What you need to know before renting a holiday accommodation
Our Summer campaign on short-term rentals is still on as we are e-working on Covid-19-Proof Private Holiday Rentals this week. We will be e-working with renters on what they need to be aware of before agreeing to a private holiday rental, especially at this time of the continuing coronavirus pandemic adversities. During this adverse time, renting a private holiday accommodation is not the same like in the pre-coronavirus period.
The purpose of this week’s work
This week’s work is about basic and advanced learning and knowledge on what it is required to rent a property in the ever changing rental landscape, which is still constrained by health and safety issues relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is about continuing to inform holiday renters about any new life-saving information and practice they need to know in terms of health and safety in the private rental market when renting a holiday accommodation at this time of continuing Covid-19 adversities and of softening of lockdown measures.
It is also about providing the money-saving tools to protect and safeguard their rental interest while reducing the risk of loss of income due to the lack of information and misinformation as things keep changing during this process of easing restrictions.
It will further help them make informed decisions and choices when looking or renting holiday accommodation whether they do it via Home Relief or private landlords/ladies or online/print searches.
This week’s work will indeed be about providing general information on holiday rental as well as specific details about renting a private holiday accommodation during this Summer 2021 of continuing Covid-19 dominance.
What the e-work with renters will cover
Our work with them will cover the following areas:
√ Types of holiday accommodation
√ Areas of holiday accommodation
√ Sizes of holiday accommodation
√ Right to Rent checks (via video and in-person)
√ Renting as a group or an individual or even a family
√ Costs of holiday accommodation (including rent inclusive or exclusive of bills)
√ Methods of payment including payments in advance, reservations and bookings
√ Holiday accommodation as a package or part of travel package
√ Essential safety to check for their protection (e.g. safety of the buildings and contents as well as buildings, contents and public liability insurances for holiday accommodation)
√ Key aspects of protection against the coronavirus pandemic in terms of property disinfection, household hygiene and other elements of cleaning in the context of a holiday rental (e.g. whether or not their future holiday accommodation is Covid-19-Proof before they visit it and move in)
√ How and where to find affordable holiday accommodation
√ Online holiday rental versus physical holiday rental
√ Covid-19-proof holiday rental process (from finding a place to rental completion to getting the keys)
The above matters to be covered will be indicative only as renters may have their specific demands and needs, in which case we shall try to customise the session on their request.
Extra help and support
This week’s activity will additionally provide some resources (both print and online) on private holiday rentals, as well as some leads to private holiday accommodation advisory services or providers.
Rental applications
Those who are looking for holiday accommodation for themselves or a third party can register their needs of private holiday rentals.
To register your need of private holiday accommodation or for somebody else, just phone or email or complete our online contact form on this site.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
What you need to know before you start your holiday lettings
This week, our Summer campaign on short-term lets will focus on Holiday Lettings as the COVID-19 restrictions are changing. We will be dealing with what landlords/ladies need to know before embarking on holiday lettings given the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has not been totally eradicated and restrictions are changing.
The purpose of this week’s e-work
The purpose of this week’s activity is to e-work with landlords/ladies who are planning to let their properties as a holiday let so that they can do it knowing the pros and cons while minimising any risks and safeguarding their property interest and investment with peace of mind at this challenging time of the changing COVID-19 restrictions and threats of new COVID-19 variants.
This week’s work will help them to find out that there is always a Covid-19 secure way of letting their properties as a holiday let during this pandemic period; way that is safe, healthy and hassle-free. To do that they need to be fully aware about the elements guaranteeing any secure holiday lets.
