Top 5 Things Landlords Wish Tenants Knew: What Letting Agents Can Do

05 June 2018 9593 Views

Renee Wells, on behalf of Just Landlords, has compiled a list of what letting agents can do to ensure that tenants comply with their landlord’s rules.

As the facilitator through which the agreement is made between a landlord and tenant for the rental or residential property, it is important that as a letting agent, tenants are made aware that you are the point of communication between both themselves and their landlords.

Taking this into consideration, here are 5 key things that landlords want tenants to be aware of, that letting agents should be alerting tenants about, stated below:

Rent Payments

This may seem like the most obvious priority, however, some tenants decide to pay all of their alternative bills, such as, water, gas and electric bill instead of paying their rent first. To remind tenants of the importance of rent payments, prior to any additional payments, letting agents could regularly and politely notify tenants of the importance of this bill being a priority.

Being truthful

This may also seem like something that goes without saying, but, there are often cases where a landlord can become frustrated with tenants deciding to stay silent about items being broken or devices being used incorrectly, leading them to break. Furthermore, there have been multiple instances where tenants have flushed objects down the toilet that are not supposed to be there. To avoid this dishonesty, letting agents could perhaps let the tenants know that it is okay to make a mistake, however, it should be brought to either their attention or the landlords attention in case of any serious damage to the property.

Following the Rules

This goes hand in hand with being truthful. When tenants move into their rental property, their landlords are responsible for showing them how to manage certain things within the property in addition to informing them of particular rules like noise levels, visitor rights etc. However, some tenants ignore these rules which can lead to a landlord’s relationship with their tenant to become negative. In order to avoid this, as a letting agent, you could emphasise the importance of compliance to these tenants.

Communication

Communication really is key. If a tenant has a problem, whether they have recently been made unemployed or have been off work due to a medical issue, you should encourage them to contact their landlord or contact you as their letting agent for support and advice on how to resolve this issue and avoid eviction.

Trust

Tenants trusting their landlords is extremely important. Although there are some rogue landlords out there that have or would think about doing such a thing, most landlords wouldn’t dream of being disrespectful in this way. When requesting to enter your home, landlords will most definitely have a legitimate reason for this. If a tenant seems to be worried about communicating with their landlord, remind them that you are an alternative point of communication.