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. Any person who as not applied for a valid landlord registration and is letting out a property, this let is classed as illegal. Edinburgh council will ask you to register immediately, if they find out. If they have to request a second time then a penalty of £130 is applied on top of the normal registration fee.
The maximum penalty fee that the council can slap you with, for not being registered, is £50,000. A ban on being a registered landlord can also be applied, which will cover all councils and can last for 5 years. Edinburgh Council do enforce this.
The fees for landlord registration are as follows;
• Single council application fee – £65.00.
• Application which are for different councils – £32.00
• Property fee – £15.00
• Late/unregistered fee – £130.00
There are some discounts available;
• If you already hold an HMO (house in multiple occupants) licence, you will only pay he property fee.
• If you register in more than one council area, each subsequent landlord registration application will have a 50% discount.
As of the 1st June 2013, any properties being advertised have to have a landlord’s registration number against all adverts, including ones advertised by agencies.
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.
The law allows HMRC to investigate retrospectively for 20 years to find undeclared rental income. In some cases a criminal investigation maybe instigated. HMRC has the power to charge penalties up to 100% of unpaid liabilities and in some cases up to 200% of any off shore discovered unpaid liabilities. So again, 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, although there are some exemptions, for example if the building is a listed building. There are future implications for properties. All rental properties must have an EPC rating of E by 31st March 2022. This will change to all rental properties to have a rating of D at a change of tenancy from 1st April 2022. With the ultimate aim, of all rental properties achieving and EPC rating of D by 31st March 2025. EPC certification lasts 10 years. We can organise this for you.
Step 5
You need the electrics checked and certified. This is called an EICR – Electrical Installation Condition Report. The EICR will last 5 years. Failure to have a valid EICR in place for any property, may lead to the first-tier tribunal where a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order (RSEO) can be issued, ordering the landlord to have an EICR carried out. Failure to comply is a criminal offence. If you supply any portable electrical appliances then you need to have them PAT tested. This is a yearly test required by legislation. Our Edinburgh electricians carry out both EICR and PAT testing.
Step 6
Get a LRA Legionella Risk Assessment carried out by a qualified assessor. Health and safety legislation requires that Landlords carry out risk assessments for the Legionella Bacteria which cause Legionnaires Disease and to maintain control measures to reduce risk. It is deemed good practice to carry out this test, to minimise the possibility of infection to residents. We have our own in house assessors who can do this for you. Thankfully Edinburgh doesn’t have a lot of Legionnaires cases.
Step 7
Instruct a GasSafe registered gas engineer to carry out a gas safety check and produce a landlords certificate known as a CP12. This is an important safety certification that ensures continued safety of your tenants. And this will be an annual check carried out between 10-12 months from the previous one. David Love Property is a GasSafe registered company and we can do this for you. We will send automatic reminders each year, so this will not be missed. 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. We can stage the property to whatever design you require. Our in house Edinburgh based photographer will do his 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.