UK Rental Investment Guide
The demand for quality property is growing fast as "generation rent", the demographic of younger, working professionals, are choosing to rent to remain flexible and mobile in the current employment market. Compared to Europe, the UK has far less rented property available as a percentage of the housing stock.
The UK is a mature property market and over time the government has introduced legislation to protect the consumer, which in this case is both the landlord and the tenant. The landlord can rent and manage their own properties and as such have legal liabilities to the tenant, or they can use an agent.
Your agent should manage the tenancy and the tenant, deal with any maintenance issues, and keep you updated. All safety inspections they will schedule and manage for you. They should carry out regular inspections and collect the rent and process it each month, and pay the amount, less their fees to your bank account.
Before you can rent/lease your property, you must by law ensure that it is safe and that certain checks are carried out. These checks and safety requirements are:
1) Gas Safety Certificate
2) Electrical Certificates
3) PAT
4) Smoke Alarms and
5) Carbon Monoxide Detectors