Marketing your property
Introduction
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has set out guidance for letting professionals that explains what they consider to be expected of landlords and letting agents when marketing the property. In particular they make clear the need to provide prospective tenants and guarantors with clear information that allows them to make an informed decision about letting your property.
This guide lays out these requirements and tells you what you must do to avoid breaching the regulations. If you break the regulations you could be guilty of a criminal offence.
What does the CMA expect lettings professionals to do?
Whenever you or your agent are marketing a property, the CMA expects you provide clear, accurate information to tenants. This should include a true breakdown of any costs so that the tenant can make a fair assessment of your property compared to any others they may be looking at.
Alongside this expectation around accurate and fair information, you are expected to provide the tenants with sufficient time to make a decision and that they understand whether they are dealing with the landlord or the agent.
Renters' Rights Bill
The Renters' Rights Bill is expected to come into force in summer 2025, making the most significant changes to the private rented sector in over 30 years.
Amongst other things, the Bill will -
• Abolish Section 21;
• Change the type of tenancy you can offer;
• Introduce a new Decent Homes Standard to the PRS;
• Change advertising practices; and
• Significantly strengthen local authority enforcement powers.
The advice and resources on this page will be outdated once the Bill comes into force. The NRLA is currently preparing a suite of replacement guides and documents to help you manage the transition smoothly.
For further information on the passage of the Bill and its details, please see our dedicated campaigns hub
The rest of this guide is available once you have registered for an account on the site. In it, we discuss what information you need to provide to prospective tenants and guarantors and how coronavirus affects your ability to market your property.