Tenants Area
Documentation
FAQ's
We will contact your employers to confirm that you are in the employment you have stated and that you are earning enough to cover the rental payments. We will contact your current or previous Landlord to ensure that you have been a reliable tenant, this includes paying rent on time and care of the property.
We will also carry out a credit check, this is to ensure that you have not had any court orders or CCJ’s against you in the past. Even with a poor credit score it may still be possible to rent a property if you have a suitable guarantor and have been honest with us from the outset. Giving us misleading information will mean that you fail your reference check and will not be accepted for the tenancy.
Guarantors need to be based in the UK and homeowners and will need to go through a similar reference check as above except without the Landlords reference.
In most instances you will need one months rent in advance, six weeks rent as a deposit, £100 per person over 18 for administration fees. I have broken these payments down in more detail for you below.
We work in 4 stages, the first stage is when you have decided you would like to take the property and you make a formal offer to the Landlord. We take all the details; move in date, rent, any requirements etc and you put down a holding fee of £150. If the Landlord does not accept your offer, subject to satisfactory references, you will get this money back. If the Landlord accepts your offer, subject to satisfactory references, then this becomes a non refundable deposit and will be put towards your first months rent.
The second stage is when the offer has been accepted by the Landlord, subject to satisfactory references. You will then need to pay the administration fee of £100 per tenant over the age of 18. This covers your references, contract fee and check in fee. One guarantor reference can be processed together with a tenants reference for no extra charge.
In the unlikely event that you fail the reference procedure and require a guarantor reference to be processed separately then there is a charge of £35 per guarantor. If the entire reference process is required to be restarted due to false information being given by either party or failure of the guarantor to sign the relevant guarantor agreements and a new guarantor being required then the full fee may be required again to cover the costs of processing the new references. Therefore it is important that you ensure any guarantor that you put forward is fully aware of their responsibilities before they agree to the referencing procedure.
The third stage is after your references have been received and accepted. We will book a time for you to come to the office and read and sign the tenancy agreement. We would usually ask for the remainder of the first months rent (the monthly rental figure less the £150 holding fee) to be paid at this time.
The last stage is usually a few days before the move in date when we will take the payment for the deposit which is usually the equivalent of 6 weeks rent.
Depending on the time scales for you moving into the property you may wish to pay the remainder of the first months rent and the deposit at the same time.
Your deposit will be registered with a government approved scheme and details of this will be made available to you. Your Landlord will chose which scheme to use and we are happy to discuss any questions you have about this.
Tenants are responsible for utility bills (water, gas, electric), council tax and television licence unless otherwise stated in their tenancy agreement. Tenants are also responsible for any other services that they order whilst at the property e.g. contents insurance, internet, telephone, cable television.
Students can be exempt from council tax as long as they contact the council tax office and provide them with the information they require.
This depends on the level of service your Landlord has asked Dennis James & Co Ltd to provide.
If we are providing a Full Management Service then you will contact us regarding any maintenance issues that you may have.
If your Landlord has asked for a Rent Collection Service then you will contact us if you have any issues regarding your rental payments and your Landlord regarding any maintenance issues.
If your Landlord has asked for a Let Only Service then you will contact your Landlord with any issues relating to the property.
We will give you contact details for your Landlord with your moving in pack.