Areas of awareness about Covid-19 secure holiday lettings
Areas of interest and awareness for this week’s campaign about post-lockdown Holiday Lets will cover the following:
• Permission to proceed to a holiday letting including legal restriction and prevention from holiday lets for landlords/ladies
• Holiday letting as a one-off (or occasional) income generation or a business venture
• Lender’s consent on a residential mortgaged property for holiday letting
• Safety regulations related to buildings and contents for letting purposes
• Health and safety measures related to Covid-19
• Tax matters for holiday lettings
• Buildings, contents and public liability insurances for holiday letting
• How and where to find holiday renters
• Holiday letting process (from finding holiday renters to letting completion)
The above matters to be covered will be indicative only as landlords/ladies will be directed or signposted to relevant people or organisations dealing some of them.
Extra Help and Support
This week’s activity will provide an occasion for landlords/ladies to have some resources (both print and online) on holiday lettings, as well as some leads to legal expertise on the matter.
Additionally, there will be specific advice on areas of protection against the coronavirus pandemic from the industry trade body since the holiday letting market is still experiencing the negative effects of this pandemic.
Sharing practice and policy
For those landlords/ladies who are already following health and safety restrictions relating to the coronavirus, they can still have the opportunity to enhance or share their practice on matters such as home disinfection against the traces of coronavirus, social distancing during viewings, face coverings for life-saving and necessary maintenance work, way of relaxing COVID-19 restrictions that do not harm others, etc.
Registering your holiday properties
Landlords/ladies can take the opportunity of this week’s activity to add their spare holiday or short-term properties (that is rooms, studios, flats and houses) to rent to Home Relief’s list of properties available.
To add your spare holiday properties to Home Relief’s list, just phone or email or complete our online contact form on this site.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
How to let or rent a property safely and healthily during the progressive lift of COVID-19 lockdown
This week, we are focusing on short-term lets and rentals as part of our Summer campaigns for both landlords/ladies and home seekers. The focus will be on any letting or licensing agreement that lasts less than six months or a few weeks or even one night only. It will also be about adding extra security to this agreement by making it Covid-19 secure or compliant between the two sides of the agreement.
• Taking instructions from short-term landlords/ladies
Landlords/ladies do not need to keep their rental properties vacant over this Summer. Already some of them have their property letting plans seriously and badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown. Home Relief can work for them and make sure that their property brings some extra income in safe and healthy ways over this Summer.
If you are a landlord/lady and would like to let your property on a short term basis over this Summer, Home Relief is ready to take your instructions. If you have some concerns about letting your property on a short term basis under the Covid-19 restrictions, Home Relief can work with you to put in place all the necessary health and safety elements to keep your letting and property Covid-19 secure and compliant.
During this period of the progressive lift of the lockdown and over Summer, we can safely and healthily market your vacant property and work for you so that you can benefit from an extra source of income or offset the loss of income you might have incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Our short-term lets cover temporary lodgers and holiday lets. This is whether the letting is landlord/lady resident or non-resident. Mostly important, we will make sure your short-term let is safe and healthy for yourselves and the incoming renters.
You can add your spare short-term properties (that is rooms, studios, flats and houses) to our list of properties to rent.
To add your spare property to our list, just phone or email or complete our online contact form on this site.
• Finding a property for short-term renters
Home seekers, do you know that Home Relief is a freelance property agency from where you can get your Summer short-term rental or holiday accommodation during this easing process of the lockdown?
In our short-term rentals, we include temporary lodgers, holiday makers, travellers and other short-term prospective renters looking for affordable and Covid-19 secure properties.
If you are a home seeker and looking for a short-term and Covid-19 secure rental, Home Relief can find a property for you. Likewise, if you are a holiday maker and looking for Summer holiday accommodation for a few weeks to 2 or 3 months, Home Relief can search for you the one that is affordable and Covid-19 secure.
Most of short-term rentals we can find for you would be fully furnished, Covid-19 secure and inclusive of bills related to utilities (gas, electricity and water), television, internet, etc.
You can register your short-term rental needs and plans with Home Relief.
To register your rental need, just phone or email or complete our online contact form on this site.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
How to successfully close your rental accounts as an outgoing tenant
This week, as part of Summer Help to Rent, we are working with home seekers and outgoing tenants on the best possible way of closing their end-of-tenancy or rental accounts. This Help to Rent will also include those tenants who have decided to move out or terminate their agreement for other legally acceptable reasons.
