Landlord Rights FAQ

Does my landlord have the right to ask for a copy of my car's MOT and insurance certificate?

ANSWER 1: They have the right to ask. It's a free country. But he does not have the right to get the information if you don't want to give the info to him.

Can I put an age restriction on the tenants I want to accept when marketing my property? e.g. I only want tenants over 50yrs old

ANSWER 1: No - you are discriminating against age. If you put it into the advert then you are asking for trouble, but if however you have it in your head and don't tell anyone then it will be difficult to prove! Additionally,specifying a lower age limit i.e. No one under age 21 etc is discrimination.

My tenants are starting a business in my property what are the implications both legally and financially on me the landlord?

ANSWER 1: You should not allow tenants to run a business from the premises. The reason for this is that if the business use becomes substantial, the premises could be deemed to come under the business legislation rather than the residential landlord and tenant legislation. One of the consequences being that it would affect your right to recover possession. Generally my advice is that if the "business use" is really a hobby where the tenants earns enough just to cover his costs, this is allowable, however if the earnings become substantial the tenant should be asked to use separate business premises and not your property. If they refuse to do this, you should serve a section 21 notice and warn them that if they do not cease business use you will need to evict them from the property in order to protect your position.

ANSWER 2: We had one like this where the tenants had advertised an I.T training business on the web giving the property the name apex house, stacked it out with I.T equipment and had business visitors. They also overloaded the circuits so there were problems needing electricians to visit the house and they held the landlord responsible. The landlord had no insurance on the house for business use if stock was held on the premises and/or they had business visitors. Also the Tenancy Agreement stipulated no business use. On those grounds we asked them to remove the house name from the web and remove the equipment. They did this very reluctantly and with a lot of pressure from us. If they hadn't complied the landlord was ready to give notice and take a chance on having a void period. We'd turn a blind eye if the tenant is working from home but doesn't hold unreasonable amounts of stock and doesn't have streams of visitors.