I presume the tenant pays council tax, utility bills, tv, water, sewerage, broadband etc. directly, but how do you ensure these are being paid, and what happens if any of these remain unpaid, is the landlord then liable to pay them if they have for example done a runner?
You AST should explain who is responsible for these costs.
On a normal full property rental, the tenant is responsible for all of these, and when they move in you should notify the utility companies that they have done so, and again, notify them when they move out & advise that you are once again responsible. This is easily done via email to them so you have a record.
If the tenant does not pay whilst they are responsible, this is of no concern to you. It is between the utility company & their customer (your tenant).
Thank you, how can you know which utility companies they would be using, there are so many providers. I’m not sure it would be legal under data protection to give their name to all of the utility providers, and they will receive spam letters.
You notify the utility suppliers that you have in contract at the time you stop being responsible, and they start being responsible.
…Just like you would if you sold your house, you would tell your suppliers
Okay, we will probably get all this info by completion day from the seller, never had a buy to let before so pretty clueless at this stage
Yes, if you are buying a new property, this will be in the sellers information provided via your solicitor.
You will be responsible for all utilities & council tax from day 1, and then once you have a tenant moved in, you will pass liability over to them.
Please take the opportunity in the meantime to join the Landlord association & do a bit of training. Lots to know… lots of mistakes to make.
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never had a buy to let before? get out before you get in, like many experienced landlords are doing
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