Landlord Account Information

Your account will record all details relevant to your property. Within this area you will be able to view:

• Your account number, full property address
• The rental rate, payment date and management charge relevant to the property
• Your utility suppliers name and all meter readings obtained when your tenant moved into the property
• All hard copy documents relevant to your property - example - gas safety certificate, tenancy agreement, management contract etc
• View your most recent transactions as soon as you log in
• View all of your transaction history by using the search facility to view transactions by date range or category type
• View any messages or alerts that are sent to you by Letultimate.com regarding your property or account
• View your management contract on line
• Print a full statement or report with a range of data that you select and use towards completing your tax return
• An option to contact us via your account
• Your account area can deal with multiple properties under one account log in
• You will be informed by email when your account has been updated
• Ultimate i-track also does many more functions to make the running of your property go that bit smoother.

When you are on a management contract you will benefit from great service standards and we can arrange all of your property maintenance or repairs for you. Letultimate.com run, a property maintenance division which can take care of any maintenance or emergency repairs that arise. Any work undertaken will be arranged on your behalf and you will find that this is very cost effective and will not cost as much as going through a third party source.

It is a landlord obligation to maintain their property with the likes of reported repairs or maintenance. If you are letting your property out then the property must be prepared for letting as classed as suitable for a tenant to move in. It is a landlord responsibility to ensure that the property is handed over in good, clean condition and is clear of any rubbish. The landlord should also ensure that the gardens and external areas are presented in good, clean order and clear of any rubbish.

Letultimate.com request that tenant’s, hand the property back to us in the condition that they let it in. Therefore, it is important that the landlord prepares the property to let in an acceptable and satisfactory condition so it can be returned the same. A landlord must also ensure that all mains services are connected and working at the property prior to any potential tenant moving in.

Letultimate.com highly recommend that landlords make provisions from the, rental received to allow for property maintenance to be completed on their rental property. There are many items can break down or fail on a property at any one time and on occasions more than one thing can go wrong which will need to be repaired. It is particularly important to complete the repair especially if the item reported poses a considerable risk to the property or the tenant residing in the property.

If you are a landlord letting a property that was their main home or main residence then it is important to remember that not all tenants will treat the property with the same degree of respect as what you would. Therefore, landlords have to allow for general ware and tare for when a property is handed back to Letultimate.com if your tenant wishes to vacate. Whilst Letultimate.com are confident that we will source you suitable tenants allowances still need to be made for general ware and tare during the course of a tenancy. A property never looks the same when it is returned vacant as it is with furnishings inside.

If the rental income you are going to receive covers the mortgage commitments on your property then this is good news. Usually the majority of properties let out would be on a conventional buy to let mortgage where the criteria would be that the rental must cover the mortgage payments. If you are letting a property which was once your main residence and if you are a repayment mortgage then it maybe worth considering approaching your lender and asking them to covert your mortgage to an interest only mortgage. This would significantly reduce your mortgage payments on the property and ensure that the rental income would more than cover your mortgage on the majority of occasions. This would then allow you to make provisions for property maintenance from your rental income should the need ever arise during the term of a tenancy.

If you let your property out then you are required to have landlord buildings insurance in place or landlord buildings and contents insurance in place. This is easy to arrange and Letultimate.com can offer you a no obligation insurance quotation on line. Simply visit the Insurance Section on this website for further information and to obtain a quotation on line.

We understand that looking after property sometimes can cause huge headaches, stress and worry, especially if you only have a limited number of properties or you are new to the lettings industry. Sometimes there is so much to arrange in preparing a property to let and often landlords do not have the time to do this due to other commitments. This is why we have developed the Ultimate service and we can assist you regarding your requirements. This is what a management contract is for, to ease the stress and burden that properties can often cause.

Arranging a property management contract

Arranging a property management contract is easy. If you have a property that you wish Letultimate.com to manage then the first step is to get in contact with us. Once you have made contact with us we can arrange everything. Here are some of the key points that we follow:

