Preparing your property for letting
It may be necessary to make improvements to your property to ensure that it meets the minimum standards required for a property to be rented. We will of course take into consideration budgetary and current legislation constraints. Chiltern Hills will advise on the decorative standards, furnishings, appliances and exterior maintenance of your property to help ensure we can achieve the best rental. Inventories will be needed to protect the landlord’s property and safeguard against any disputes over Damage or dilapidation.
Basic Landlords Responsibilities
Landlords are under many legal responsibilities to ensure the safety of the tenants and the property in the letting of a property. These legal obligations must be fulfilled prior to letting any property. These are briefly as follows:
- No EPC is required.Shared flats/houses (e.g. a letting of a whole flat or house to students/young professionals etc on a single tenancy agreement) – one EPC for the whole house. Mixed self contained and non self contained accommodation – one EPC for each self contained flat/unit but no EPC for the remainder of the property. A room in a hall of residence or hostel – no EPC is required.
- Gas Safety Certificate. A landlord’s gas safety certificate is required from a Gas Safe registered gas engineer certifying the safety of all gas appliance’s within the property annually.
- Smoke alarms are advisable in all properties and for those properties where they maybe occupied in multiple occupations the law may require smoke alarms and detectors system to be installed.
