Renting to friends or family?
If you are thinking of renting a property to friends or family, then you may wish to read on. Here at Key One Property, we sometimes see how it can go wrong and can ruin friendships and family relationships. Some landlords can feel under pressure to rent to friends or family or some are more than happy to help them out, but mixing business with your personal life can sometimes go pear shaped.
That's where we can help; regardless of the relationship between landlord and tenant, the tenancy should all be set up and operated correctly. Whilst a verbal agreement or a handshake may seem fine with someone you may know, if things go wrong, it can lead to a lot of awkwardness, bad feeling, or even worse, legal action. In fact, renting to someone on a verbal agreement only, is now illegal. Landlords must issue prescribed information and update that as required. All the other legal requirements for landlords also remain unchanged. But where a dispute arises with a tenant, the lack of a valid tenancy can go against a landlord. Having a written tenancy agreement is vital; regardless of whether a landlord knows their tenant or not. Landlords shouldn't feel awkward about engaging an agent to help them set up a tenancy with someone they know, the landlord simply needs to explain that the agent is there to make sure things are done properly, and that the tenancy in legal and valid.
At Key One Property we offer LET ONLY or LET & MANAGE, whichever service is preferred. One advantage to having an agent is to avoid any awkwardness where one party isn't complying; for instance, if rent was not paid on time, it is we the agent that deal with that, or if the property is not being looked after well, the agent deals with that. Similarly for tenants, they can contact the agent about repairs, as they may feel that they don't want to bother the landlord.
We won't charge you a fortune either - if a landlord brings a tenant to us and just wants the tenancy set up correctly, we cut our fee by around 50%; plus, as a small agency we don't charge our landlords any VAT.
Whether you are about to let out or already have a tenant, if you would like to get your tenancy legal and correct, we are happy to help. Just give us a call or drop us an email: Contact Key One