How to Rent
The process of renting a home is explained in our House Hunting Guides for:
The government has also produced this useful guide:
How to rent: the checklist for renting in England
It recommends you look for landlords who belong to an accreditation scheme, such as:
Who do I rent from?
The landlord is the person or organisation who owns the property. The landlord may deal with the day-to-day running of the property themselves. For example, you may rent a property directly from the landlord, and then deal only with the landlord at every stage from arranging to view the property to signing the contract and arranging repairs and maintenance once you’ve moved in.
Alternatively, the landlord may employ an agent to take care of all, or part, of the process.
Some properties may be entirely managed by the agent so you would have little or no contact with the landlord. Landlords may engage an agent only to market the property, so once the contract has been signed, the agent will have no further involvement. This arrangement is called ‘Let-only’.
When choosing a property it’s important to find out who is responsible for managing the property, and who you will be dealing with once you have moved in.
Some landlords / agents are ‘fully accredited’. All of their properties are in the Code (but be aware, this does not include 'let-only' properties).
Some agents are ‘Code Supporters’. They are working towards accreditation, but not all of their properties are Code standard yet.
Check if your landlord is a Code member HERE
Viewing properties
- Work out your budget and know how much you can spend on rent and bills
- Choose who you want to live with and how many rooms you need
- Decide together what is essential and where you can compromise
- Find out what’s available by looking online and make a shortlist of properties you all want to view
- Get a feel for the market and compare standards by viewing a few properties with different landlords
- Be sure everyone is happy with the decision before making a commitment
- Use our Viewings Checklist on page 21 of the guide:
Know the Code
Once you have chosen a property, you can ask for a copy of the contract and 24 hours to get this checked out, during which time the property will not be re-marketed.
No money should be due before you enter into the agreement.
These and other marketing standards are covered in Clause 2.0 of the the Code:
Earlier this year, the Tenant Fees Act was introduced. This sets out the government's approach to banning letting fees paid by teannts.
Questions to ask
- Is the property accredited under the Unipol Code?
- Who is the landlord?
- Who will be managing the property? This should be a Code landlord or agent to give you peace of mind that any problems will be sorted out quickly
- How and to whom do I report issues?
- What type of contract will I be signing?
- What happens if I want to leave the contract?
You can start looking for a Unipol Property from the 23rd November 2020