What we need from you.
Instructing us is quick. This is everything we’ll ask a new landlord for, with a word on why, so you can have it to hand. Photos of documents are fine: nothing needs printing.
The checklist.
Ten things, most of which you already have. If anything isn’t to hand, tell us and we’ll work around it.
1. Photo ID and proof of address
A passport or driving licence, and a bank statement or utility bill from the last three months. Every landlord is checked: it protects you from someone pretending to be the owner of your home.
2. Proof you own the property
Your Land Registry title or a recent mortgage statement. If the home is mortgaged, your lender’s written consent to let. If it’s leasehold, check the lease allows letting (some need the freeholder’s permission).
3. Signed Terms of Business
Everything is set out in writing before you sign. Request our Terms of Business and read them at your own pace; we’re happy to go through any clause with you.
4. Your bank details
The account your rent is paid into. We always confirm bank details with you by phone, and we never change them on the strength of an email alone. Please treat any email asking you to do so as suspicious.
5. Safety certificates
A gas safety certificate (renewed every 12 months), an electrical safety report (EICR, at least every five years) and an energy performance certificate (EPC). Don’t have them? We can arrange the checks for you.
6. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
A smoke alarm on every floor and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed fuel-burning appliance, all working at the start of the tenancy. We test and log them.
7. Keys
At least two full sets, including any for windows, gates, meters and the post box: one for the tenants and one we keep securely for inspections and repairs.
8. Landlord insurance
Buildings insurance that knows the home is let, plus contents cover for anything of yours that stays. Tell your insurer you’re letting: a standard home policy may not pay out otherwise.
9. If you live abroad
Landlords who live outside the UK for more than six months a year come under HMRC’s Non-resident Landlord Scheme. Unless HMRC approves you to receive rent with no tax deducted (form NRL1), we must deduct basic-rate tax and pay it to HMRC. We’ll explain the form.
10. The landlord database
Under the Renters’ Rights Act, landlords in England register themselves and each rented home on the government’s new landlord database, which is opening in stages. We’ll tell you when your turn comes and give you the certificates it asks for.
Rules change: this list is right as of November 2026 and we update it when the law does. For anything about your own tax or legal position, please check with your accountant or solicitor.
Two checks we make that need nothing from you
Sanctions check. Since 14 May 2025, letting agents in the UK have had a legal duty to report to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) if they know or suspect that a landlord or tenant is on the UK Sanctions List, whatever the rent. So we check every landlord’s name against the UK Sanctions List when they instruct us, and every tenant’s once their offer is accepted, and we keep a record of each check for five years. It takes us a minute and you won’t notice it happening.
Right to rent. Before a tenancy starts we check that every adult who will live in your home has the right to rent in England, and we keep copies on file. That’s our job, not yours.
What happens next
Once we have the list above, we’ll agree the rent with you, take professional-standard photos, write the advert and put the home on Rightmove and our own website. We’ll confirm every viewing, reference every applicant properly and send you the tenancy agreement to approve before anyone signs. From then on you’ll hear from us about the things that matter and nothing else, and if you’d like to see where everything stands at any time, ask us for your private landlord page.
Already with another agent?
Switching doesn’t end your tenancy and your tenant can stay put. We handle the handover, including collecting the deposit paperwork and certificates from your current agent. How switching works.
Ready to get started?
Send us a photo of what you have and we’ll tell you what, if anything, is missing.