Guide to Letting Property

Valuation

Once you have decided to let out your property, the first thing you must do is have a market appraisal. Andrew Craig offers a Free Marketing Appraisal so that we can determine the best achievable market rental for your property. This is based on a number of factors such as condition of the property, comparable evidence from the local market, and our own experience of current local market conditions.

How your property is presented has a significant impact on the level of interest that it will receive, and if we think that your property could benefit from some works before coming onto the market, we will advise you of this.

If you would like to arrange a free valuation of your property with no obligation, simply complete our Valuation Request form or call us on 0191 226 1222.

Management

The next step would be to choose how much involvement as a landlord you want to have with your tenant and property. This includes the day to day maintenance, the monthly rent collection and other responsibilities. When first becoming a Landlord, you may not realise how time intensive and fraught with regulations the management of a rental property can be. When letting Andrew Craig take care of the daily management, you can be comfortable in knowing that your property and tenant will be looked after at all times.

At Andrew Craig we offer different levels of Property Management to Landlords which you can read more about here.

Marketing and Viewings

As soon as you instruct us to market your property, we will prepare your property details including deciding on a marketing price, taking professional quality photographs and organising an Energy Performance Certificate if needed.

Your property will be advertised on our website and on the major property portals Rightmove and OnTheMarket.com. We regularly update our database of prospective tenants looking for their next property, and we will utilise this to match prospective tenants with your property.

We will conduct accompanied viewings on your behalf with any interested parties. Initially, we have software that enables us to conduct Livestream viewings to many prospective tenants at once, meaning maximum exposure for your property. These will then be followed up by physical viewings for those really interested.

Tenant Selection

Referencing

Choosing the right tenant for your property is one of the most important parts of the lettings process. Our lettings experts initiate the process by ensuring that any interested parties meet minimum financial requirements. We will handle the negotiations on your behalf but it will be ultimately up to you to decide whether to accept the tenant or not. We then pass the tenant onto an external referencing company to carry out rigorous suitability checks, on every tenant moving into the property and also any guarantors where applicable. We do this to ensure that your tenant is in the right area financially to pay the rent on time and to make sure that they are not using a fraudulent identity.

Deposit Collection

Once tenants have successfully applied for a property, we will collect an appropriate deposit from them. We will then transfer this to an approved tenancy deposit scheme, where it will be held for the duration of the tenancy. We use The Tenancy Deposit Scheme for this. Alternatively, we can offer a deposit replacement scheme which can be advantageous to both landlords and tenants.

Inventory

Before the tenant moves in, if you use our Fully Managed Service, we will prepare an inventory of your property. This will include photographs throughout the property. Having an inventory is absolutely vital, as it ensures that if the tenant does not leave the property in the same way they found it when they moved in, that you can make a claim against the tenant’s deposit for damages. Without an inventory any claim will be likely to fail.

Moving In

Tenancy Agreement

We will progress the tenancy for you, chasing up all parties involved, until it is time to sign the tenancy agreement. We prepare this for you on your behalf, with the relevant tenancy type and duration documented, and then will send this over to yourselves and your tenants to sign electronically. This will also include all statutory documentation and relevant tenancy information including a How to Rent Guide.

Collecting First Rent Payment

Before they move into the property, they will provide us with the first month’s rental payment. We will transfer this from our RICS protected Client Account directly into your chosen account.

Handing Keys over

Once the agreement has been signed and they have paid the first rent payment, we will arrange for the tenants to visit their local branch to collect keys. If the property is fully managed, the tenant will be given contact details for their dedicated Property Manager,

Property Management

If you choose Andrew Craig to handle the Full Management of your rental property, we will take care of these for you…

Rent collection

When you choose our Fully Managed service, we will collect the rent from the tenant on your behalf. We transfer it directly into your chosen account as soon as we receive it. In the unlikely event that your tenant misses a rent payment, we will work with the tenant to ensure they are able to pay their rent. If they can’t then they will fall into rent arrears and will be chased daily by our dedicated accounts team until the rent is paid.

Repairs and Maintenance

You will have a dedicated property manager who will be the point of contact for both you and your tenants. They will deal with any queries or issues that you or your tenants may have throughout the entire tenancy. If there are any repairs or maintenance reported to us by the tenant then we will arrange quotes from our trusted list of local contractors, and once we have these we will always come to you for approval before any works commence.

Inspections

You will have a dedicated property manager who will be the point of contact for both you and your tenants. They will deal with any queries or issues that you or your tenants may have throughout the entire tenancy. We will also conduct regular inspections of the property to ensure that the tenants are looking after the property and are complying with the tenancy agreement.

Safety and Compliance

There are extensive and ever increasing regulatory requirements that Landlords must follow. We keep up to date with all rules and regulations that landlords must adhere to and we will work with Landlords to ensure that all safety and compliance testing in your property is current.

Rent reviews

We will ensure that your rent is up to date with current market conditions. Your property manager will work with our expert Lettings Consultants to negotiate rent reviews on your behalf when relevant.

Rental Statements and Invoices

We will supply you once a month with a rental statement which will show rent coming in, the commission for management taken off and any deductions for repairs that have been pre authorised by you.

Arrears

In the unlikely event that your tenant misses a rent payment, we will work with the tenant to ensure they are able to pay their rent. If they can’t then they will fall into rent arrears and will be chased by our dedicated accounts team until the rent is paid.

End of Tenancy Care

At the end of the tenancy once the tenant has moved out, we conduct a checkout where we check the full condition of the property and take photographic evidence together with meter readings. We then discuss the condition with the landlord and decide if any claim for damage is to be put to the tenant. We then negotiate any claim with the tenant and deal with any deposit disputes. We also inform council tax and utility companies that the tenancy has ended.