Over the past few years I have been personally writing to every landlord and tenant who has used our services either for a rental valuation or to organise a tenancy, asking for their thoughts on our service and the information we hand out. One of the overwhelming issues which has come to light is the complicated information handed out to prospective clients to explain landlord and tenant obligations, either prior to renting or during the tenancy process.
It is a very difficult situation because both the landlord and the tenant (or the prospective landlord or tenant) need to be given so much information and as a regulated agent it is absolutely essential that we give out this information to our clients. I wish I could get away with the minimal amount of paperwork handed out by non-regulated agencies, but at Sewell & Gardner our obligations to ARLA (the Association of Residential Lettings Agents) and TPOS (The Property Ombudsman) PLUS my conscience allowing me (and my team) to sleep at night, means that everything we know needs to be passed on.
So the challenge has been to write our Landlord and Tenant literature in an easy to read format which can change as necessary (because, let’s face it, the law does NOT stand still in lettings), utilising basic language for some very complicated procedures and ensuring that all the mountains of information doesn’t put the client off and make them feel blinded by information! WOW some challenge indeed, but, after months and months of very hard work, I think we have achieved our goal.
It would be great to know what you think, have a look and any comments are gratefully received (jane@sewellgardner.com):
The Move with Us Landlord Brochure tells you why Sewell & Gardner are different from other agencies. 27 easy to read pages, loaded with pictures and interesting facts to tell you all about us as a company, our team, our qualifications, what we do within the community and what we do to make sure our customers stay with us and recommend us to their friends and family.
There are rather a lot of laws and legislation covering lettings and we need to tell you all about them, so here are the Landlord letting obligations in 20 easy to follow steps, with booking forms and a checklist to ensure that nothing is forgotten. Information contained herein covers pre-marketing requirements, pre-tenancy necessities and everything the Landlord must ensure is up-to-date whilst the tenancy continues. A must for any landlord…!
We have a lot of different services at Sewell & Gardner from the basic let only tenant find product through to fully managed, void management and rent collection. 
Every service is thoroughly outlined in our Terms of Business brochure and it is so comprehensive and clear, nothing is hidden, there is no ‘small print’ you can literally find out anything you need to know about our service to you, the Landlord, in this booklet. Once you have had a good read through all of the contents in our T&Cs then you need to complete the Ready to Proceed booklet and return it to us with all of the necessary pre-marketing material requested inside.
If you are not quite ready to read through our full Terms of Business booklet then you can see an outline of our services in the ‘At a Glance’ brochure.
And if you are ready to proceed and have invested in a long term rental property, then you need to seriously consider signing up to our VIP Landlord Club. Not only will this give you annual discounts but after 3 years it will give you some serious long term benefits. Plus you get to be one of our special guests at all events we organise, you get priority for any offers and all legal updates as they happen.
So there has been a lot of information in the press lately about transparency of agency fees for tenants. Whilst Sewell & Gardner have always listed their tenant fees up front at the property viewing, these are now superbly presented in our Tenancy Application Form booklet which explain absolutely everything that is required from the tenant in order to rent a property through Sewell & Gardner, before moving in, during the tenancy and the vacating process. It also explains about our fantastic tenant reward service, our local discount card, our bag 4 life and our splendid moving in folder!
This folder is very large and is delivered to you on moving in day along with your bag4life (full of moving day essentials).
The comprehensive folder contains absolutely every piece of information you need to know about your property, your landlord, your tenant requirements, your landlord requirements, appliance manuals, utility companies, how to find all the things you need, information about your area and lots more besides. There are also lots of spaces for you to put property inspections, renewal tenancies, deposit information and even your take away menus!
Lastly if you are just interested in knowing lots of interesting facts about the people who work here, what each of our job roles entail and how we will be interacting with you as a Landlord or Tenant. Or, indeed, if you fancy a career in lettings and would like to see how our structure works and how you can progress in the department, 2 staff booklets are ready and waiting!
SO if you would like any of these information brochures, all you need to do is send a brochure request to info@sewellgardner.com or call us on 01923 721900 and we shall post a hard copy or copies to you, or we can arrange for PDF documents to be emailed.
Shortly all of these brochures will be available for download from our website: www.sewellgardner.com.