A practical route through a first tenancy: what to have ready, what to ask, and the four points where a tenancy most often goes wrong for reasons nobody wrote down.
Before you view anything
Have your referencing pack assembled — three months of payslips or two years of accounts, a current employer's letter, and a previous landlord's contact. Agents prioritise the applicant who can be referenced this week over the one who offered fifty pounds more.
The four points of failure
- The inventory, if nobody photographs the property on day one.
- The deposit, if the protection certificate never arrives.
- Repairs, if reports are made by phone rather than in writing.
- The notice period, if the break clause is read for the first time in month ten.
Reporting a repair
Put it in writing, date it, and photograph it. A landlord has a statutory duty to keep the structure, the heating and the sanitation in repair, and the clock on that duty starts when they are told — which is a fact you can only prove on paper.
A tenancy dispute is settled by whoever kept the better record.Slateon Lettings
