what type of tenancy agreement to use

baron777red

we rented out our first property in July and used a letting agent, now that the 6 months tenancy is coming up to be renewed, i want to ditch the agent and do everything myself

i am very happy to keep the same tenant, they want to stay long term, i am currently charging them £495 p/mth which easily covers the mortgage.

i am not part of any LL organisation.

can i customise my own TA to include staggered rent increases?

and if i just ask them to pay me the months deposit when they get it back from the LA,

is there anything else i need to consider, the LA did all the initial credit checks, safety checks for gas etc..

if i was to agree a long term let (10 yrs+) with the tenant can certain things be put into it to review it every 12 months or so.

any advice would be appreciated

colin

N79

baron777red wrote: »

we rented out our first property in July and used a letting agent, now that the 6 months tenancy is coming up to be renewed, i want to ditch the agent and do everything myself

i am very happy to keep the same tenant, they want to stay long term, i am currently charging them £495 p/mth which easily covers the mortgage.

i am not part of any LL organisation.

can i customise my own TA to include staggered rent increases?

and if i just ask them to pay me the months deposit when they get it back from the LA,

is there anything else i need to consider, the LA did all the initial credit checks, safety checks for gas etc..

if i was to agree a long term let (10 yrs+) with the tenant can certain things be put into it to review it every 12 months or so.

any advice would be appreciated

colin

Oh dear - it is hard to know where to start. If the property is in England or Wales then I'm afraid you really need to go and do some basic research. I would suggest joining the NLA or the RLA and doing one of their introductory courses as an excellent place to start.

G_M

You don't need a new contract. Just let them stay and they'll be automatically on a periodic (monthly) contract.

The agent will not give the tenants back the deposit - why should they? The tenant is not moving out. The deposit is (should be!) in a deposit protection scheme. Which one? Just contact the scheme and get it transferred from the agents name to yours.

I would also advise that as you seem to not know what you are doing you need to learn - fast. Join a LL association like RLA and read a good book like Tessa Shepperson's.

Are you sure you want a 10 year contract? That's a hell of a commitment! Unless you put in break clauses in which case why do 10 years in the first place?! What if you lose your job and need to sell the house in 5 years time for example?

theartfullodger

You are asking some very naive questions: As suggested above join either RLA or NLA (in Engerland) and go one one of their "how to be a landlord" courses e.g.
http://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/courses/course1.shtml

Lettings is a minefield and legal understanding of the main issues is important. This course deals with the main areas that affect Landlords.

- then you'll know what other questions to ask...


The thing about letting agents, that you need to know: To be a letting agent you need
- no qualifications
- no supervision
- no regulation
- no CRB check (so that nice man at the agency could be ....arrrgggghhhhhhh anything!!!)
- no membership of any trade body...
- basically, nuffink!!

Anyone posting on here could be operating as a letting agent within 3 hours...

Cheers!

Artful (LL since 2000)

clutton_2

you would have to pay a solicitor to get a 10 year tenancy agreement as an AST cannot be longer than 3 years.... - and as others have said - you need flexibility for uncertain future life events..

Join National landlords associatoin and spend a few months reading - especially www.landlordzone.co.uk forum which will show you some of the difficulties you could encounter...