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Whether you are a Landlord, Tenant or Guarantor, the letting and renting process is full of potential loopholes and hurdles. We hope this Landlord guide goes some way to explaining the process and reduces the pitfalls you can sometimes face. Money can be lost by both parties if the process of letting is not properly conducted. This guide comprises helpful guidance for all parties and clicking on the section heading below will take you to the section you require. Throughout our guide we make reference to our cost sheet. A copy can be supplied on request by phoning 01622 620260. Landlords' Information
We offer the knowledge to make letting your property trouble free. We offer three packages of Management to choose from; By opting for a let only package you would be choosing to collect the rents for the term of the tenancy and be the point of call for your tenant should they need any maintenance carried out at the property. Please request our cost sheet on 01622 620260. We would erect a board at your property, if desired, advertise your property on a number of websites including Rightmove and our own website, place your property in our window and on our let list that is handed out to everyone who enquires about lettings and place your property in the Kent Messenger on our to let page. We would also run all the Tenant references at no cost to yourself. Rent protection is not available on this option. All other services will be chargeable individually. Please request our cost sheet on 01622 620260. With this package we collect the rent every month and chase the Tenant for rent if payment is late. With this option, the referencing company we use offers a Rent Protection Policy. At the moment this is a very reasonable one-off payment which is listed in our cost sheet. The Rent Protection Policy covers you for a full year even if your Tenants change in that time. With this policy, if the Tenant cannot or will not pay the rent the policy will pay it for you. If you have a mortgage to cover, you will have peace of mind that the rent will be met. The policy also covers legal costs should you need to take further action against your Tenant. The rent will be collected each month from your Tenant on a Standing Order from their bank to our client account. The money that is collected from the Tenant will then be sent to your account within ten working days. Should the Tenants pay rents in advance, the monies will be sent to you in one sum unless you instruct us not to do so. Any interest earned on the monies that you may ask us to hold in our client account for you is minimal and will be used towards administrative costs for the purpose of this service. However, on this option you will still be responsible to your Tenant for maintenance issues and, again, you will be the point of contact. With regard to advertising we offer the same as in the Let Only package. The cost of this package to you is a percentage of the rental income on a monthly basis. All other services would be charged individually. Please request our cost sheet (on 01622 620260) for full details of commissions and charges. This service offers all that the previous two packages provide and more. Full Management offers a stress free let as we will be responsible for managing the let on your behalf. We would be the point of contact for your Tenant and we would only contact you if monies needed to be spent on the property. The Rent Protection Policy is available on this option as well. We carry out quarterly inspections of your property and send you a typed report following each visit. This offers peace of mind should you be moving a distance from your property or out of the country. The cost of this package to you is a percentage of the rental income on a monthly basis. Please request our cost sheet (on 01622 620260) for full details of commissions and charges. We use approved contractors which offer a good level of craftsmanship. With the Full Management option, we also offer an out of hours service. The contractor will be supplied with your telephone number as well as the Tenant’s number. The Tenant in turn would have the contractor’s number. If the contractor is called out he will contact you for permission to attend whenever possible. If the contractor is unable to contact you he will visit the property and this is when you would be charged for this service. The charge for each incident is available in our cost sheet. When the contractor arrives at the property, if the problem is deemed to be something that the Tenant has caused the contractor will charge the Tenant for the call out and the works. The contractor will also use his discretion and if it is something that can wait until office hours, he will do so and take further instructions. This is an optional part of this package. A £200 float will be kept on account by us at all times with this option only. This is so that when contractors are needed we can issue the works orders straight away. We are unable to instruct a contractor without monies in place on account. If any of this float is spent, the deficit will be collected from the next month’s rent to reimburse the float. This money will be paid back to you at the end of a Tenancy when the Tenant vacates the property. These monies will be held in our client account and no interest is payable as it will be minimal. You will be assigned a Property Manager so that you have a constant point of contact at this office.
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