1. Always, always reference tenants. Make no exception to this rule. Remember – con men succeed because they are persuasive. Never allow tenants to have the keys until you have checked them out.

2. If you have any doubts whatsoever about a tenants ability to pay rent, take a guarantor. Make sure you reference the guarantor also

3. Do not give tenants a long fixed term. If they prove unsatisfactory it will be difficult to get them to leave before the fixed term ends and you may be stuck with them for longer than you wish. Six months is about right for a new tenant.

4. Serve a section 21 notice early on (although not on the same day that they sign the tenancy agreement – about a week after they have moved in perhaps). If this upsets the tenants, say that you hope that you will not have to use it, but that you are serving it as a precautionary measure.

5. Get into the habit of checking rent payments so that you will be able to contact the tenant as soon as a payment is missed. It is if rent arrears are allowed to mount up that big problems generally occur. If you deal with things promptly tenants are less likely to allow arrears to develop.

If you follow these five steps your tenants will be less likely to fall into arrears and you will be in a better position to deal with it if they do.  Note that if you are unfortunate enough to have teants fall into rent arrears, my rent arrears action plan can help. 

Do you agree with my five tips? Do you have any tips for precautions landlords can take? In your experience are more tenants falling into arrears nowadays?

One of the things you need to do as a lawyer is write letters. In fact you have to a lot of writing generally. But a lot of it is letters.

But there is not much point in writing letters if they don’t work. How do you write a letter which is effective? Here are my tips:

• Have a good case. If you are in the right you always have a strong advantage!

• Explain very clearly why you are in the right. Make it so plain, that it is impossible for the reader to misunderstand. Depending on the type of letter being sent, this can be a short pithy paragraph or a long detailed explanation covering several pages.

• Be restrained. If you are in the right, there is no need to be aggressive about it. Just be firm.

• Use clear and easy to understand language. In particular do not use legal jargon or pompous phrases. If you are writing to a lawyer, they will not be impressed. If you are writing to a non lawyer they may not understand you.

• Do not use long paragraphs. Break them up into short chunks of text, and use bullet points (as I am doing in this post). This again will make it easier for people to read. You may think they are pathetic if they can’t read a long paragraph, but the whole point of writing this letter is that they read it. Don’t make it difficult for them.

• Say what you want. If you want several things, split them up and put them in bullet points. If you want a payment of money, explain why the sum you are asking for is the correct one (perhaps include a schedule). You need to be very clear about what you want them to do, as this is the reason why you are writing the letter.

• Give a deadline for them to do whatever it is you want. This must be a reasonable time for them to do whatever it is. For example outstanding rent can be paid within seven days but structural repair work will take a bit longer.

• Say what you intend to do if they do not do as you request within the time period. Will you be issuing legal proceedings? Renting the property out to someone else? Withholding your rent? If you are not sure, say something like ‘I will be looking to my legal remedies’ which sounds ominous but does not commit you to anything.

• If this is your first letter, ask for the full amount or everything you are entitled to (and a bit more if you can justify it). In any negotiation process it is easy to agree to less, but usually impossible to ask for more.

• Don’t send the letter immediately. This is perhaps the most important tip. If you leave the letter, perhaps overnight, and then look at it afresh a while later, you will always find ways to improve it. Mistakes and typos will also be more apparent (it is very difficult to spot your own typos). If appropriate get someone to have a look at it for you. Make sure it is perfect before you send it out.

I have been thinking about letters recently, because in my new Landlord Law service which I am developing with my web designers, we will have a new document generation system. I will be using this to provide more letters for members use.

Although if you follow the rules in this blog post, you will not need me!

However landlords are not always sure what they should do in these circumstances.  Does the Data Protection Act forbid them passing any information on?

I recently had occasion to look at the Information Commissioner’s Office web-site (the Information Commissioner overseas the data protection legislation) where I found a page of helpful good practice guides.  One of which relates to landlords obligations regarding release of information about their tenants.

The relevant paragraph about utilities reads as follows:

Can a landlord pass forwarding addresses of former tenants to the utility companies?
Yes. Sometimes a landlord will become aware that a tenant has moved leaving behind an unpaid utility bill or an account in credit. In addition a utility provider may need to contact a former tenant regarding continuing social support. In these circumstances landlords can pass a forwarding address (where known) to the utility companies as the Act is not intended to be an obstacle to disclosure in these situations. However, landlords must make tenants aware of these possible disclosures at the start of the tenancy.

So thats clear. You can, indeed you should, pass on any contact information you hold relating to your tenants whereabouts to utility companies if your tenant has left owning money, or if there is a credit due to him.

So far as making tenants aware of this possibility at the start of the tenancy is concerned, this is not something which commonly goes into tenancy agreements (although I will be looking to include something on this in my agreements at the next review).  However it does not have to be in the tenancy agreement.  You can inform them:

• in the tenants information form which they complete when applying for a tenancy
• in any separate ‘house rules’ or extra clauses which you may attach to the tenancy agreement, or
• in a separate letter, email or notice

Whatever means you use to let them know, it is a good idea to keep a copy.

However even if you have not formally notified your tenants that you intend to pass their information on, I do not think that there will be any problem with your doing so.  The Data Protection Act was not passed to make it easier for people  who don’t pay their bills.  You should do all in your power to assist the utilities.

After all if people are allowed to get away without paying, that just makes it more expensive for all the rest of us who do pay.

Have you had problems with tenants leaving and not paying their bills?  Do you have any tips for readers?  Has anyone had any problems related to data protection in these circumstances?

Those of you who use tenancy agreements will be interested in a new series of blog posts I am planning for May – my 31 days of tips for Landlords on Tenancy agreements.  I did a similar thing in February on Lodgers, which proved popular.

You may well think, how can you find enough to write about for 31 days on tenancy agreements?  I did wonder when I first thought of it, whether I had enough material.  However it is surprising how much there is to say.

The series will start by looking at whether a tenancy is needed at all, and then cover at different types of tenancy and the agreements needed for them.  This will be followed by a few posts on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, and then a large part of the series will be looking at the different types of clauses that appear in agreements. Towards the end we will be covering more practical matters such as preparation and signatures.

At the moment I am still writing the series, so if there is anything in particular you would like me to cover, let me know.

Tenancy agreement help on Landlord Law

If you need information on tenancy agreements in the meantime, you will find a lot of guidance on my Landlord Law web-site, for example in the tenancy agreement section and also the Which Tenancy Agreement trail.

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Day 15 – Should you use a lodger agreement?
This may seen unnecessary for an informal lodger situation but it is best to have one, just in case problems arise

Day 16 – Should you take deposits and use an inventory?
Deposits are useful protection if your lodger breaks something, and an inventory is essential for working out if any damage has been done, particularly over a long period

Day 17 – How much paperwork and record keeping is involved?
This post gives a useful list of all the paperwork involved in having a lodger

Day 18 – How should you behave towards your lodger?
Making friends with your lodger, privacy issues, and increasing the rent?

Day 19 – How should you deal with problem lodgers?
Sets out an action plan

Day 20 – How do you evict a lodger who won’t go?
Most people will never need this post

Day 21 – What should you do when your lodger leaves?
Dealing with the last day procedures

If you take in a lodger, I hope the series was helpful for you. If you have any questions or comments, please make these on the Lodger Landlord site.

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