(Figures from My Deposits)
As you can see from the diagram above, many landlords lose their case at tenancy deposit adjudications. Take a look at the video below to see why, and what you can do about it:
For more information on Tom’s book >> click here.
Many people take in lodgers nowadays and our lodger agreement and new lodger pack are two of our most popular products.
However lodgers do not always stay all week. Sometimes they just stay during the weekdays, returning home to their families during the week end. For example man who are unable to find work in their home town but who are reluctant to move their famlies, particuarly if their children are settled in their schools.
‘Monday to Friday’ lodger agreements are idea for them. They are also idea for their landlrods who will be able to use the room during the weekends. Maybe for their own guests or perhaps for drying clothes. Often the landlords just like to have the house to themsevles for a few days.
The only trouble about Monday to Friday lets, is that it is sometimes hard to find a suitable agreement. Most lodger agreements are drafted for the traditional situation where the lodger stays all week.
However this problem is now solved with the Your Law Store lodger agreement. It is referred to as a ‘Monday to Friday’ agreement althoug actually you can specify whatever days you like. So if your lodger is going to stay Wednesday to Tuesday that is not a problem.
The agreement, as with all our lodger products, comes with detailed guidance notes to help you use it, and to explain why the agreement is drafted in the way that it is.
The agreement can be found on our standard lodger forms page or you can buy it using the buy now button below.
We are delighted to announce that the Tenancy Agreements Audiobook, written and read by landlord and tenant specialist solicitor Tessa Shepperson, has been approved for CDP by the UK Landlord Accreditation Partnership.
So if you are a landlord accredited by UKLAP you will be able to get three hours CPD without having to attend a course.
You get your CPD by doing a test and by getting 20 out of 30 questions correct. The questions are all based on the audiobook content and should be easily answered by someone who has listened to it carefully.
You will need a voucher to access the course questions, and all purchasers of the audiobook will be entitled to one voucher free of charge. Further vouchers can be bought for £10 each. For example if you want others in your office to obtain the CPD or if you need to take the test again.
The CPD test will not be available for a few weeks as we are still setting it up. We will do a further announcement here when it is ready to use.
If you are a landlord or a letting agent, or maybe a housing advisor, it is important to know your subject inside out. But reading books and attending courses takes time – time that busy people like you don’t have.
With an audiobook you can make use those ‘dead’ periods of time
So when Gill and I were wondering what product to do next, an audiobook seemed ideal.
We chose the topic ‘tenancy agreements’ as they are so crucial to renting property. Every tenancy needs to have one, but there is a lot of misunderstanding about how they work and the law relating to them.
So in about late May I started work. It took a lot longer than I thought.
First there were the scripts to prepare. Then I had to record it. Both took much longer than I expected.
Needless to say, ‘Murphy’s law’ struck, as the local authority choose the day I started recording section 2 to start re-surfacing the road outside my window!
After the recording comes the editing. You don’t realise until you listen carefully, how many splutters, hisses, indrawn breaths and clicking noises there are when you read something out loud. All of these have to be removed (or silenced), which takes some time with an audio of 2 ½ hours! Just listening through it takes about half a day.
The fun bit was putting the music clips in. The purpose of the music is to break it all up. Listening to someone reading out loud can get a bit dreary after an hour or so. Having short music ‘transitions’ between the parts gives you a bit of a mental break, and makes the whole thing more pleasant to listen to. Thats why they have musical breaks in chat shows.
We then decided it would be nice, as well as giving you the audio book, to let you have the scripts as well. These are all in one pdf which you will get when you buy the audiobook.
This will be useful to help you find a particular point, as the scripts also give the times on the audio when the different parts start. So if you want to listen to the section on guarantees (for example), you’ll know where to find it.
The audiobook itself will be in two formats.
One will be a straight mp3 file (or rather three) which you can download to your computer or ipod.
However I know that many readers will be more used to using CDs than ‘new fangled’ MP3 files, so we will be providing these as well.
The CD version however will be a bit more expensive as we have to buy the CDs and case, and also pay the cost of posting it out to you.
We are very excited about the new audio book. I am sure that once you have listened it, you will have a much clearer understanding of how the law works. Insofar as tenancy agreements are concerned anyway – but that is a big topic for landlords.
