accreditation scheme . They have a booklet available called "Landlord accreditation: management standards" which you will find useful

The Council has a specific Landlord Adviser who can offer you advice. Check out Manchester.gov.uk > Housing.

You don't mention which Council Ward you are in but Manchester has selective licensing covering *all* rental properties in specific parts of the city, so you need to check that out too.

Sign up to one of the LL associations - if you are employed by the LL then get him to pay. If you are going to be self employed you set the membership fees down as a bona fide expense for tax purposes.

Also take the time to read through Shelter's guides to tenants rights.

You have a huge learning curve ahead of you.

clutton_2

HUGEEEEEEE learning curve........ Manchester is about to make ALL rental property the subject of Selective Licenses... so i hear....... so you will have a 30 page form to fill in for each property - apart form all the things already mentioned above......

and my experience of Manchester Council staff who deal with housing matters is that they think most landlords are thieving millionaires and most tenants are shiny angels....