From pre-tenancy to management.
There are many obligations and legal requirements that need to be fulfilled when letting out your rental property, as well as a lot of information you need to know when creating your tenancy agreements. This helpful checklist, aimed at landlords, will help you keep organised when onboarding new tenants and creating your tenancy agreements on Legislate.
Before you create your agreement:
Before you create your tenancy agreement on Legislate, there are several requirements that landlords must fulfil to ensure that their property is safe for tenants to rent. This landlord checklist covers the main checks landlords need to satisfy.
Have you met all of the health and safety requirements at your property and able to provide the following documents?
These are legal requirements for the landlord:
- Gas Safety Certificate which must be provided by a Gas safe engineer;
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) provided by a competent electrician;
- Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) to assess the electrical safety and the property and appliances;
- Smoke alarms on each floor that is living space;
- Up-to-date ‘How to rent’ (you can do upload and send this on the Legislate platform);
- Confirmation of working carbon monoxide alarms in rooms where solid fuel is used;
- Tenancy deposit protection scheme - if the tenant's deposit has already been paid - and confirmed that the prescribed information for the tenancy deposit scheme has been provided to the tenants.
- If you have a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), have you obtained an HMO licence?
Make sure that your property is in good condition and working order, as well as the garden if it has one. Private landlords can also consider taking landlord insurance, home insurance and contents insurance if they are supplying white goods and a furnished a property. It is also important to clarify who is responsible for paying council tax with the prospective tenant.
Curious about automated data extraction from documents?
Whilst entering the contract terms on Legislate:
The Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) Agreement is a type of tenancy agreement in England and Wales and one of the most popular contracts that landlords or letting agents create on Legislate. Our lawyer-reviewed agreements are perfect for landlords and letting agents that specialise in both residential and student rentals.
What type of property are you making a tenancy agreement for?
- Is it a student property? A HMO or a Bedsit? This will determine what sort of agreement you want to create on Legislate.
- Not sure what the obligations are for each of these property types? Our blog posts on Sole Occupancies, HMOs and Bedsitscan help!
The details of your property:
- Are there any shared facilities? If so, what are they? Who will be paying what utilities? Are there any special terms that you would like to add specific to that property?
- Although you can continue to amend your Legislate contract until it has been signed, it is a good idea to be aware of all of the property details that you will need to be including in your tenancy agreement.Alternatively, if you are a letting agent working on behalf of a landlord, have you got all of the necessary details from the landlord?
Is the property subject to a superior lease? Is the property subject to a mortgage? Has the landlord taken out insurance against standard risks? For more details on this, check out our two blog posts on these consents and more points to consider before letting.
Have you got contact details of your tenant(s)?
- You only need their email address to invite them to a contract on Legislate! They can input the rest of their details once you have invited them to the contract.
Are there any documents that you will need from the tenant(s), such as bank statements, proof of ID etc.?
- You can request these files and confirm their validity for right to rent check purposes through the platform before the tenancy agreement is signed.
- Similarly, you can also upload your inventory within the contract terms if you would like.
Are there any other parties or signatories that you need to add to your contract? For example, guarantors or witnesses?
- You can invite as many people as you need to your contracts, again, all you need is their email address.
Contract management after the agreement has been created:
Legislate can also help you after your AST has been created with end-to-end contract management, making it easier for you to stay on top of your tenancies.
- Automatically keep up to date with when your tenancies are due to expire or up for renewal on Legislate.
- If you need to make an amendment to your tenancy, you can create a tenancy amendment letter on the Legislate platform.
- Want to renew your tenancy after the fixed term? Do you want to increase the rent on the property? Is your tenant in rent arrears? Legislate provides the correct letters for you to send to your tenants with this information. Like your tenancy agreements, these can all be signed electronically within the platform.
- Finally, are you up to date with any future changes to the law which may affect you and your properties?
- Keep a check on our Key Dates for Landlords to help you with this!
About Legislate
If you would like to use Legislate to simplify the way you create your AST agreements and access invaluable insights, click to book a demo and learn about how Legislate can help you and your business needs. You can also read our tutorial to learn how to create your tenancy agreements in minutes with Legislate.
The opinions on this page are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice on which you should rely.