We will be launching the audiobook very soon now. As usual there will be a special ‘launch period’ offer when you can get special benefits. But the launch period will only last a few days so be sure and not to miss it!
If you haven’t already done so, sign up to our mailing list to be kept informed. You’ll then be able to download Part 5 of the audiobook, which is on different types of tenancy.
Click here to join the special mailing list (you can unsubscribe whenever your like, and we will never give your details to anyone else).
If you are already on the mailing list, a mailing with download details for part 5 will already have been sent to you (so check your spam folder if you have’t seen it!).
Watch out for announcements!
Last week I did a post about how important it is to understand the law relating to tenancy agreements. Today I have written a short story to demonstrate how adapting tenancy agreements yourself can cause expensive problems. Note that Julie is not a real person and none of the events described actually happened (although they could well have done).
Julie’s inheritanceLast year, Julie inherited a nice little property in Manchester from her great aunt Mary.
She didn’t want to sell it as she had fond memories of staying there as a child. She already had a nice house and a good job in Sheffield, and didn’t want to move, so she decided to rent it out to get a bit of extra income. Julie was a single Mum, so the extra money would be very welcome.
She decided to deal with the letting herself to save money. It seemed quite easy from what she had read about it on the Internet. She found some nice tenants, and used a standard tenancy agreement published by a reputable company, which she found in her local stationers.
The tenants wanted a 12 month term, but she was a bit worried about renting for that length of time to strangers so she added an extra clause saying that the landlord had the option to end the tenancy on a months notice.
A few weeks after the tenant had moved in, Julie was told at work that her position was being made redundant, but that if she was prepared to re-locate, she could have a similar job in their Manchester office. This was no problem she told the company, she had a property there she could move in to, but would need a few months to get the tenants out. It was agreed that she would move up there in six months time.
Julie therefore served notice on her tenants, asking them to vacate early under the break clause she had added to the tenancy agreement, and for good measure served a section 21 notice as well. The tenants told her that they were not in a position to move elsewhere unless they were re-housed by the Local Authority and had been told to stay in the property until they were evicted.
At the end of the two months therefore Julie went along to the local court, and issued proceedings for possession. She was a bit surprised when the tenants served a defence saying that they had the right to stay in the property as their tenancy had not ended yet, but assumed that they were just ‘trying it on’.
Julie was devastated therefore to find at the court hearing, that the Judge agreed with them. The notice to end the tenancy, he told her, was invalid, as the break clause in her tenancy agreement was ‘void’ under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. The reason being that it only allowed the landlord to end the tenancy, and not the tenants. For the clause to be ‘enforceable’ it had to be even handed and give the same rights to both landlord and tenants.
When Julie protested that she was not running a business and so how could these rules apply to her, the Judge said that renting out property was a business occupation, that it would be unfair to treat tenants of different landlords differently, and that so far as he was concerned, the regulations applied.
So the tenants’ defence was correct, their fixed term had not ended yet,. They had another three months still to go.
Not only did Julie lose the case, but as the tenants had been represented by a solicitor at court under the legal aid scheme, she was ordered to pay all their legal costs! Which turned out to be surprisingly expensive.
Julie managed to get the tenants out in the end. She served another section 21 notice for the end of the 12 month term, and this time there were no problems.
However the whole exercise cost her a lot of money, particularly as the tenants stopped paying their rent and had run up a massive rent arrears bill before they left. Plus she had to move up to Manchester before the tenants had gone and so had to rent another property short term, which was also rather expensive. Along with two lots of removal expenses and the cost of storing her furniture for six months.
In fact Julie was forced to sell her Sheffield property to cover her expenses, rather than rent it out as she had planned. “If only” she said “I had known more about tenancy agreements, this would never have happened”.
Listen to parts 16 and 17 of my tenancy agreements audiobook and you will find out all about the unfair contract terms regulations that tripped Julie up (although break clauses themselves are covered in a later part, part 25). You can download parts16 and 17 free of charge if you sign up to the Your Law Store mailing list (if you are already signed up you should have been emailed a download link).