Often, when a tenant signs up for a long-term rental agreement (such as a 6 months to 18 months assured short hold tenancy), generally speaking they will be responsible for the payment of the bills (e.g. gas, electricity, water rates, council tax, TV licence, phone etc.) as well as the organisation of the way those bills are paid. If these bills are inclusive of rent, then they are paid when the rent is honoured.
Depending on who is their landlord/lady or letting agent, tenants may or may not get help to close their rental accounts at the end of the tenancy or if both sides of the rental process (landlords/ladies and tenants) decide to end their agreement early. There are resources on how a tenant can terminate their tenancy. These resources mostly cover the legal side of the contract in matters such as notice to vacate than putting emphasis on accounting aspects of accounts closure.
The financial side of closing a rental agreement from the tenants’ perspective
In this week’s Help to Rent, we are going to deal with the financial side of terminating or closing a contract from the tenants’ perspective. If you have already been a tenant and you have experience on closing your rental accounts; that is fine.
However, if you do not have experience in doing it, this could be a new area of learning. Some tenants can easily handle their rental accounts from the opening to the closure, while others may find it difficult, especially in the rental environment where there is constant change. That is why we are organising this activity to support them, particularly during this difficult time of Covid-19 side effects and controversial easing process of lockdown.
For those who have not been in the process of closing their rental accounts before and those who are finding it hard to close their rental accounts, we are working this week to support them in this area of rental accounting responsibility.
Help to successfully close your rental accounts
Working together with renters to close the rental accounts they first set up at the start of their contract will include the following activities:
√ Listing all the rental accounts that made their tenancy period
√ Identification of rental payments related to utility and telecoms suppliers, community charge (council tax), TV licence etc.
√ Establishing all your real incomes to cover your rental commitment for the tenancy period
√ Tracking of rental expenses including rent payments and Covid-19 expenses
√ Close all the balances on these accounts
√ Checking if there are in credits (someone else owes you) or in debits (you owe someone else)
√ Verifying if there are any missing outstanding amounts or debts from you part
√ Dealing with rental accounts online and offline
√ Finding out any accounting and financial mistakes done in handling your accounts
√ Reviewing rental budget including money puts aside for potential damages and repairs
√ Looking at any evidence in the form of receipts, bills, invoices, financial statements, videos, text messages, films, inside and outside property pictures, rental guides and tools that helped tenants to effectively and efficiently manage their rental accounts
Benefits for a good rental accounts closure
There are benefits for properly closing your rental accounts; benefits which include:
√ Reduction and avoidance of potential conflicts with your landlord/lady or their agents
√ Saving money with companies supplying services to your next rental
√ Protection for your deposit
√ Safeguarding your reference and credentials
√ Keeping secure your credit scores and check file and profile
√ Avoiding frictional and confrontational moving out
√Above enjoying a hassle-free tenancy closure and peace of mind
Need help to close your rental accounts, please e-work Home Relief this week.
Need to check about rental accounts already set up, please also e-work Home Relief this week.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
How to make Home Seekers’ Summer Property Rental Plans Work
Our Summer rental campaign has just kicked off. This week’s Summer campaign aims at relieving housing needs by working with home seekers and renters to help them achieve their summer renting plans and goals.
Looking for a good quality affordable accommodation (GQAA) over and after summer holidays
Home Relief can help you to find a GQAA within your budget means and earning capacity or potentials during this time. Our rental service will work with you to match your budget constraints and earning potentials with properties available and to be available on the market. Being on low income does not stop you to gain a GQAA from Home Relief if your other non-monetary references are good enough or outstanding to quality for a property.
Looking to choose your next home from the widest selection of properties as possible as you can
Home Relief can search for you all ranges of properties from single rooms to full houses. Whether you are looking for a room or a bedsit or a self-contained studio or a flat or a house; Home Relief can offer you a choice to meet your summer accommodation needs and goals. The more properties we search and you view, the best chance you have to find and choose your target property.
