Preparing your property for renting

Preparing your property for rent to the market. It can be daunting getting your property ready to rent. We can help you through the process.

Step 1

First and foremost you need to register as a landlord with the council. This can be done online @

www.landlordregistrationscotland.gov.uk

It is a criminal offence for you to rent out a property unless you are a registered landlord even if you are using a letting agency.

Step 2

Next, you need to make sure your rental property is declared on your personal tax return self-assessment. The penalties are severe if you do not declare rental income. Don’t chance it.

Step 3

Contact your mortgage provider if you have one and request consent to let the property (there is usually a small charge for this). Arrange insurance cover for your property as your standard insurance policy will not cover your property if it is rented out.

Step 4

Obtain an Energy Performance Certificate. This is a legal requirement. You can be fined if you don’t have one. The minimum energy rating that you are allowed to rent out is an E rating. We can organise this for you.

Step 5

You need the electrics checked and certified. This is called an EICR – Electrical Installation Condition Report. If you supply any portable electrical appliances then you need to have them PAT tested. This is a yearly test required by legislation. Our electricians carry out EICR and PAT testing.

Step 6

Get a Legionella Risk Assessment (LRA) carried out by a qualified assessor. We have our own in-house assessors who can do this for you.

Step 7

Instruct a GasSafe registered gas engineer to carry out a gas safety check and produce a landlord’s certificate. David Love Property is a GasSafe registered company and we can do this for you. You will need a CO detector for every room with a gas appliance.

Step 8

Make sure the property complies with the fire regulations. Smoke alarms in every living room and hall space. Heat detector in the kitchen. All alarms to be interlinked. If you are supply furnishings they have to be fire-resistant. They will have a label on them if they are fire-resistant. If the label has been removed then the furniture would not be suitable for rented properties. We can take care of all aspects of this for you.

Step 9

Tidy up the property. Make it clutter-free. Our in-house photographer will do their magic and get some stunning images ready for advertising.

Step 10

Sit back and relax whilst we get the property marketed and send you a list of potential tenants.