As you may or may not know, we launched my new Landlord Law service a couple of weeks before Christmas.
What I did not say at the time though, was that there was a bit of a problem with our document generator software. The document generator software is what we now use to create our tenancy agreements, and it was specially commissioned for the site.
The initial problem
The launch of the site was massively overdue, so when we discovered a couple of days before launch, that the software edit function did not work properly, I took the decision to launch without it.
I began to regret this though when we started getting complaints from members about being locked out when they tried to edit a document, or create more than one. Needless to say, the software developer then went off on his Christmas holidays (all right for him, he didn’t have to deal with the complaints) and so we had to wait until early January for a fix.
However on Monday, thankfully, the problem was resolved. So I now feel able to tell you about our great new system!
The new tenancy agreement system
Many members join Landlord Law for the tenancy agreements, and on the old site, there were lots of different agreements for different situations.
However they were all separate pdf files with form fields. So if you did not have the special Adobe or similar software, the entries in the fields would not save when you closed the file. So you had to print the form out after completing it and could not email it out to tenants.
The new system is quite different.
To create the tenancy you go to a page where you complete a form. Then you click a button at the bottom, and the tenancy agreement is created (or ‘generated’). If you have made a mistake you can (now!) click the edit button and go back and change it.
The tenancy agreement can be loaded as a pdf at the click of the button and this pdf can be saved to your computer, to keep there, email out to your tenants, or print off as you will.
Adapting the tenancy agreement
However the system also allows us to be more creative. Members can say how they want the rent paid (there is some default wording on the form but you can easily change this) and also add your own clauses via a special field.
The tenancy agreement sections now contains a page with a list of payment clauses (a members only link) which you can copy and paste into the payments field.
There is also an ‘extra clauses’ page (a members only link) where I have given suggested wording for other clauses such as a break clause, a clause requiring the tenant to allow the landlords gardener access, and a clause incorporating the landlords headlease.
Creating a clauses library
I am happy to draft up and add to the list in response to members requests so no doubt over time there will be quite a library of clauses there. Allowing you more flexibility to adapt the tenancy agreements to suit your circumstances.
I am on hand in the forum to discuss with you whether a suggested clause will be valid (or void under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999), and can draft up new clauses and put them online for you to use.
Find out more
If you are interested you can read more about the tenancy agreements via the tenancy agreement section home page. You can also work out which of the different tenancy agreement types will be most suitable for your situation from our Which Tenancy Agreement guide.