UK Landlord Forum / Life

There seem to be a myriad of options out there. I've seen one at property hawk, open rent, bpf, etc.

I need to create an AST as it looks like I might have  found my first tenant.

I'm happy to pay for one but want to make sure I get a good one.

Q - what do you existing landlords use?

The property is a 3 bed unfurnished semi. No smokers. Also no new pets unless agreed. I've said they can move their existing cats in.

Help

I wrote my own for my first property as I realised I was going to get into this more and more. I make minor alterations to the AST for each property so it is specific as opposed to generic in nature. For example, I don't talk about Gas Safety Certificates if the property has no gas, I only talk about parking cars on the driveway if there is a driveway. Writing your own is recommended, by me, because you then know exactly what is in your AST better than anyone else. Others would argue that an off-the-shelf agreement is best, but I don't use them.

Thanks for the reply.

Wow. I am impressed but that's a bit too brave for me. I don't think I possess the linguistic skills to write my own agreement.

They sell them in Smith and Tesco

You can buy them online from here

You can join an association and they can provide one.

I started doing the first one, I am no doing the third.

Think I got mine from the National Landlord Association and adapted it to suit my property.  I'm not a member, but think I copied from a pdf version and reformatted it in Word (losing the references to the NLA ).  Took a few hours adapting it but, as Hippogriff says, it's good to go through it and bin the clauses that aren't relevant for your property (and you'll learn about what's actually in your AST).  You can add your own clauses but keep them to a minimum as they have to be "fair and reasonable", otherwise they won't stand up in court.  Be wary of any older AST templates that you may be tempted to use, they may be out of date (e.g. not correctly covering deposits)...

Thanks for the replies. Really appreciated

I've decided to copy a standard tenancy agreement  and remove any irrelevant clauses and add my own.

Anyone recommend any good clauses that should be added?

Only add your own clauses if you really need them. I added one stating that the fireplaces were not to be used for open fires (or gas, solid fuels etc), but most properties probably won't need any extra clauses...

I added one saying that no giant chavvie trampoline should be installed in the garden... or swing, slide, roundabout or bouncy castle.

Don't forget branding! Branding is important... spend some time creating a pleasing and memorable logo for your documentation. Possibly some clip-art of a welcoming-looking house...