This section is designed for our existing tenants and outlines each stage of the letting process from start to finish.

As all letting agents work differently, it’s also useful for people who might be interested in applying to rent a property with us.

We strongly recommend that all our new tenants take out an insurance policy to protect them against “accidental damage to landlord’s possessions” before they move into their property.

It’s really important to know that most standard home contents policies won’t cover this, and we recommend a specialist policy to cover you in the case of you, or one of your guests, accidentally damaging something that belongs to the landlord like spilling red wine on the carpet or cracking the sink.

You landlord will be covered for buildings insurance and may have in place other types of insurance like rent protection or legal cover, but if something like a carpet or sink is damaged then we’ll look to deduct the cost from your Deposit, even if it was an accident, and even if you personally didn’t damage the item concerned.

If you’d like to find out more, please talk to us on the viewing or contact us if you’ve already submitted an application.

If H2L. Expert Letting is managing the property you’re moving into, we’ll set up a mutually convenient appointment time and date and meet you actually at the property you’re moving into.

If the property is being managed by the landlord directly, then we will make specific arrangements with you, either by collecting the keys from our offices, or meeting us or the landlord on the day.

Please ensure that your Move In balance is fully paid and cleared prior to your Move In appointment, otherwise we may need to re-schedule your time or, worse, still, re-schedule or another day.

If you’re coming a long way, and are having to book removal vans and get people to help you, please plan your journey carefully so as to make sure you’re not going to be late for the appointment. We work 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and can sometimes arrange Saturday Moving In appointments subject to availability.

We’re happy to arrange other more specific times if you’re travelling a really long way but if you’re not at the appointment on time, we may need to re-schedule your time, or worse, still, re-schedule for another day entirely so please double check your journey plans.

The tenancy agreement or contract that you signed when you moved into the property would normally be a twelve month Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement (sometimes referred to as an “AST”) under the Housing Act 1988 as amended.

It’s a legally binding agreement and you need to be aware that although it stipulates an “end” date, it doesn’t automatically end on that date. You can’t just move out on that date – you will always need to give One month’s notice in line with your rent day. If you don’t give us formal notice it will just continue into what’s called a “periodic” tenancy, which some landlord’s won’t allow.

All the tenancy agreements provided by H2L. Expert Letting are written in such a way that you must give your one month’s notice in line with your rent day.

That means if your tenancy start date is the 6th of each month, you must give one month’s notice on or before 6th each month. If you’re too late and give notice on, say, 12th, then the one month notice won’t take effect until the following 6th. Be vigilant with this because it could cost you an extra month’s rent or your deposit.

If you have any queries, please contact Support and we can guide you through the process.

Your Notice to leave needs to be received by us in writing, either in a letter, stamped and posted or delivered by hand, or by email to notice@H2L.co.uk.

If you’re sending us a letter please send it by ‘Signed For’ or Special Delivery. It’s really important that you call us to check that we have received the notice as we’re not liable for situations where you might say you’ve posted it, yet we haven’t received it for whatever reason. We will still hold you to your contract dates.

Your formal notice hasn’t been accepted until such time as you receive a written confirmation from us.

Sometimes there may be extenuating circumstances where you may need to break the contractual agreement and leave the property early, perhaps because of bereavement or you or your partner losing their job.

In such circumstances, what was the Office of Fair Trading ruled that a tenant can break the tenancy agreement provided you pay the landlord’s full cost of finding a new tenant, currently 50% of the first month’s rent plus VAT or a minimum of £350 plus VAT (that’s £420 including VAT), and that you continue to pay your rent and all utilities such as standing charges for energy meters and Council Tax until such time as the new tenant has moved in and started paying rent. Such circumstances need to be discussed with us and be agreed with your landlord in writing first.

More recently this has been formally adopted into legislation and is now one of the very few cases where landlords or letting agents may charge a reasonable fee to tenants.

After we have accepted your Notice, we will arrange a mutually convenient Move Out appointment. Some agents call this your Check Out or Exit inspection.

We need you to have fully vacated the property of all your belongings and gone back in to clean the property prior to your Move Out appointment. This is where you hand back the keys, take meter readings with us and give your forwarding address and bank or building society account details so we can repay your deposit.

Please make sure that you’re on time for the move out appointment, as we often don’t have lots of time to help you to dismantle beds or help the removal people! If you’re not ready we will re-arrange the appointment for another time, or, worse still, another day. This could mean you paying an additional day’s rent.

In some circumstances, if you’re not ready to vacate, your landlord may agree to extending your tenancy move out date but only where a new tenancy with the new tenant hasn’t already been signed or agreed.

We’ll meet you at the property, and will ask you to point out any damage or defects that were your responsibility to resolve.

If the landlord is relatively local, we will ask them to check the property condition, otherwise, if the landlord is out of area or an overseas landlord, we will check your original Move In inventory video and advise you of any damage that we need to resolve before we return and unprotect your Deposit.

Please make sure that you cancel your Standing Order for your rent payment to us as we can’t be liable if your bank or building society continues to pay the rent after you’ve moved out and where this potentially takes you overdrawn.

It is in everyone’s interest to finalise your tenancy as quickly as possible.

After you have vacated the property we will advise all utility companies, that is, council tax, water, gas and electricity suppliers, that you’ve moved out and we will provide your final end date as well as any final meter readings. They will send you your end liabilities to pay or any refunds.

Your landlord will have ten calendar days to advise you of any proposed deductions from your deposit.  We realise that this can be quite stressful so we will only consider relevant concerns from your landlord, and if we feel that there is any merit in the proposed deduction we will provide you with before and after images showing the issue, and give you an opportunity to return to the property to put things right or get quotes from your own contractors before we make any suggestion of a deduction.

During this process, please check your E mails regularly, checking spam and junk folders to ensure that we’re able to communicate with you in a timely manner. We will provide updates by E mail only so as to ensure clear communication and a meticulous audit trail.