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Why you need a tenant welcome pack and what you should include - Total Landlord Insurance

September 25, 2023
Why you need a tenant welcome pack and what you should include - Total Landlord Insurance

According to our poll, two thirds of landlords provide a welcome pack for their tenants.

While this is great news, it means that 33% of landlords don’t.

At Total Landlord we believe welcome packs form an integral part of being a good landlord - providing a great service and developing a healthy business relationship with your tenants.

What’s the advantage of a welcome pack?

Tenants often only see a property once before they move in and it can look very different when the previous tenants’ belongings are gone.

New tenants may also be unfamiliar with the local area. And if you're a landlord and you use a letting agent, they are unlikely to have a connection with you directly.

It’s important to get things off on the right foot. A comprehensive, detailed and well thought out welcome pack is a great way to make that happen.

A welcome pack should include a combination of legal or administrative necessities, useful advice, tips on the local area and, if you can provide them, a few thoughtful touches. Think about giving it to them in person, too.

This will help open a channel of communication between you and your new tenants and get the relationship off to the right start.

Here’s a list of the essentials you should include in any welcome pack when you meet new tenants.

Not sure where to start with creating a welcome pack? Our welcome pack template has everything you need.

What should you include?

Tenancy agreement

Your tenant should have already signed the tenancy agreement before move in day, but it’s nice to include a copy of the agreement in the welcome pack so they have another copy to refer to.

A tenancy agreement is essentially a contract between you and your tenant. It describes the legal terms and conditions of the tenancy. Tenancy agreements can be hard to write from scratch but Total Landlord's legal partner, Landlord Action, can help with drafting legal documents such as AST agreements. If you are creating your own, here’s a handy list of suggested contents from GOV.UK:

  • The names of everyone involved
  • The cost of rent, the date it should be paid and any account details
  • How often the cost of rent will be reviewed
  • The amount of deposit required and how it will be protected
  • Specific details of the circumstances that will lead to the deposit being partially or totally withheld
  • The address of the property
  • When the tenancy starts and ends
  • The landlord and the tenant’s obligations
  • How often you will conduct inspections and the notice you will give
  • Which bills you will pay and which the tenant is responsible for
  • Whether it’s possible for the tenancy to end early and the circumstances that can lead to this
  • Any special clauses relating to tenant behaviour that might result in the tenancy ending, such as repeated noise complaints or disrespectful behaviour towards members of the community

For more information, read our deposit protection partner, mydeposits, guide to what to include in your tenancy agreement.

Renting out a flat without a tenancy agreement is risky. Oral agreements don’t mean much in a court of law and if you end up in a dispute with your tenant without a tenancy agreement in place, you don’t have much of a legal footing.

Many insurers (including Total Landlord) also won’t insure a rental property without a tenancy agreement.

The more time, effort and detail you put into your tenancy agreement, the clearer all parties will be on their responsibilities and the more recourse you will have if either party neglects those responsibilities.

Inventory

After the tenancy agreement, your inventory is the second most important document that you and your tenants need to sign and have a copy of. An inventory is a detailed description of the property, its contents, fixtures and the condition of every item. Ideally, it should be supported by  time and date stamped photographic evidence. Read our ultimate guide to an inventory for more guidance.

The goal of the inventory is to establish and record the condition of the property at the start and end of the tenancies. It often takes the form of a ‘check in’ report and a comparative ‘check out’ report. Any change between the two is recorded and evidenced, making deposit deductions simpler to carry out and making negotiations easier to settle – it’s hard to argue with photographic evidence.

According to Suzy Hershman, Resolution Department Lead at mydeposits, most disputes are won or lost on the quality of the inventory documentation. Here are seven tips for a watertight inventory:

1. Always date the reports

2. Define any of the terms or abbreviations used within the documents for consistency

3. Fully describe the condition and cleanliness of the property and its contents

4. Photographic/video evidence should be used to support your reports

5. Any photos which are not included in the main report should be digitally dated and, if not, signed and dated by your tenant (tip: check your phone/device/camera settings)

6. You must allow the tenant the opportunity to see and sign the reports

7. Reports can be compiled by anyone but where they are prepared by a landlord or letting agent the tenant’s signature is a MUST

If you want an easier way to design a welcome pack, take a look at our welcome pack template.

