Have a Nice Stay: What to Include In Your Tenant Welcome Pack
By lucmin on 18th December 2020
A tenant welcome pack is your chance to set the tone for the entire tenancy so it’s worth taking the time to get it right. The more information you provide the smoother and less stressful the tenancy is likely to be. Given that our annual survey found the average number of repairs per property per year was four, anything you can do to minimise those numbers can only be a good thing. And that’s where a comprehensive welcome pack comes in. Here’s what you should include:
Legally required in a tenant welcome pack
It is a legal requirement to provide your tenant with all the relevant information about the scheme their deposit is protected under, as well as an up-to-date copy of the property’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), the latest version of the government’s ‘How to Rent’ guide and a copy of the property’s gas safety certificate. These should form the backbone of your tenant welcome pack.
It is also worth alerting them to the location of key things around the house such as; thermostat, gas and electricity meters, fuse box, smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and so on.
In order to save them time and you hassle, the tenant welcome pack should also include information about the property’s providers of services like gas, water and electricity.
From there on, what goes into your tenant welcome pack is up to you.
The “nice-to-haves”
Additional details such as which broadband provider has historically served the house and when and how frequent the rubbish and recycling collection service are all ways to help your tenants settle in.
Some landlords take the welcome opportunity one step further and provide their tenants with maps of the local area as well as suggestions about local supermarkets, shops and restaurants. Whether or not you want to make this additional effort, it’s definitely worth providing details of the property’s intended inspections in the welcome pack. By establishing from the beginning when and how often you’re planning to inspect the property, you can instill the need to keep it clean and the importance of reporting repairs.
In case of emergency…
When it comes to repairs and minimising their impact, the rapidity of the repair being reported has a huge impact. It’s for this reason it’s always worth providing tenants with your emergency contact details. Landlords who are looking to speed up their response time should consider using a repairs and maintenance software service like Fixflo, which allows tenants to report a household issue 24/7 and be guaranteed an instant response.