Galliard Residential, a sister company of London’s leading Developer Galliard Homes is a family run business that has been established since 1995. With offices across London, they have a range of quality apartments to let or for sale in North, South, East and West London.

When becoming a landlord, maximise your profits you can choose to let out your property privately. This is a great way to say money, however unless you have experience of letting out a property and are aware of the laws and regulations involved it isn’t advisable to go it alone. Many landlords chose to employ the services of a letting Agent. They are an individual or organisation which deals with a rental property on a landlord’s behalf in exchange for a fee.

Letting agents can provide a range of services including:

• preparing the property prior to renting it out
• marketing and advertising
• managing the property
• performing safety and other property inspections
• finding and checking the suitability of a tenant
• drawing up the lease and inventory
• managing the deposit
• collecting rent and chasing unpaid rent
• dealing with repairs and maintenance matters
• organising insurance

As professionals, with years of experience, they will easily help you to prepare your property for letting. They will have thorough knowledge of the standards your property needs to meet and will help you to put things right. Agents will have a detailed checklist that has been tried and tested. The letting agent will be knowledgeable of the market conditions and demand, meaning a more efficient preparation process.

As properly trained letting agents, they will help you to meet your legal obligations. They will know all the legal requirements and will be able to advice you in the best possible way. It is also possible for them to take care of certain requirements, such as a gas certificate. As authorities become increasingly stricter, it is especially important to get professional help if you are not experienced within this. Most letting agents will be able to offer legal, landlord and tax advisory services.

As letting agents have access to advertising, in most cases they will be able to let your property out quicker. Online advertising sites such as Rightmove and their own website will be a great means of advertising as well as their shopfront and other means of communication such as social media, all including professional taken photographs.

Letting agents can often get you a better rent as they are used by relocation agents that are willing to pay a higher price for the right property and the right service. Also because they are trustworthy and experts in their field, they are more likely to achieve a higher rent then you would on your own.

A really good inventory is essential, letting agents will get a proper inventory done and deal with the deposit for you. Without this, landlords who are taken to adjudication by their tenants will have little chance of winning. An established letting agent will have specially trained staff, who will be able to undertake this work, more efficiently and effectively then on your own. Your lettings agents will also deal with protecting the deposit properly in a secure protection scheme and make sure that all the correct information is properly communicated to the tenant within the time limits.

Letting agents will deal with the checking and referencing of your tenant, carefully screening all the prospects. This can reduce any future problems as the checks are thorough and detailed. With years of experience and knowledge that are more likely to know the typical criteria of a bad tenant.

A lot of work can be involved in renting property; therefore any problems that are likely to occur can be dealt with by the agent. Such problems could be minor repairs or a tenant locking themselves out. If such situations are to occur, tenants will be clear who to contact. A good agent will regularly carry out inspections to make sure that the tenant is looking after the property in the way they were contracted to do so.

Most landlords choose a letting agent for convenience. Letting a property from start to finish can be a very lengthy and time consuming job and without the necessary knowledge it can be somewhat impossible. Agents are able to take this burden away from them, providing them with a valuable source of advice and information.