Looking for accommodation service where all suitable home seekers are considered and accepted
If you are wondering whether your application for accommodation would be considered or not because of your circumstances, Home Relief considers and accepts all suitable applicants. Whether you are claiming universal credit or housing benefit or partly working and partly claiming benefit or on low wages; Home Relief would consider your rental application.
Looking for a moving-in and settling-in process that is painless as possible as one can
Home Relief’s approach to renting properties is to provide home seekers and renters with hassle-free service and secure accommodation to all of them. We provide information and guidance on moving services and advice on settlement in a new home. Our advice includes healthcare issues relating to the protection against the coronavirus pandemic. We can signpost you as well to moving home and settlement services.
What’s more!
Where the landlord/lady does not require home seekers paying rental deposits upfront or has agreed to a zero deposit option, Home Relief will still secure a GQAA for you.
Whether it is about dealing with the suitability of your application or providing you with a good quality affordable accommodation or giving you a choice to make or helping you to smoothly move and settle; Home Relief can work with you to meet your rental summer plans and goals.
Planning to move out and rent a property over this Summer, Home Relief can work with you to find a suitable property for you.
To register your needs and fill a vacancy, work with Home Relief.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
During this coronavirus period, there has been an increase in rental arrears or accumulated delay in rental payments. Rental arrears are a painful situation for both landlords/ladies and tenants. They are painful for landlords/ladies because tenants falling behind with their rent payments to private landlords/ladies or their letting agents can jeopardise landlords’/ladies’ plans. They are also distressful situation for tenants as they could be taken as evidence that tenants are failing to keep their rental commitment.
Some landlords/ladies who have experience in the private residential home rental matter know how to manage the rental arrears situation. Likewise, some tenants are skilful enough to deal with the situation. However, there is still a substantial bunch of landlords/ladies and tenants who may not exactly know how to handle the situation; despite the wealth of resources (both in print and online) which are available and can be freely and easily accessed. We will be working with these unaware and undecided landlords/ladies and tenants on this matter of COVID-19 rental arrears.
What Home Relief’s work with them will be about
Together with them we will cover various areas of COVID-19 rental arrears.
Our work with landlords/ladies will be on the following:
Δ General principles of good rent management
Δ Rental planning or conducting activities to deal with COVID-19 rental arrears
Δ Rental control which will involves monitoring of the evolution or progress of rent payments and arrears while comparing them against standards
Δ Rental coordination which will be about putting together all the tasks needed in order to deal with tenants’ rent arrears
Δ Rental payment motivation which will consist of engaging and encouraging tenants to effectively work to resolve the matter and pay rent
Δ Measures to help tenants with rent arrears
Δ Handling of notices about rent arrears
Δ Communication which will be intending to keep talking with the tenants and get them engaged in order to resolve the matter
Etc.
Our work with tenants will cover these areas:
Δ Checking evidence relating to rent payments (such as rent records, statements, bank statements, receipts, rent book or card, etc.)
Δ Making agreement on arrears repayments
Δ Rent budgeting tools
Δ Carrying out activities to resolve rent arrears
Δ Working with tenants to regain control of rent payments
Δ Tackling factors that cause and exacerbate rent arrears
Δ Finding out the statutory provision regarding COVID-19 rental arrears in the private rental sector
Δ Motivating tenants to improve their sources of income or earning capacities
Δ Communicating with tenants to resolve the matter
Etc.
From what we have planned as work with both sides of the rental agreement, communication between them will supersede any activities to manage COVID-19 rental arrears. This is because without communication, there will not be solutions to the problem of COVID-19 rental arrears.
What is expected from this week’s work
Without anticipating any immediate changes, one can hope that landlords/ladies will become
√ better planners of the activities surrounding rent arrears
√ better monitors of rent progress and performance
√ better coordinators of various tasks determining rent payments
√ better ‘influencers’ and motivators of their tenants in resolving rent arrears
√ better communicators from the point of view of rental arrears
√ better protectors of their investment and rental interest
etc.
