What Are The Landlord’s Responsibilities?

Letting a property requires a considerable amount of preparation and knowledge which landlords will need to have if they are to be successful. Being a landlord comes with many responsibilities that shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially when you are letting properties to tenants.

In this article, we will be going through what types of responsibilities that landlords have and what they are expected to fulfil.

What is a Landlord?

A landlord is anyone or an entity that owns real estate which they then lease or rent out to tenants. Landlords have many duties and it involves a lot more than just collecting rent.

Their duties and responsibilities apply to a wide range of accommodation and they are often responsible for the following:

• Repairing the structure and exterior of the property.
• Repairing heating, water systems, sinks, baths, basins, and other sanitaryware.
• Regularly carrying out gas and electrical checks to ensure that these essentials work safely and correctly.
• Checking the fire safety of furnishing and furniture that are provided under the tenancy.
• Ensuring that the property is safe for habitation for tenants.
• Maintaining the common areas in properties that are multi-occupancy.

The landlord is also entitled to enter the property in order to inspect and carry out repairs.

Property Maintenance

The landlord is obliged to fulfil their side of the tenancy agreement. Responsibilities can’t be adjusted on tenancy agreements and the landlord is not permitted to pass on the cost of any maintenance work. If a problem occurs, the landlord will be responsible for making the repairs, so tenants will be asking the landlord to make repairs when they may be needed.

Eviction

If the tenant doesn’t pay rent on time or doesn’t decide to pay at all then the landlord has a right to provide a notice in writing and issue a court order before court bailiffs can be used to evict the tenant.

Although a court order isn’t necessarily required to evict tenants, currently. It is illegal to force tenants out of the property without following the correct procedure.

Tenancy Checks

Landlords will need to check the tenant’s affordability before renting their property. As the landlord, you will also need to check if the tenant can legally rent your residential property in England.

Before the start of the tenancy, you must check that all tenants are over the age of 18 even if:

• they are not the named tenant on the agreement
• the tenancy agreement is not in writing.
• there is no tenancy agreement.

It’s important that landlords check all new tenants and not discriminate against anyone because of their background. It’s against the law to only check those that you think are not British citizens.

Contact Hadleigh Estate Agents for Properties To Let

If you’re looking for a property to let in Birmingham, then please get in touch with our property experts. With years of experience in the rental market, we are a market leader in the Harborne and Edgbaston area. Our friendly, experienced, and qualified team of estate and letting agents like to take the time to understand your needs to find out exactly what you’re looking for in a property.

Call our lettings team on 0121 426 3220 or you can send us an email here.