Housekeeping advice

Every property is different and many homes, especially those that aren’t new-builds, have certain quirks that it’s helpful to know in order to prevent issues like condensation or damp. Housekeeping advice is particularly useful if you’re renting to younger tenants.

Your property may be one of the first that they are having to look after single-handed. Certain things that are common sense to landlords may not be to their tenants.

Every landlord wants their property to be looked after and the more support that you can give your tenants the more likely they are to take care of your property.

To help you look after your property we have designed a series of useful advice sheets for your tenants that contain tips and practical information. Here is a list of topics you might want to consider.

Preventing damp

Damp is a common issue, especially over the winter months.

Tips such as leaving on the background heating, keeping the property ventilated, managing condensation created by showers and drying clothes can make all the difference. We’ve put together a tenant checklist for you to share with your tenants to help them recognise what type of damp or mould you might have, what you can and should do about it, and how they can prevent it.

You may also want to leave them a dehumidifier, with instructions on how to use it.

Gardening advice

If your property comes with a garden or any outside space, you need to make it clear if you expect your tenant to maintain it. You will need to have a separate clause in your tenancy agreement stipulating this.

This might be as simple as keeping it neat or preventing grass and shrubs from becoming overgrown. If your garden requires more specific upkeep, you might want to include general gardening tips and advice for your tenants to help them look after your garden.

As with all aspects of your tenancy agreement, detail and clarity are key. Do your tenants know where gardening tools or equipment are stored? Have you given detailed information about specific plants or trees and how they should look after them? Even if you think the way to care for your garden is obvious, it may not be to your tenant, so give as much detail as possible.

Door locking and burglary prevention

Providing tenants with modern and secure doors and windows is a must. Landlords who are particularly safety conscious may want to provide a burglar alarm as well. But it’s also important to make sure that your tenants understand how to use the security measures you’ve installed.

Fire safety precautions and advice

Every rental property has to comply with certain fire safety regulations, these include providing a fire risk assessment and installing carbon monoxide and fire alarms. There are additional regulations for HMOs, such as providing fire escapes and fire extinguishers.

Documenting all of these fire safety precautions and procedures in your welcome pack is another way of helping your tenants protect their wellbeing and your property.

Utilities information

You should provide meter readings at the start of the tenancy as part of your inventory, but you may also wish to record the location of electricity and gas meters in your welcome pack for future reference. The location of the stop tap for the plumbing and the numbers to call in the event of a utilities fault or emergency (such as a water or gas leak) should also be included.

Appliance manuals

If you’re providing any appliances or white goods, such as fridges or washing machines, it’s a good idea to include the manuals for these. This not only makes it easier for tenants to use the goods provided, but reduces the chances of them calling you up for quick questions that they could answer themselves if they had the manuals.

Local tips on the area

Whether or not your tenants are new to the area, including some handy tips and information on local amenities will always be appreciated.

Advice on where to find parks, gyms, the best places to eat out, takeaway menus, pubs, and information on parking and transport, will help your new tenants to orient themselves and save them time.

You could also include some information on their immediate neighbours so that they have a sense of who they’re living next to.

Anything you can do to help familiarise them with their new setting will help to ease that feeling of discombobulation we all feel when we move home.

Just the knowledge that you’ve taken the time to make things easier for them will have an impact on your relationship – and it may even encourage them to stay longer.

A welcome pack serves a practical purpose but it can also help people feel positive about their new home and welcomed to a new neighbourhood. If you want to go the extra mile and get extra landlord brownie points, you might want to include a bottle of fizz or a bunch of flowers for move in day. For more content on being a good landlord, read our guide, 'Nine steps to becoming a good and successful landlord.'

To take the hassle out of creating a welcome pack, we’ve designed an easy-to-use template. Download it here.

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