• The landlord makes contact with us regarding letting their property
• We arrange to complete a free rental assessment of the property
• Once the rental assessment has been completed we arrange to market the property
• An appointment is made with a specialist photographer to take them all important photographs of your property
• Once the photographs have been completed to a satisfactory standard and signed off we start to market your property
• Your property details are added onto our website along with rightmove, find a property, homes and property
• Your property is advertised in the local press if required. * Please be advised that we generally do not have properties on our books long enough to go into the press as we are now letting properties within an average of 10 days
• Your potential tenants can apply on line for a property which reduces the processing time in granting a tenancy
• Once an application is received it is handed over to a specialist lettings underwriter who then completes a full credit score
• If the credit score is satisfactory then the application goes through the next stage of processing and references are obtained from a variety of further sources
• Once the above has been completed then we request identification from the applicants. We have very strict criteria in the identification that we request
• Once the application has passed all stages then our specialist lettngs underwriter will instruct a home visit for the applicant current property. If the home visit is deemed as satisfactory and subject to all of the above stages being signed off then a tenancy will be agreed and a move in date confirmed with the landlord and applicant
• Letultimate.com will complete all of the required paperwork including the tenancy agreement and informing the utility providers etc
• We will collect the bond and first months rent in advance from the tenant. We will then register the bond on your behalf. Please be advised that our fee will be deducted from the first months rent and the remaining balance will be transferred to your nominated bank account. All future payments will be made by BACS
• When the tenant has moved into the property we will deal with all of their needs and take care of any maintenance or repair issues that may arise during the term of the tenancy 
• Prompt rental payments will be made to the landlord by BACS on the due date 

You can view your management contract that is in operation at any time via your Ultimate i-track account log in. Your management contract is available to view under the “Management Contract” navigation bar and can be viewed at your own leisure 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you require possession of your property then you must request that Letultimate.com serves the tenant with the appropriate section 21 notice. If you do not intend to renew their tenancy agreement after the initial 6 month term then you are required to provide the tenant with 2 calendar months notice.

Notices requiring possession have to be served to the tenant in the correct format and they must quote the correct dates for when the notice has been issued and furthermore quote the correct expiry date for the notice. If notice is served quoting incorrect dates that the notice will be classed as invalid in a court of law.

If a notice needs to be served then we must ensure that the notice is served before their next rental due date. Then from this point the expiry date is a further two months after their normal rental due date and MUST HAVE an expiry date of the day before the full two calendar months.

If a tenant’s payment date is 3^rd of each month then you must serve the notice prior to 3^rd. If notice is not served prior to the 3^rd then you have to take it from the next month. Dependent upon when the notice is served could mean that your tenant has just under, 3 months in the property before the official notice expiry date.

If notice was served prior to the 3^rd, using the example above, then the date the notice was served would be entered on the Section 21 document. From this point the expiry date entered on the notice would be two calendar months later using the 3^rd as the start date and dated one day prior to the 3^rd which would be the 2^nd of the month.

If we used this method and stated that the tenant’s payment date was 3^rd August then notice would need to be served prior to the 3^rd August. Then the expiry date on the notice would be 2^nd October.

If you did not serve notice prior to the 3^rd August and served this after the tenants rent payment date then this would affect the expiry date of the notice. If this was the case then you would date the Section 21 notice for when it was served. The expiry date would then be 2nd November and not the 2^nd October as advised using the first example. It is vital that any notice requests are served correctly in order to avoid any delays in arranging possession of your property.

In addition to this the notice period and expiry date may differ, especially if you want to provide your tenant with notice whilst they are on a fixed term contract with a certain rental period. Whichever the situation Letultimate.com can assist you with this.

Just because you have served the required notice on a tenant does not mean that they will vacate the property on the notice expiry date. If a tenant has not vacated the property on this date then you would need to apply to the courts in order to have the notice enforced. Even when this matter gets referred to a court the tenant could get to remain in the property longer. Dependent upon the circumstances surrounding the reason for issuing the notice would depend on how a judge would rule in court.

A judge only has the authority to allow the tenant to remain in a property for a maximum of 12 weeks from the notice expiry date. This would be all down to negotiation when the court hearing takes place and you do not have to agree to this. Again, the outcome of this all depends on the circumstances surrounding the reason for why you have issued notice to a tenant.

Some cases are straight forward as the main reason is simply a landlord requiring their property back as they plan to move back into it themselves or a reason similar to this. It can become quite complicated when the reasons for requiring the property back are due to rent arrears or disputes. Where rent arrears are concerned then you are able to serve a different type of notice which is known as a Section 8 notice. Again, court action may be involved to remove the tenants from the property and once again the dates on the notice provided need to be correct for it to be a valid document.

Realistically you should allow more than the two months in order to obtain possession of your property if you have served a section 21 notice because you simply require your property back. There are no guarantees on the timeframes involved to obtain your property back so you should allow a minimum of three months for this happen. In addition you should be prepared for this going past the minimum of three months. This illustration is provided in the worst case scenario. If your tenant is willing to move and accepts the notice offered then they may source alternative accommodation of their own prior to the official notice expiring. Letultimate.com, believe in providing the up front facts to our landlords so they are aware of the process and timescales involved when letting out their property.

Letultimate.com will guide you through the process of letting your property from the right marketing right through to property completion through to excellent property management services. Whatever, your requirement, Letultimate.com can assist with every aspect of your property transaction.