Landlord advise on finding tenants

jmsa7

Hello, I have decided to rent my property out so would like some advice on finding new tenants please.

When asking the tenants for references (previous landlords, employers, etc) what information should be included in those references? If they only have contact details, what questions should you ask. For example, is it fair/legal to ask an employer for the tenant's salary?

Shall I ask for ID/Passport details and if not British do I need to ask for proof of residency in the UK or Settled Status?

"Openrent" and "Rentprofile" websites offer Tenant referencing services for £20. Is it worth using any of those services?

To satisfy the terms of the Buy To Let Mortgage I need to use Short hold Tenancy Agreement. Is there any templates available that I could use?

Where would be the best places to advertise the property for free?

Once you find a tenant and agree a moving date, rent, deposit, etc. Is it best to get the Tenancy agreement signed as soon as possible or it needs to be only signed near the moving in date? What about the deposit, when does it need to be collected from the tenant, when you sign the agreement, just before the tenants move in, after they move in?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, appreciate any advise on this.

gazfocus

Ok so first things first, join the NRLA. Amongst other things you can get tenant referencing and the short hold tenancy agreement through there. 

The only place you can advertise the house for free is Facebook really but we use OpenRent and it’s great for advertising the property on Rightmove etc, BUT you need to set up some automated questions to send to the applicants first. We had about 30 people enquire about our last property but only 12 of them responded to the questions so we only offered those 12 a viewing. My view is if they can’t be bothered to answer the questions, they likely aren’t worth us wasting time over. 

Questions we asked were things like: how many people would be living at the property? Why do you want the property? What is the combined income of all adults that will be living at the property? What do the adults do for work? Any benefits? Would you be able to supply employment and PREVIOUS landlord references? Any ccjs? Pets?

These questions helped massively when we got full applications as we then got to see who had been honest from day one. 

In terms of referencing, we used OpenRents comprehensive referencing last time and it failed massively in my opinion. Our applicants refused to agree to open banking and refused to send OpenRent their bank statements to verify income, etc (we had seen their bank statements prior to this anyway). Despite this, OpenRent gave them a glowing pass which I don’t see how when they didn’t supply any form of bank verification. 

Thankfully we had done our own checks beforehand and the OpenRent ‘referencing’ was only to satisfy our insurers, but I don’t think I’d rely solely on OpenRent referencing in the future. 

Other points…

yes you need ID as you need to do right to rent checks.

Ask for PREVIOUS landlords details, not current landlords. If they are problem tenants, their current landlord has a vested interest in getting them out so can be dishonest (why would they give a bad reference and lumber themselves with problem tenants?)

Yes, get the tenancy agreement signed as soon as possible. There’s no legal agreement before the tenancy is signed so tenant can back out at any time. Make sure you take the deposit when signing tenancy and then first months rent just before they move in. 

RHemmings

jmsa7 said:

Hello, I have decided to rent my property out so would like some advice on finding new tenants please.

When asking the tenants for references (previous landlords, employers, etc) what information should be included in those references? If they only have contact details, what questions should you ask. For example, is it fair/legal to ask an employer for the tenant's salary?

Shall I ask for ID/Passport details and if not British do I need to ask for proof of residency in the UK or Settled Status?

"Openrent" and "Rentprofile" websites offer Tenant referencing services for £20. Is it worth using any of those services?

To satisfy the terms of the Buy To Let Mortgage I need to use Short hold Tenancy Agreement. Is there any templates available that I could use?

Where would be the best places to advertise the property for free?

Once you find a tenant and agree a moving date, rent, deposit, etc. Is it best to get the Tenancy agreement signed as soon as possible or it needs to be only signed near the moving in date? What about the deposit, when does it need to be collected from the tenant, when you sign the agreement, just before the tenants move in, after they move in?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, appreciate any advise on this.

With you wanting to advertise the property for free, and seemingly wanting to do everything yourself, it looks a bit as if you are trying to do this on the cheap. You have to pay professionals, but sometimes there are significant benefits if they then do the job right. Particularly with laws concerning renting tightening and what you have to do to make sure that a S21 notice is valid/enforceable. 'Small' mistakes can have consequences. 

