What are my legal obligations as landlord?

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

Hi everyone,

We often get a few questions about Rent Now from landlords who aren’t sure what their legal obligations are, and whether Rent Now handles legal requirements like:

  • Serving the prescribed deposit information
  • Serving the ‘How to Rent’ guide

The answer is yes! We’ve got your back.

The prescribed information is contained in the tenancy agreement all parties have signed, including details of the deposit amount, where it will be protected and how it will be treated.

We also double down on this by sending the tenants an email as soon as the deposit has been protected re-iterating all the required information and attaching a copy of the DPS terms and conditions.

Tenants will also be provided a copy of the government’s ‘How to Rent’ guide in that same email.

We appreciate it’s useful for landlords in the unfortunate position of serving a section 21 notice to have a copy of this email, so since late 2017 all landlords are copied into this email.

For anyone needing to hunt it down, it will have the subject: ‘Deposit protected: save the prescribed information for your records’.

This goes beyond the minimum legal requirement; it’s always worth noting that the law states the information is provided to the relevant parties so printed signed forms are not necessary:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/section/213

The End of Section 21 Evictions

The prescribed information and How to Rent guide are both required when landlords need to serve section 21 notices.

This form of notice however will not be around for much longer - we have a blog post on this that you can have a read of here:

Do let us know your thoughts on the government’s proposal to scrap section 21 notices in our poll here

What are my other legal obligations?

Outside the field of serving notices - which we hope you won’t ever be forced to do! - you can have a look at what your other obligations are on our website here.

3

hi, this is my 1st time using open rent, and I have just read about prescribed information. I have been surprised that I have not been able to upload my EPC for the properties so far, a copy of the EPC must be provided before or at the time of the contract or you will not be able to use a section 21 at a later date. Surely it would be a good idea to include a copy of the EPC in the tenant pack, along with the prescribed information, is this possible ?

4

Hi Steven,

Thanks for your question.

At the moment you are right that we don’t offer landlords an option to upload their EPC and gas safety documents through OpenRent. Don’t worry though, as we make sure that we remind you to serve these to your tenants at the start of each tenancy.

We know that our landlords would like the option to serve documents to their tenants and it is something that we are looking to offer in the future.

So, do watch out for updates on this. :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes
5

Thank you for your response Beth

6

Hello

We need to get an exemption for a EPC certificate for a tenancy starting on 5th March. The property is a listed building.

How do we go about getting an exemption?

thank you
ben

7

the directive on this is vague. You have paperwork to show this is a listed building? I would liase with the local authority over this If you are in the NLA or similar ask them. Using an agent ? show them the listed building paperwork

8

Hi Ben, have you read this Gov guide?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-rented-sector-minimum-energy-efficiency-standard-exemptions/guidance-on-prs-exemptions-and-exemptions-register-evidence-requirements

9

Hi there, my tenancy contract as a landlord is currently on a monthly rolling. My tenants have just served the one months notice but I would like to understand how final rent instalments work for this. They have stated that due to rent being due on the 14th of February (and them serving notice on the 1st of February) that the rent due will be half? I have looked in the contract but don’t understand what this clause means:
The Tenant must give notice of no less than one month, such notice to expire the day before a Rent
Payment Day or on the final day of the Initial Term.
Your help would be much appreciated so that I can protect the rent due.

10

Legally the notice wouldexpire on 14th march so they should pay the full rent on 14th feb. You could do a pro rata payment and allow tenancy to end on 1st march, this is at your discretion. I normally would do that as tenants want to leave and it is generally better to have a smooth end than disgruntled tenants. You dont lose anything as you just rent it out faster, presumably at a higher price.

11

It sounds like their notice might be invalid @Greg3. Unless the tenancy agreement says otherwise, it has to expire on the first or last day of a tenancy period and be at least a month.