How to rent a residential property

Do you trust your letting agent? Well, you may get ripped off.

"Trust them but just don't trust the devil inside them."

You have just viewed a beautiful property that you think is your dream home and you're desperate to rent it. Beware!!! The letting agent could surprise you with an invoice that you didn't even expect in your wildest dreams and may burn big holes in your wallet. It's always good to keep a few things in mind before you commit to rent a property. 

So how to rent a property? After all it's your dream home; so what's next?

Step1:

Put forward your offer and you may casually ask what the letting agents' fees are but do not take notes or insist on knowing all their hidden fees. If you do, the letting agent would understand that you are a tough customer and that he wouldn't be able to rob you with their 'hidden charges'. The agent would simply not come back to you at all or he would rather say that there was another tenant who agreed to pay more rent or that the landlord didn't accept your offer. 

Wait until the letting agent talks to the landlord and gets back to you. You should see other properties meanwhile. There is nothing wrong in walking away even after your offer was accepted. You can always say that you have found another property.

Step2:

Once the letting agent says that the landlord is happy with your offer he would most probably ask you to pay a "holding deposit" or similar to take the property off the market and to do your reference checks. Now this is the most trickiest part of the whole process of renting a property. Before you make the payment, ask them for their charges. Make sure you get the breakdown of everything on their letter head and (or) on an email. You have to insist. A typical high-street letting agent charges you for the following -  

• Administration fee
• Reference check
• Tenancy agreement
• Inventory check

Some may also charge for

• Renewal fees of the contract at the end of your tenure
• Check-in fees
• Check-out fees
• Check-out administration fees
• Inventory check charges when you checkout and an administration fees for administering the inventory check.
• And other costs that you never knew could really be a part of an invoice. (eg: Holding fee of landlord's contact details)

So don't be shy to ask the questions directly. Just say, "I am sorry, but I have had bad experiences with other letting agents; so I am just being cautious."

• Make sure all the charges that are given to you are inclusive of VAT. 
• Make sure you get a proper receipt with details about what you have paid for and the amount outstanding and not just any dodgy printout.

If the letting agent refuses to give you the above information in writing before you pay the holding deposit, just walk away. You would have just saved yourself a few hundred pounds.

Step3:

Contents Insurance: - Check if you have to take any mandatory contents insurance. Some letting agents insist that you have to take contents insurance to protect your contents. Landlord should be having property insurance for the building and the stuff he owns. But some agents (eg: Mann Countrywide) make tenancy agreements that say that you have to take contents insurance for the landlord's "fittings and fixtures". The letting agent may also give you a quote which would usually be more than double what a normal content insurance costs in the market. They cannot legally insist that you have to buy their insurance. But if you have to, you can always buy the cheapest contents insurance available through gocompare.com.

Step 4:

If the letting agent agrees to give you all the information in writing, you may also want to check the following -

• Will the rental agreement be 'rolled-over' after the tenure? Will you have to pay for any renewal costs. 
• Will you get possession of one of the original tenancy agreements? Usually, there would be three copies of the tenancy agreement that you have to sign (ideally, on all pages). One copy would be given to you, one would be given to the landlord and one would be kept by the letting agent. You have to make sure you would get one of the originals as photocopies are only photocopies.
• What is the notice period? A notice period of one month is reasonable. But some of them asks for 2 months or even more. If it's more than a month you may find it difficult to find and move to another property if required later. Most letting agents/landlords do not consider tenants who cannot start a new tenancy within a few weeks.
• What is the initial deposit and who will be holding your deposit? Legally the money should be held in a "tenants deposit scheme".
• When can we move in? Will it all be clean and ready to occupy on this date?
• Find out what furnitures will be left behind. Some furnitures may be that of the tenant who is moving out.
• Don't forget to check the garage if there is one. Most landlords use the tenant's garage as a storage place for dumping all their useless stuff. Tell them that you want that to be cleaned before the move-in date. If not it will never be done.
• When you check-out, do you have to pay for the professional cleaning which include the cleaning of the beds, curtains etc? 
• When you check-out, do you have to pay for inventory check again? Are there any associated administration fees?
• Can you bring in any additional furniture? Some letting agents have tenancy agreement written in such a way that you cannot bring in any additional furniture without their or the landlords prior written consent.
• When can you sign the tenancy agreement? You may insist you see a draft copy of the tenancy agreement as early as possible (ideally, before you pay the holding deposit) so that you have plenty of time to find another property if you do not agree to something that's there on the tenancy agreement.
• Check if would have to pay for the whole month or 'prorated' rent for the first month and the month you leave the property? This happens quite rarely but considering the agent's hunger for money, it's worth checking if you would have to pay the rent only from the date you're checking-in and not for the whole calendar month. 

Make sure you get a proper receipt for all the money you pay.

Additional Information/Tips: - 

• Ideally, it's better to keep away from a letting agent who would want to do an inventory check. It's just their trick to make more money. No matter how good you keep your house there would be wear and tear from usage. When you check-out they would again charge you for the wear and tear you have caused due to usage. And would hold your deposit and probably also charge additional administration charges to "take care" of the property when you check-out. The only way you can give the house back as is it was before, is not to live there.
• You could also rent a property directly from the landlord. The only caveat is that you have to make sure the landlord owns or is authorised to the rent the property you are renting and he doesn't trick you into renting someone else's property. Legally there isn't much difference if you rent a property directly from a landlord.
• Look for a letting agent who operates locally to the town where you're searching the properties rather than going for bigger branded letting agents. The big letting agents have targets to meet, profits to make and isn't bothered if the tenants or the landlords are happy.

In many ways, a happy output for all the points mentioned above may not practically be possible. You may skip some with your best judgement of the situation. And finally the things that contributes to a peaceful start of tenancy without any frustrations is obviously luck.