Resources Blog
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Category: Leases & Titles
Heads if terms can be referred to when you’re looking to take a lease at a property, particularly with commercial premises rather than a usual short-term ASTs with residential property. They can also appear when preparing for a freehold or leasehold sale of whatever property interest.
They are not as complicated or legally applicable as you might think, however, we still an important document to get right and not waste time and money on getting these correct - particularly when solicitors are involved.
Therefore, here are a few common questions about them answered, followed by seven key elements you find in them.
Heads of Terms Questions
What are Property Heads of Terms, And What Do They Mean?
Basically, a summary of the agreement...
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Category: People Interests
Landlords of residential properties have an obligation by law to fairly maintain, service, and repair their dwellings – after all, these are the homes of tenants.
This doesn’t relate to longer leasehold interests where ‘tenants’ need to act more like an owner themselves; this is for shorter term ones like AST lets.
The Lease Says It All
The golden rule when looking at any landlord and tenant obligations is the lease.
What these leases clauses say, goes. It is often only in extreme circumstances where the law of the land has to override this, for example fairer levels of fees being charged under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
The Wider Law
However, with such shorter-term residential properties there is a whole host of general legislation...
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Category: Non-Rent Monies
This piece of legislation has caused ripples through the residential property lettings sector in terms of trying to deal with the fair way that landlords and managing agents can pass on various types of payments to residential tenants.
Here’s a quick broad-brush summary of the three main types of changes that this has made:
1. Removed Fees
This is the hot topic, with landlords and agents no longer being allowed to pass on letting and administration fees to tenants.
It isn’t retrospective, but does apply to all tenancies both existing and new from 1st June 2020.
Even if a lease says a landlord can charge say a renewal fee, this legislation overrides this and prevents.
It also applies to wider licences to occupy within the residential...
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Rent Monies
Here are various blog resources related to the rent that is paid at properties, with sub-category information on Rents here. Whether you're a landlord receiving, tenant paying, or middle-man managing. Right through from how to correctly charge and collect to how it needs to change over time, this is often the most important factor to managing let properties, and includes simular variations such as licence fees.
Non-Rent Monies
Here are various blog resources related to non-rent monies and payments, with sub-categories of service charges, fees, and other monies and costs/charges. These can be directly charged or hidden away, and are important to know what you may have to pay or might be able to charge another property interest for.
Insurance
Here are various blog resources related to the insurance of properties, ranging from the main building cover to ancillary ones like contents, with sub-category insurance ones here. Whether it's the premium to pay or the policy to correctly arrange, these help explain what's needed from the perspective of different property interests.
Sales & Lettings
Here are various blog resources related to the sales & lettings of a property, and all related transactions, with sub-category resources of Sales & Lettings. Whether you're involved in these directly yourself, or you're working with other sales/letting agents and interests, these help highlight important property managemnet factors to consider.
Leases & Titles
Here are various blog resources related to all forms of leases, titles, and legal documentation involved with property interests, with sub-categories for Leases and Titles resources. Whether a straight forward lease agreement or complicated legal documentation, here is help to understand what you're trying to achieve and then practically how to easily do this.
Taxes
Here are various blog resources related to all the taxes involved with property interests, from VAT and SDLT, to income and capital gains, to rates and council tax - chcek out the Tax sub-category. These will help you work alongside other accounting and tax advisors to make sure you cover all bases to reduce your overall tax liabilities.
Services & Compliance
Here are various blog resources related to the services and compliance at a property, with sub-categories of Fire Safety, Security, Cleaning & Hygiene, Health & Safety, Utilities & Energy, Maintenance, Other Services, Facilities, and Planning. These range from say your fire and health and safety compliance, through to services like cleaning and utilitities. These resources help provide an overview of each area without getting too technical, so you can plan it all in at the right time and best cost.
General
Here are various blog resources related to any other general subjects involved with properties and their interests, including sub-categories of Procedures, Principles, and Special Occasions. So whether it's the basics of property management, or more specific property issues and queries that don't naturally fall in the other categories, you'll find them all here.
Condition & Repairs
Here are various blog resources related to the condition of a property and any repairs and alterations required, with sub categories of Condition and Repairs. Whether it's a reactive roof repair, pro-active maintenance plan, or carefully-chosen contractor - these help explain how to effectively keep properties in the right condition.
