Understanding the legal side of housing can help give you peace of mind:

  • If you rent your home, you might need legal advice if you have issues with your tenancy or your landlord.
  • If you are buying or selling a home, it is important to understand the legal requirements and what is involved in the process.
  • As a landlord, you might face legal issues around contracts, tax requirements, and disputes with tenants.

Whether you need legal advice or just want to understand your options, read on for helpful resources.

I am renting and have legal issues

If you pay to rent a room or a house from someone, you are called a tenant. The person you rent from is usually known as your landlord.

When renting you might be asked to sign an agreement known as a tenancy agreement. It sets out things like the amount of rent that needs to be paid and the responsibilities of you and your landlord. 

This can cover many things. From whether you are allowed to own a goldfish or paint a bedroom door. Right through to what will happen if there is a structural problem with the house itself.

However, even if you have a tenancy agreement you may still face problems that become legal issues. Sometimes lawyers can help you to understand your rights in a particular situation and can represent you with your landlord to try and resolve the situation. 

 - From a tenant's perspective, what are  the telltale signs that a problem has become a legal issue? 

- Every tenant should be able to contact their landlord freely, in line with whichever agreement they've got, 
to raise an issue, and if the landlord becomes difficult, or things don't get fixed, or things don't get sorted,
then that's probably when you might want to seek advice, particularly if it has quite an adverse impact on the way in which you can stay in a property. 

- Would you advise when you're contacting your landlord, to keep everything in writing, keep a record? Is that something, best practise wise? 


- It's best practise. It depends on the relationship you've got with the landlord. If you've got a pretty good relationship, then a phone call should be enough to resolve something, but a text message, an email,if they're using an agent, probably better to go via email so that you've got that record, because agents are representing so many landlords, they've got so many on their books, that you know, it's quite easy for them to lose a record of something. 
 

I'm buying or selling a house

It is well known that moving home can be one of the most stressful events in life.

If you buy or sell property, or remortgage, there are legal requirements and checks to be taken care of.

Legal contracts, offers and completion processes, and land searches are some of the things you might need to sort out. These requirements are part of the process involved in buying or selling a house. In legal terms, this is called conveyancing.

Many people choose to get a lawyer to take care of everything. If you talk to a law firm that offers conveyancing services you might find different lawyers like Chartered Legal Executives, CILEx Practitioners, licensed conveyancers and solicitors working there who will be able to take care of your legal requirements.

The Gov.uk website publishes guides onbuying a homeandselling a home.

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- I'm gonna tell you the truth.

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I've never actually bought a house,

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so perhaps talking about

the different stages

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that you've got, might be helpful.

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- You put your offer in.

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You see a house you like. You love it.

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You go to the estate agents.

You put your offer in.

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Quite often, at the time

you put your offer in,

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you'll be asked to provide

some sort of finance details

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to show that you can afford it.

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So if you have a mortgage

in principle ready

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or details of your mortgage broker

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that the estate agent

can get in touch with,

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that'll be helpful.

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If you have details of a solicitor,

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then, as I say, you can provide it

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to the estate agent just then.

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After that stage, if your

offer was fully accepted

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by the agent,

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a memorandum of sale will

be issued to your solicitor

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and the seller's solicitor,

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and that's when the ball

starts really rolling.

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There is quite a lot of

paperwork that comes out

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at the start of a transaction

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in terms of client care

information questionnaires,

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but that's so we don't

have to keep on coming back

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to the client throughout the

course of the transaction.

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We try and get as much information

as we can at the outset

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so we do not have to go

backwards and forwards.

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The contract pack follows then

from the seller's solicitor.

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Your solicitor will review

it, let you have details,

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let you have a plan, other

important documentation.

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They will raise inquiries.

They would get searches.

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Your mortgage offer will be forthcoming.

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The whole process can, depends,

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normally take anywhere between

8 to 12 weeks. on average,

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but your solicitor will

guide you through it.

 

I am a landlord

Whether you rent out your spare room or own lots of rental properties, being a landlord means you may come across legal issues that you need to take care of.

These legal issues could include:

  • having contracts with your tenants and holding their deposits
  • understanding tax requirements and health & safety requirements
  • resolving disputes and other problems with your tenants

Depending on the situation you may want to talk to a lawyer that specialises in the legal issues that landlords need to know about. You can find information about the different types of lawyers and how to find the right one for your situation on our Lawyers page.

If you don’t know if you need legal help or are just looking to get some advice on your options and situation, there are places you can turn to.

The Government site has a section on all of the relevant legislation. This could help you understand your role as a landlord and how to manage some of the situations you might come up against.

- What are the key things landlords can do to protect themselves when they start to become worried about issues with a tenant, or even before they become worried? 
 

- If, for example, it's something like antisocial behaviour, you need good evidence to show that is the case, so you need to speak to neighbours, you need to have all your evidence together. Then you should really be seeking legal advice as soon as you think something may end up in the court process. I would say that's the time, really, to speak to a solicitor, but if you're not sure before you get to that stage, speak to a solicitor at that stage as well. 
 

- Yeah, but what you can do is before you get to us is to make sure you've got all your evidence. 

- All your evidence, yes, and if you look at what your obligations were and you think, "Well, I haven't done that," then you really need to speak with a solicitor as to what your next stage can be in light of you not having done that.