Information for Tenants

Morgan Associates are proud to have been a member of The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), the industry’s regulatory body, for well over twenty years. Members of ARLA must comply with strict guidelines laid down which serve to protect tenants and owners and maintain a fair and professional level of service. A crucial but often overlooked aspect of this professional regulation is that members must provide Client Money Protection, so your rent and your tenants’ deposits are ring-fenced in a separate client account, which is audited annually and backed by the ARLA Bond, giving you complete peace of mind.

Decide which properties you wish to view, contact our letting department by phone (01242 514285) or email Lettings@morgan-associates.co.uk and we will make an appointment to show you around.

Our normal viewing hours are between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm Monday to Friday and 9.00 am to 12.30 pm Saturday, but other appointments can be available by arrangement.

Once you have decided upon a property the next stage is to complete an application form and a credit reference form. We will ask for an employer’s reference (or an accountant’s reference for self-employed applicants), a bank reference, a previous landlord’s reference (if applicable) and a personal character reference.

The processing of the application usually takes about 4 - 5 working days, and it is therefore not normally possible to move into a property in less than a week from application.

In order to secure the property you will be asked to pay a reservation fee equivalent to one weeks rent. If your application is successful this amount is then credited against your initial account.

If you withdraw from the tenancy or knowingly misrepresent any information on the application form the whole of the fee is forfeited and retained by Morgan Associates to offset the expenses incurred in processing the application to this point.

Please note that we and the Landlord reserve the right to decline an application without having to give a reason. If the landlord decides to withdraw your application your reservation deposit will be returned to you.

You will need to satisfy the Right to Rent checks, by supplying the following identification in person to our office; Passport on it’s own or Photographic Driving Licence alongside your Original Birth Certificate as proof of Identification. More information on what can be accepted to satisfy the Right to Rent checks can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-rent-document-checks-a-user-guide (Please note – only original documentation can be accepted).

We also need to see a Utility Bill, Council Tax Bill or Bank Statement dated within the last three months displaying your current address.

The majority of our tenancies are for an initial fixed period of six months, although sometimes it suits both landlords and tenants for this to be twelve months or even longer. Most of our tenancies ‘run on’ at the end of this initial fixed period, until terminated by either party with relevant notice, which for the landlord is three months and for the tenant is one month.

On or before the start date of your tenancy, you will have to pay your initial account. We are unable to accept Personal Cheques or Credit Card payments. Payments are preferably be made by Bank Transfer and you will be provided with the details of where to transfer the funds. Alternatively you can pay by a personal Debit Card.

- Balance of your deposit
- Advance rental payment

Yes we do, if the landlord is agreeable. We require that each tenant receiving Housing Benefit provides us with a suitable guarantor, who will have to complete an application form with the same references as those required from a tenant i.e. employer, accountant if self-employed, bank reference and a personal character reference. Once these references have been verified the guarantor will have to sign a covenant which will form part of the Tenancy Agreement, agreeing to pay the rent and guarantee the terms of the tenancy agreement if the tenant fails to do so. We also require Housing Benefit payments to be made directly to the tenant concerned as we will not accept direct payments from the Department of Social Security.

Again, this is possible, with the permission of the landlord. We require a guarantor for each student as outlined for Housing Benefit recipients above.

Yes we do, although some properties, especially flats, may not be suitable for children. Permission from the landlord is required.

This depends on the individual property and the wishes of the landlord. If the landlord is prepared to accept pets we will require the tenant to have all the carpets professionally cleaned when the property is vacated. As a general rule pets are not allowed in flats.

Once the details on the application form, including references, have been checked and verified we then draw up a tenancy agreement. The tenancy does not necessarily have to commence at this point if the tenant does not wish to move in immediately, and we can usually hold a property for a short time. The tenant is responsible for all utilities and also for Council Tax and water rates.

You may come to the office to collect your keys and two copies of your inventory.

Having moved in, you have a period of one week in which to check the inventory and return one signed copy to our office. This is very important because when you leave the property it is checked against this amended inventory before the deposit can be returned. If a tenant does not return the inventory the property will be checked against our file copy.

Morgan Associates is not simply a letting agent. We also provide a comprehensive property management service. If any maintenance problems occur at one of our managed properties, the tenant simply rings our office and we will arrange for a contractor to attend as soon as possible, depending on the landlord’s instructions. In urgent cases our office number switches through to a 24-hour emergency line which can contact a contractor outside office hours.

A tenant usually has to take a property for a six-month minimum period. If they wish to vacate any time after the first five months of this initial period they need to give our office one month’s written notice to end on the anniversary date of the tenancy (i.e. if your tenancy started on the 10th of the month, your notice would need to end on the 10th of a month). If your landlord needs to regain possession of his/her property, you will be given at least two month’s written notice of this. If neither the tenant nor the landlord wishes to terminate the tenancy it will continue indefinitely subject to notice on either side.

Tenants of Morgan Associates managed properties have the reassurance of knowing that their deposits are fully protected by the Tenants Deposit Scheme which became law in England and Wales in April 2007.

Once you have vacated the property you need to return all keys to our office and provide us with a forwarding address, your final meter readings and confirmation that you have closed your utility accounts. Within a couple of days we will send an inspector to compare the current condition of the property to that of the original inventory (as agreed by you on moving in). Provided the condition of the property is unchanged (after allowing for fair wear and tear) and subject to the requirements of the Tenants Deposit Scheme, we then return your deposit. If any damage has been done to the property, or if the property has not been cleaned in accordance with the instructions sent to you when you give notice to leave the property, we will contact you to make arrangements for this to be rectified, before returning the remainder of the deposit to you. You may, if you wish, pre-arrange professional cleaning through us at the end of your tenancy

When you enter into any rental agreement, it is conditional upon having adequate insurance cover and it is the same with renting a property. We can put you in touch with a reliable provider of Tenants Insurance if you do not have your own policy in place, but you should look for a policy which offers cover for your own possessions, PLUS cover for accidental damage to your landlord’s possessions to protect you in the event of permanent stains/damage to things like carpets.

We hope this information has been helpful. It obviously does not cover every aspect of renting a property but please call us on 01242 514285, or email us with any queries which have not been answered here.