Letting a place safely

Most lets go smoothly. The ones that go wrong tend to fail in the same few ways: a missing permit, a tenant who was not who they said they were, a deposit dispute with no photos to settle it. A few hours of preparation prevents most of that.

The legal basics

Almost every country regulates private letting, but the details differ a lot. The same handful of topics comes up nearly everywhere, so use this as a checklist and look up the specifics on the country page (for example Spain, the UK or Germany), or browse all of them on the countries index.

• Registration or licence. Some countries or cities require you to register the let or hold a licence, especially for shared houses, rooms and short-term lets. Letting without one can mean fines and, in some places, trouble recovering rent.
• Energy certificate. Across the EU and in the UK you normally need a valid energy performance certificate before you advertise, and the rating often has to appear in the listing.
• Deposit rules. Many countries cap the deposit, and some require you to lodge it with a government or approved scheme within a set time. This varies by country; see the country page.
• Safety checks. Gas, electrical and smoke or carbon monoxide alarm rules exist in many places, sometimes with certificates you must give the tenant.
• Tax on the income. Rent is taxable almost everywhere. Some countries offer allowances or deductions for letting a room in your own home. Ask your tax office or an accountant before the first payment arrives, not after.
• Mortgage and building rules. Your lender, your freeholder or your building association may need to give consent before you let.

How landlords get scammed

Tenants are not the only targets. These are the patterns landlords report most often:

• Fake tenants with forged documents. Payslips, employment contracts and bank statements are easy to fake. The person looks perfect on paper and stops paying after the first month. See Screening tenants for how to check.
• Overpayment refunds. The “tenant” pays too much, by cheque or a payment that can be reversed, and asks you to send back the difference. The original payment bounces; your refund does not.
• “I’ll pay the deposit by cheque.” Often from someone abroad who cannot view. Cheques can take days to bounce after they appear to clear.
• Unauthorised subletting and short lets. The tenant signs a long-term contract, then lists the flat on Airbnb or rents rooms to others. You may end up in breach of your building rules, your insurance or local short-let laws.
• Rent-to-rent. A company or individual offers guaranteed rent for years, then sublets the place room by room, sometimes illegally. Some arrangements are legitimate, many are not; read any such offer very carefully and check it against local law.
• Identity fraud. Someone uses a stolen identity to sign the contract, so when things go wrong there is nobody to pursue.

The scams aimed at tenants often use landlords’ listings as bait, too. Our guide to avoiding rental scams explains those, and it helps to know them so you can spot when your flat has been copied.

Advertising without inviting fraud

A listing tells strangers that a property may soon be empty. Keep it useful but not an invitation.

• Leave out the exact address. Give the street or neighbourhood; share the number with people you have spoken to.
• Use recent photos of your own, without house numbers, keys or post visible.
• Put the price, deposit and key terms in the ad. Clear terms put off people fishing for a deal.
• Handle viewings yourself or through an agent you appointed. “Agents” who contact you after seeing your portal listing and offer to do the viewings for you are a known route to scams on both sides.
• No keys to anyone before a signed contract, not to a tenant, not to a “relocation company”, not to a friend of a friend.
• Search for your own listing now and then. Scammers copy real ads and repost them at lower prices.

Viewings and holding deposits

Show the place in person, or by live video call if the tenant is abroad and you then meet at signing. At the viewing, see the tenant’s original ID, not a photo of it. If you want to hold the flat for one applicant while you check references, a holding deposit is common in many countries, but some cap it or regulate how it must be returned. Put in writing what it is for, how long it holds the property and when it is refunded or deducted from the first rent.

Take payment by bank transfer to your own account. Do not accept cash for large sums without a receipt, and do not accept payment methods you cannot trace.

Insurance

Tell your home insurer that you are letting. Many standard policies exclude let properties or become void without notice. Ask about:

• building cover for a let property;
• contents cover for what you leave furnished;
• liability cover in case a tenant or visitor is injured;
• optional rent-guarantee or legal-expenses cover, where it exists.

Your tenant is usually responsible for insuring their own belongings. Say so in the contract.

Inventory and photos at move-in

The inventory is what settles deposit disputes. Before the tenant moves in, go through every room together and record the condition of walls, floors, appliances, furniture and fittings. Take dated photos or a video, note meter readings, list keys handed over, and have both of you sign the inventory. Attach it to the contract as an annex; see Rental contracts: what must be in them. Repeat the process at move-out so the comparison is fair.

The ethics: what you may not ask

Being careful does not mean asking for everything. Many countries limit what a landlord may request or keep: some forbid asking for more than a set number of months in advance, some restrict which documents you may copy, and data protection law in the EU and UK means you may only collect what you need. This varies by country; see the country page.

Discrimination is illegal in most countries. You cannot refuse a tenant because of their ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability or, in many places, because they have children or receive benefits. Judge applicants on the same criteria: can they afford it, can they prove who they are, and do their references check out.