One can also expect tenants who will participate to this work will become
√ Problem-solvers rather than problem-makers of rent arrears
√ More responsible for rent payments than before
√ Respectful of the terms and conditions of their tenancy agreement and people who honour rent payments
√ Self-confident in improving their earning potentials
√ Better executors of their rental agreement
√ Better managers of rent payments
Extra help and support
There will be both online and print resources to complement what will be discussed through this week’s work. For those who want, some guidance and signposting will be given regarding professionals involving in handling COVID-19 rental arrears. Landlords/ladies and tenants can present or discuss their personal cases about rent arrears. However, this week’s work is not designed to replace legal expertise on the matter.
Need to resolve COVID-19 rental arrears, why not work with Home Relief.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
This week, we will be working with both landlords/ladies and tenants on ways of avoiding disputes over rent deposit. We shall try to deal with the following questions:
Why is the return of rent deposit by landlords/ladies to tenants still a matter of disagreement whereas there is a number of tenancy deposit protection schemes? What can both landlords and tenants do to avoid these disputes to happen in the future?
What our work will cover
Our work with them will cover the following areas:
Δ Meaning of rent deposit and its implications
Δ Tenancy deposit protect schemes (both custodial and insurance-backed)
Δ How tenants can check the protection of their tenancy deposit
ΔAreas of disagreement over the return of deposit to tenants
ΔHow to resolve these disputes amicably without resorting to a court of justice
Etc.
What one can hope through this week’s work
At the end of this week’s process, one can hope that landlords/ladies will re-evaluate the responsibility that lies on them when asking for and keeping a deposit.
One will also hope that tenants will seriously take their responsibility when they are holding possession of someone else property in exchange of rental commitment and deposit
No one will be expecting the change of landlords’ and tenants’ attitude and behaviour towards rent deposit over night. However, it is possible that after this week’s work both parties can do better in the process of scaling down their disputes over the matter.
Extra help and support
There will be both online and print resources to complement what will be discussed through this week’s work. For those who want, some guidance and signposting will be given regarding professionals involving in handling disputes over rent deposit. Landlords/ladies and tenants can present or discuss their personal cases about rent deposit. However, this week’s work is not designed to replace legal expertise on the matter.
Need to avoid unnecessary disputes over rent deposit, why not work with Home Relief.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
This week, we are going to work with renters/tenants on identity matter so that they can know or be able to check who is their real landlord/lady or the person they are contracting with.
Often, renters and prospective tenants have to prove who they are before taking possession of a property. They need to provide some forms of identification (such as passport, biometric identity card, etc.) to their prospective landlords/ladies or their agents. The Section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014 even gives landlords/ladies authority to check incoming tenants’ identity.
Yet, tenants or renters do not have the same advantage to check landlords’/ladies identity. Although the tenant has right to information about a landlord’s/lady’s identity, they cannot check landlords’/ladies’ identity documents. The tenant can make a written request for the landlord’s/lady’s name and address from the landlord’s/lady’s agent or a person who demands, or last received, the rent. But, still the tenant will not have identity documents to verify the statement that a landlord/lady can make about their identity.
Likewise, if there is a change of landlord/lady, the new landlord/lady must provide the tenant with their name and address in writing. Again, the tenant has not got the means to check this statement against items of identity (such as a passport, biometric card, biometric residence permit, etc.) confirming landlords’/ladies’ identity.
