There is a common perception that landlords have an easy life. They just sit back and wait for the money to come rolling in!
Well this may be the case for some landlords, but it by no means the case for all. And if you want to manage your property yourself, there are all sorts of pitfalls that you can fall into.
There are regulations covering tenancy deposits, unfair terms in tenancy agreements, gas and electrical appliances, tenancy deposits, houses in multiple occupation, to name but a few.
Then there are all sorts of problems that people experience evicting their tenants. Not to mention the business of getting your paperwork right.
The fact is that there is just a whole lot of law involved in being a landlord and if you are going to take your landlording seriously it is a good idea to know a bit about it.
If you are a property investor, for example, it is a really good idea to know the signs of an older protected tenancy or you may find that you are stuck with a property with a sitting tenant you cannot evict.
Then what about your repairing obligations? Do you know what things are down to you and what is down to your tenant?
Handing everything over to an agent to manage is not always the best answer either. Many agents are excellent, but unfortunately the government has failed to respond to calls from the industry to introduce regulation. Which means that anyone can set up as a letting agent, with no experience whatsoever. Under agency law, if they are your agent you are legally liable for everything (or almost everything) they do on your behalf.
So whats the answer?
The answer is to know as much as possible yourself. But how can you find out? You do not have time to go on courses, and landlord and tenant law books are so dreary.
To help with this I am developing a course, called Easy Law for Landlords. Law has a rather dull and dreary reputation but I am going to make this into a fun course. It will have cool interactive diagrams, articles in plain English, videos, mp3 downloads and quizzes. And tutorial classes online. The whole course will be wholly digital and online so you will not have to worry about travelling.
To find out more visit schoolforlandlords.co.uk
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Tessa Shepperson