Being a landlord is a very challenging thing to do. You have several major responsibilities to all your renters. One of the key duties is ensuring the safety and maintaining a livable condition of the house. This is very important to prevent from having critical injury or damage to the tenants, neighbors or to the public. Fulfilling the duties of a landlord while the tenancy is going on can be a tough job. Hence, most people prefer to seek the services of a property management company to do the duties in their behalf.
Keep in mind that such rental property must maintain a well and organized living condition because this is essential to the long term performance of the business. This will walk you to the road of success. Moreover, there are quite a number of legal responsibilities that a landlord should always bear in mind. Most of these are given even before the renters live in the house.
According to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, you have 3 main areas of responsibilities when the property is set under an assured short hold tenancy:
Under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1985, landlords are required to keep the structure and exterior of the property in a good state of repair. You are entitled to incorporate potential cost of repairs into the rent you charge, but you may not charge the tenants separately for repair to any of the things mentioned above. You have final responsibility for ensuring that the following areas are safe and fit for use, as well as effecting repairs when necessary to restore them to a fair condition:
• The structure and exterior of the property.
• Any hot water installations, as well as the supply of water itself.
• Basins, sinks, baths and other sanitary or drainage installations.
• Ensuring an adequate provision of lighting, heating and ventilation.
• Treating of any health-threatening damp that occurs (not to be confused with condensation, a more common but less serious problem caused mostly by poor ventilation).
For flats and maisonettes you need to repair any other areas or installations, which you possess or have control over it that can cause interruptions to the renters. Bear in mind that anything you have agreed with the renter on the lease contract will all be included in your responsibility as a landlord.
There are also a number of landlord’s responsibilities set by the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994. These consist of:
• Ensuring that all gas appliances are maintained in good order.
• Paying for an annual safety check to be carried out by a tradesman who is registered with CORGI (Council for Registered Gas Installers).
• It is recommended to make a record of all the safety checks and furnish a copy of the safety certificate to the tenant within 28 days of each yearly check up.
Safety of all the tenants is basically one of the chief responsibilities of a landlord. One way of doing this is by securing that the electrical system and any electrical appliances that you provide like cookers, kettles, toasters, washing machines and immersion heater are safe to use and still in good condition. But you are not held liable for any appliances that are entitled to the tenant.
Officially you must verify that all furniture and fittings that you provide are qualified under the standards made by the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988. These rules set levels of fire resistance for locally made furnishing. Brand new and second hand furniture must be eligible to the standards, unless it was made before 1950. A lot of furniture and fittings that are included in the scope of these rules will have a label.
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