Are You An Ethical Landlord?

4.3. True. All rental properties need an EPC before they are advertised. There is a £200 fixed fine for not having one, but once a certificate has been obtained it is valid for 10 years.

It is illegal to enter your property without the tenant’s permission for any reason. The law states that you should give the tenant reasonable notice. This is deemed to be at least 24hrs. Also you need to be careful on the frequency of visits as this could be seen as harassment.

You are responsible for repairing or replacing the washing machine if it was present at the beginning of the tenancy.

This is a legal necessity, but one that is ignored by some landlords. Quite apart from the issue of protecting your tenants deposit, failing to do so straight away could result in a fine. Also if you do not use a deposit protection scheme the tenants deposit needs to be returned to them before a section 21 (a landlord’s automatic right of possession without having to give any grounds once the fixed term tenancy has expired) can be issued.

The tenant who moves out cannot have his deposit until the tenancy has either:
• been renewed and their name removed
• the existing tenant has paid the additional deposit
• the existing tenant has moved out.

You can serve a section 8 notice on grounds 8 to a tenant who has breached the terms laid out in the tenancy agreement, which in this case is failure to pay two months’ rent consecutively. The notice states that the landlord intends to seek possession of the property and states the ground or grounds on which possession is sought. After serving notice, you must then obtain an order for possession from a court in order to start official proceedings . If the tenant refuses to leave the property within this notice period then you are entitled to apply to the courts for possession. If the tenant has formally
‘surrendered’ the property and you have accepted the surrender then the landlord does not need to apply to the courts for possession. However, your acceptance of this will impact whether you can claim unpaid rent from the tenant between possession and re-letting.

When the initial fixed-term ends, the tenancy agreement automatically becomes a statutory periodic one. This means the tenancy agreement becomes a rolling contract and the tenant will still need to give one month’s notice and you will still be legally bound to give two months.

1. False. There is no set timeframe in which you are obliged to fix a boiler. Yet given that tenants might be living without heat (especially in the winter) or hot water (all year round), this is a serious issue that should be addressed as soon as possible by an approved ‘Gas Safe’ engineer. The tenants may withhold rent until the problem is resolved or feel they should not pay the full monthly rent due to the inconvenience. However, the tenants are not entitled to do so unless agreed by you.

There is no legal requirement to have any electrical testing done, however you are liable for anything that goes wrong if you cannot demonstrate you have taken due care. The recommendation is to get an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) done every five years.