If you join the mailing link we will also sometimes email you about other products and services we think you may be interested in, but you can unsubscribe at any time (and we won’t give your details to any third parties). So why not give it a go? >> Click here.
All tenancies should have a tenancy agreement. Why?But why do YOU need to know about them? How will it help you?
If you do not give an address for the landlord in the tenancy agreement, this will put you in breach of section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 and the tenant will have the right to withhold their rent
If the tenancy agreement provides for rent to be paid in large lump sums, for example quarterly or yearly, this may result in your needing to give three month or six month notice to tenants under section 21, if the tenancy is not worded correctly
If you do not include the proper wording, your clause forbidding pets may be invalid
If you want to know more, my audiobook on tenancy agreements will be launching soon.
This has loads of information and covers all the points mentioned above in greater detail, plus sections on unfair terms in tenancy agreements (and how to avoid them), inventories, tenancy deposits, guarantees, assignment and subletting, how to deal with student lets and lets to tenants with pets, and lots more.
We have a special launch offer planned, so to make sure you don’t miss out, sign up to the special mailing list now >> here, or our standard mailing list – you will find a sign up box at the top of this page on the right.
As a bonus, after you have signed up, you will be able to download my special quick guide to preparing a tenancy agreement.
This is a 14 page pdf which will give you the essentials you need to know when signing up new tenants.
(Find out more about why you need to know about tenancy agreements by reading about >> Julie’s big mistake)
A few weeks ago we introduced our new lodger pack and it has proved very popular with users. Gill and I have been surprised at how many we have sold!
The reason behind the new lodger pack is to help landlords when they are looking for a new lodger. It is REALLY important that you choose carefully as this person will be living in your house and having access to all your things! Here is how the new pack can help you:
Before you even think of taking in lodgers, you need to make sure that y our insurace cover will not be affects. The pack has a letter for this.
After you have put out your advert you will get (hopefully) some enquiries. The telephone form will help you ask those all important questions you might forget otherwise, and give you a space to write the answers.
When you first see your lodger you can use the lodger information form to record information about them, and the new lodger checklist to make sure that you remember to ask them all necessary questions and cover all relevant points in your interview.
Don’t forget to get them to sign the letters of authority, for when you write out asking for references. If they are on housing benefit there is a special letter which will auathorise the benefit office to keep you informed about their benefit application.
Checking them out
Once you have decided which interviewee you like the best, you need to check them out. You can use the standard reference letters in the pack to write to their employer, bank and personal referree.
Once you have agreed to let your lodger have the room, you need to get them to sign the lodger agreement. This is with one of the packs, but if you already have a pack (you may have bought ours previously!) you can also buy the new lodger pack without the lodger agreement at a cheaper price.
Don’t forget them to sign the standing order form if you want them to pay by standing order!
The pack has detailed notes to help you use the forms, so you have nothing to worry about.
To read more about the pack and buy online >> click here.
Note that we are thinking of doing a companion ‘problem lodgers’ pack to help landlords who find they need to get rid ot their lodger. If this interests you, and you would like to know when it will be published, join our mailing list and you will be one of the first to know!
If you are a landlord you will want to see this this video (7.17 minutes). which tells you about the seven top mistakes that landlords make.
[Note - you can buy the ebook >> here]
Well we now have our first product in Your Law Store, and I am pleased to say that it is selling like crazy. This may be because we have a special launch offer on of course – which will end on Tuesday (7 June 2011).
We have also made live the lodger landlord section which has two products in at present:
This can be used for most lodger situations. It has very detailed instructions so you should not have much problem in using it.
If you have a lodger on HB or local housing allowance and you want to check with the benefit office, for example to find out when they are going to make payment, the benefit office will usally refuse to speak to you, becuase of the Date Protection Act. However if you have a signed copy of this letter to give them, the Data Protection Act will no longer be an issue and they should give you all the information you ask for.
************
We hope to be ablet to load up some more lodger forms shortly. If there are any particuarl forms you would like, please leave a message in the comment box below.
If you are a landlord or an agent, you need to be careful when serving section 21 notices. It is possible to go spectacularly wrong if you don’t get your paperwork right.
See >> here for a few stories about people who got it wrong and a few stories about people who got it right.
Which would YOU rather be?
©