Landlords – What paperwork do you legally need…

Thinking of renting out our house later this year.

Before we get as far as trying to do the whole buy-to-let thing looking into the requirements of what needs to be done to the house in terms of paperwork.

There seems to be a few landlords on here so can anbody point me to a list of what stuff is needed (preferably on a goverment type website) as I seem to be getting confusing information currently.

Need:
Gas certificate
Energy efficiency certificate

Nice to have:
Electrical safety certificate?

Thanks

You’ve basically got it. Need EPC, once every 10 years(£50), Gas safety cert annually(£60). Smoke alarms. Nothing else required. If you take a deposit, you legally have to lodge it with one of the schemes, which allows tenant to get independent arbitration on retention. I don’t bother with deposit anymore as if I don’t think I trust them with £100k worth of house, £500 deposit isn’t really going to help, and a realistic level of deposit to cover repair costs by a crap tenant would be nearer £3k. Get insurance too, Direct Line do it now, quick, easy and cheap. As for the energy safety certificate, there isn’t a requirement for one, hence there isn’t a standard form like the gas one. Basically though, if bad electrics cause problems, you’re liable, but the same goes if the roof falls on the tenant’s head, so make sure everything is safe. Make records (photos) of when you do visual inspections, and get landlord insurance and you have done more than you need legally and have covered your back.

go the the Ombudsman for Estate Agents website http://www.oea.co.uk there is a good list of stuff there and check out your potential agents make sure they are in the scheme, you can check their histories after being trapped by a right useless ****.
Gas safety is the main one lasts 12 months and can be done just before they move in.

i think you have to notify your mortgage provider (if you have one) as letting the house effectively means you need a BTL mortgage.

MrSmith is right, some mortgages will have a provision for them to refuse to allow it or offer you new mortgage terms, others will just allow it. if you have a copy of your mortgage terms it will be in there.

Depends in the agency you’re using, only thing I needed was to join the Landlord Registration Scheme – but that’s in Scotland only afaik. The agent I used a few years ago required electrical safety certificate (portable appliance testing) carried out every 5 years but last agent didn’t bother. But I don’t have gas and have smoke alarms.

True about the mortgage – but thats if you tell the bank. But if you’re buying a second property its not easy to get out of telling them.

Thanks all.

Aware of the buy to let requirement on mortgage; not looked yet.
This is thinking a while in advance essentially but don’t want any last minute surprises.

e.g Needing lots of work to get gas certificate.

Of course it does depend on the size of your property….