Landlord Process

The achievable rental value of your property is determined by many factors including location and number of bedrooms, local services and amenities, the cosmetic appearance and overall condition of the property. Larkham & Pike will advise you on a realistic rental value taking into all these factors into consideration together with the current state of the local market.  

Looking after a rented property is easy when you have responsible tenants and live locally.  However, if anything does go wrong, from a boiler breaking down to a tenant losing their job it can get very stressful.  There is a mountain of legal obligations, with seemingly more forms to complete every day. Let us take the strain and manage your property for you.  We can ensure that you’re protected in every way and we’ll work hard to make sure you’re not out of pocket financially.  We’re proud of our knowledge of the industry and will always act in your best interests at all times.

Decide whether to let your property furnished or unfurnished.  Furnished properties will give a better visual impression to the prospective tenants on how the property will look and therefore it could rent quicker. If the quality of the furniture warrants it, you may be able to charge a premium rental price than if it was unfurnished.  However, the down side is that offering the property furnished will increase costs over time as wear and tear necessitate replacing the furniture.

We recommend that the landlord provides white goods as a minimum (washing machine, cooker and fridge freezer) if letting the property unfurnished.

Flexibility is key as this will broaden the appeal of the property to prospective tenants as individual requirements vary.  Anything surplus to requirements should be removed and placed into storage if need be.

Larkham & Pike vigorously market all our available stock across a wide variety of mediums.
We subscribe to Rightmove, On The Market and we display your properties on this website as well as with in our office window. We have many highly visible, strategically placed ‘To Let’ boards in the area. Your property will receive maximum exposure using a combination of these methods backed up by daily contact with pre-vetted potential tenants from our database. We aim to avoid void periods and to maximise the return on your investment.

Once we receive an offer, we will relay that information to you, together with detailed information on the potential tenants. We check their situation, employment status, who is intending to move in, and how long they are looking to rent for.  As the Landlord, you have the final say as to whether you wish to proceed and accept their offer. If not, viewings will continue until a suitable tenant is found.

At this point, we will ask for a holding deposit from the applicants and ask them to visit the office with their Right to Rent ID which will be checked and copied.  We will also commence the referencing process.  During this time, viewings are suspended until all checks have been completed to everybody’s satisfaction.  If the deal falls through at any point, we will re-commence viewings immediately.

All tenants will undergo thorough background checks.  We use an independent reputable referencing company to report on their suitability and credit-worthiness, including their payment history on any previous lending and any adverse credit e.g. CCJ’s or bankruptcies.  

Their identity is also verified as is their right to live and work in the UK – We cover the Right to Rent checks including whether they are subject to any immigration control. If they have rented properties in the past, we will ask their Landlords to provide us with a reference.  This information is provided by a variety of sources including credit reference agencies like Experian or Equifax and is compiled into a report which gives a final credit score, and whether they have passed or failed.   From that we can paint a very good picture on their suitability as a tenant for your property.

Once all referencing is completed and deemed satisfactory, we then ask the tenants to pay their first months rent and security deposit.  
Upon receipt of cleared funds, we will arrange for the tenancy agreement to be drawn up and signed by all parties. All deposits are protected in a Government approved deposit scheme.

If an inventory was taken this will be provided to the tenants along with all necessary documents currently required by law to conduct the check in process.  The meter readings will be recorded, the local authority notified for council tax purposes and the keys will then be handed to the Tenant.  If the property is managed, we will also retain a set of keys at our offices.  The Tenant will have to agree and sign the inventory, with any amendments highlighted within 14 days or the inventory will be locked down.