OpenRent does allow you to advertise the property for free, but that option only gives you advertising on OpenRent itself I believe. It's £49 to get the listing onto Rightmove and Zoopla as well, and £69 for a higher level of service. Those numbers seem quite small to me compared to other sums involved. 

njkmr

If this is the first time you have rented a property out I would suggest you use a letting agency for the paperwork side of things to make sure you are fully legal.
they can find the tenant and set everything up then you can managed it from there. Or they will fully manage the property, take the rent etc ongoing.
Once you get some experience you can then decide what's best for you.
I have done both over the last 20+ years and I'm no fan of letting agents but for a new landlord it may help.
Good luck.

propertyrental

Read

Post 7: New landlords (1):advice & information :see links in next post

Post 8: New landlords (2): Essential links for further information

Post 9: Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

All from

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5180214/tenancies-in-eng-wales-guides-for-landlords-and-tenants/p1

LukeForrest

I've got a couple of property let out in Southampton for students, I did it myself for a little while but the constant changing in tenants was a pain, in the end I went with a property management agency instead of a lettings agency as they tend to just charge and not add any real value. I went with My Property Specialists in the end

propertyrental

LukeForrest said:

I've got a

 couple of property let out in Southampton for students, I did it myself for a little while but the constant changing in tenants was a pain, in the end I went with a property management agency instead of a lettings agency as they tend to just charge and not add any real value. I went with My Property Specialists in the end

My Property Specialists is a letting agency by another name. They offer:

"From Introduction only, to fully managed. Tailored solutions to fit your needs."

How is that different?

What matters is not what the company calls itself, but what services it offers and at what price, and with what reliability.

I note they are members of the Property Redress Scheme which is something - since all letting agencies (yes, they are a letting agency!) must sign up to one of the ombudsman schemes.

Assess them just as you would any agent:

Post 9: Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

theartfullodger

Much much easier to find tenants than to evict a bad 'un.

Trust your gut feeling if it says avoid, , be cautious , do some training in how to be a landlord.

housebuyer143

I highly recommend doing the viewings yourself if you are a good judge of character. You can normally discount a good many just by the things they say or how they act. 
We always did the employer reference and landlord ourselves and paid for a credit check on top to ensure they did not have CCJs etc. You should be asking salary on an employer reference - and ensure they give you an official email and not a Gmail address. 

As someone else said, you need to have vetting questions before you offer a viewing because you get time wasters and unsuited people wasting your time. 

Make sure you are not in a licencing area because if you are it will probably influence who you want to let to. Where our rental was, any property with 2 unrelated people needed a licence with the council, for this reason we only let the property to a couple or family unit, no sharers. 

Deposit - I recommend an insured scheme. It's much easier to get the money at the end if you need it. 

Inventory - get a very detailed inventory and try and get the tenants to sign it before they move in. Failing that, give them a copy and email it asking them to return any amendments within 7 days or they are accepting the condition as is detailed. 

If you honestly have no clue what you are doing though you should maybe engage an agent to do all this the first time around, although I would still recommend you meet the tenants prior to signing off on them.

Zoe02

I use Openrent and I am very selective.

Has to pass affordability checks 

Has to pas referencing checks (some exceptions if large savings, proof of rent been paid etc)

Show me proof of rent been paid in the last 6 months, case by case basis need 3 months payslips and bank statements. No R2R or council introduced tenants. 

As an extra is a guarantor who owns asset but generally those that I have selected have met my 2 requirements and no issues. One of my tenant would not have passed referencing but passed affordability he had a parking ticket which was not taken seriously but been at the property since June 2023 and no issues with rent etc.

I have successfully used Openrent to rent 4 properties and currently no problem but I am very selective and do all viewings myself in bulk spaced 10/15 minutes. I use Openrent for the tenancy creation and deposit protection. 

I am also a member of NRLA. 

my 4 tenants are 2 builders, 1 finance director and 1 doctor. Openrent does take a bit of patience as you get all sorts of  viewing requests. 

mexican_dave

Landlord law is complex, for instance where contributors have mentioned right to rent, they mean the Government has delegated control of immigration control to Landlord under powers called Right-to-Rent. Get this wrong and you will be in hot-water.
Yes, I agree please joint the NLRA: free legal advice; trade discounts; training courses; landlord forum; and their own lettings portal.
As an aside if your let property is on Wales different letting laws apply, no such thing as an AST in Wales, the letting contracts are very much prescribed by law. If applicable visit https://rentsmart.gov.wales/en/home/