EXPERT LETTINGS WITH LOW FIXED FEES.

You’ve got to get your property in order before it can be rented by a tenant. This includes basics like tidying it up and redecorating it to a good standard, considering it’s going to become someone’s home.

We usually recommend the following:

• Interior walls have neutral colours
• Fabrics and furnishings of suitable quality to withstand everyday wear and tear
• Animal or other odours eliminated
• Clean garden
• Clean front door and hallway to make a good first impression

Once your property is ready to be rented out, you can get in touch with us to book a valuation.

During the valuation, we will visit your property to assess its condition. We’ll also look into costs of similar properties in the area. Then, we’ll give you an estimate of how much rent you can expect to receive.

We provide a base figure but usually, we’re able to achieve higher rents than we estimate.

If you’re happy with the valuation, we can take the keys from you and move onto the next step of marketing the property.

Honest Lettings offers three services:

Let Only: We’ll find great tenants through Rightmove and screen them thoroughly to make sure they’re great.

Let and Rent: Everything above + we’ll collect rent each month and give you monthly statements.

Fully Managed: Everything above + we’ll manage your property 24/7 including assigning your own personal property manager.

Whilst some landlords only want us to find tenants for them, others want our premium Fully Managed service (for only £99 per month) so they have true peace of mind. 

We will market your property on online portals such as Rightmove - because that’s where all the buyers and renters hang out.

For example, Rightmove has over 1 million people on their website every day.

On top of that, we’ll ensure your property gets an extra push on Rightmove so it’s in front of as many tenants as possible.

At this point, we’ll also start booking viewings. Although we prefer virtual viewings where we give people a video tour of your property, especially when there is a lot of interest, sometimes it’s better to do in-person viewings to get tenants who will really appreciate your property. We’ll work with you to decide which is best.

• Full name
• Occupation (e.g. job)
• People who will move in to the property
• How much rent they will pay

Once you’ve accepted an offer, you’d have to let us know in writing, for example via a message or email.

We’ll then let the tenant know and request a holding deposit from them of £500. A holding deposit is essentially a reservation fee which is refundable once the tenant moves in to the property. This is to ensure we have serious tenants who want to move in.

We conduct a four point check on every tenant using a specialist screening company. This ensures your tenants are reliable. Our checks include:

Right to rent check (legal requirement) to verify the identity of every adult tenant

Credit check to get a view of the tenant’s financial history

Occupation check to verify the tenant’s employment and their source of income 

Previous landlord reference to confirm the tenant’s suitability to rent

All of this helps us to build a profile of the tenant which ensures you get good, reliable people living in your property.

Your property must be fully compliant with all regulations before it can be rented out. This includes having a valid gas safety certificate, electrical safety report (EICR) and energy performance certificate (EPC). A portable appliance test (PAT) is also recommended, although not mandatory. And a legionnaire’s disease test to ensure the property’s water supply is safe for use.

Several parts of the country now also require landlords to apply for a selective license to let their property. You can check if this applies to you by going onto the government website.

If you’ve got a mortgage, you would need to ensure your bank allows you to let your property. In this case, you would need a buy to let mortgage to rent out your property. Alternatively, you’d need consent from your bank to let the property. This is super important because you could be breaking the terms of your mortgage and risk repossession if you don’t have the permission in place.

If any of the above isn’t completed to a satisfactory standard, we can still move ahead but your property would need to be compliant before tenants move in. We can support you with anything you need.

Once everything’s in place and the property is ready to be let, we will create an assured shorthold tenancy agreement. Part of the agreement, we will outline landlord and tenant responsibilities, we will liaise with both parties to agree a move-in date and we will collect a deposit from the tenant to register with a government-backed scheme, as well as the first month’s rent.

Your tenant will move into the property on the date stipulated in the tenancy agreement. All that’s left to do is to switch over the utilities (such as water and gas bill) to the tenant so they can start paying for these - unless the agreement states otherwise.