It is important for renters/tenants to know who is their real landlord/lady or their representative. Knowing the real identity of your landlord/lady or their representative has its basis and merit since there are many activities going on when renting a property; activities such as paying rent, asking for repairs, dealing with tradesmen, etc. The following can perhaps summarise the importance of identifying your landlord/lady or their agents:
. In the course of a tenancy and or at the end of it, tenants can sometimes discover that they have been dealing with the wrong person or they have been paying rent to the wrong person
. When the time comes to collect the deposit, tenants should know who to ask for their deposit or which scheme holds their deposit
. Where there is a chain of landlords/ladies like in a leasehold situation, it makes sense to know who is your real landlord/lady to avoid any disputes regarding the management and maintenance of the property
. Identifying landlords/ladies will help protect renters’ interests, save their money and give them peace of mind and security
Etc.
The above reasons can explain why renters/tenants need to identity their landlord’lady or their representative. There could be more reasons which our work with renters/tenants will try to unveil.
Need to know how to check your landlord’s/lady’s ID, why not work with Home Relief.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
How to reconnect with your pre-COVID-19 rental income increase
This week, we will be working with landlords/ladies who would like to find way of re-establishing the pre-COVID-19 rental income growth which they lost.
Indeed, there is a mixed picture/perception from many landlords/ladies regarding the impacts of COVID-19 and its associated containment measures on the rental income growth. For some landlords/ladies, COVID-19 is neutral to the rental income growth when analysing rental income flows on a monthly basis since the coronavirus pandemic started in 2019. For others, COVID-19 has adversely impacted this growth. For other more, it has beneficial effects on this growth.
For those who have some data-based evidence about the adverse effects to their properties, they may want to reconnect or re-align with their pre-COVID-19 rental income growth rate. For those ones, we will be working with them so that they can navigate their way to bring in line the increase in their rental stream which they lost. They may want to recover the level or growth rate of rental income they were receiving before the coronavirus pandemic started, or they would like to just stop the rental income decrease to happen.
To return to their rental income stream, they may need to take some bold steps since the coronavirus crisis has changed the way in which the rental property market operates and behaves. This is why we will be working on a case-by-case basis to discuss together the kinds of steps they need to take to re-align with their pre-COVID-19 rental income growth. In other words, there will not be a one-size-fits-all approach.
Need to re-align with your pre-COVID-19 rental income growth, why not work with Home Relief.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
How to improve your property’s appeal to prospective tenants
This week, we will be working with landlords/ladies on aspects of private residential property dressing and preparation for lettings in the marketplace. We will be doing it while taking into the coronavirus as a new dimension.
COVID-19 as a new factor in home staging
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way in which we live and prepare homes for lettings purpose. From now on, property fittings and furniture need to be done in a way that takes into account protection against COVID-19. As a result, there could be some adjustments that landlords/ladies may need to do with regard to the dressing and preparation of their properties for lettings and management purposes.
Some landlords/ladies may find easier to include these changes in their home staging. Others may be wondering where to start. For those landlords/ladies who will be willing to learn something about home staging, we will be working with them on this matter.
Working with landlords/ladies on home staging matter
Our work with landlords/ladies on home staging will include the general aspects or principles relating to home staging. In our work with them, we shall consider the following:
√ home staging ideas, tips and hints
√ home staging theories, techniques and practices
√ how to make your home/property appeal to the highest number of prospective tenants
√ what makes a home attractive from the lettings and management point of view
√ painting and decorating aspects in the context of home staging
Etc.
Additionally, our work will consider specific areas of property preparation that have been the direct or indirect consequences of the conoravirus outbreak and containment measures. It is about dressing and preparing a property to fit the level of ambition for landlords’/ladies’ rent expectations under the constraint of the coronavirus pandemic. For instance, we shall look at what makes a property attractive in the context of protection against the coronavirus.
We shall as well share the array of sources in both print and online formats relating to the home staging matter.
By taking into account both the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 related principles in the dressing and preparation of properties, this will not only attract renters and or potential tenants; but it will also help landlords/ladies to have peace of mind and protect the return on their investment.
Need to know more about the dressing and preparation of your property prior to lettings and management in the Age of COVID-19, please work with Home Relief.
If you are looking for an affordable location and home, Home Relief is the people dealing with affordable homes you could consider in your property searches and enquiries.
