ASK514: How do I find a good solicitor? PLUS: Should I renew this tenancy?

0:02Chris:Hi, I'm Rob. And I'm Rob. And this is Ask Rob and Rob. Hey everyone, welcome to Ask Rob and Rob, the show where you give us your wonderful questions and we give you what we hope are some wonderful answers in return. It is super simple for you to submit your question, whether it be for this show or the Sunday Times. Rob, would you like to explain once again what that easy process is?

0:22Matt:Yeah, so simple. All you have to do is go to propertyhub.net slash ask. Once you're there, you can send us a written question for the Sunday Times, or you can leave a voicemail and follow in the illustrious footsteps of Chris.

0:34Rob Dix:Hi Rob and Rob, this is Chris here. I've got a question for you about the Renters' Rights Bill. So know that it comes into effect from I think it's the 1st of May this year.

0:43Chris:The problem I've got is I've got a tenancy that's up for renewal in mid-April

0:47Rob Dix:and it looks like the fee to get it renewed, get all the paperwork sorted, is going to be exactly the same as it always has been, which is I think quite a steep amount, given that if my renewal was up for two weeks later, I would basically just automatically have the tenancy carry on on a rolling contract. I was just wondering if you've got any advice on how I could maybe challenge the amount that's being charged. I don't know if you've got any other thoughts of how I might be able to kind of tackle this one. Basically, really like the tenants. I would like to renew. I think I am aware of everything that's going on with the renter's rights bill.

1:22Rob Dix:But yeah, just any tips and tricks that you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Also, just wanted to say a massive thank you to you for all the content you put out in no small part to what you've put out there in terms of education. I've managed to get a couple of properties now in a limited company and looking to expand further. So thank you very much for everything you do.

1:41Matt:Chris, thank you for the kind words and for the question. And thankfully, we've got a really easy answer for you here. Just don't renew. There's no need to. So if your tenancy is up for renewal in mid-April and renters' rights kicks in two weeks later, there's absolutely no point signing them up to another fixed term. because two weeks later it will completely stop applying. Now of course your listing agent is going to want to do it anyway because they get a chance to charge you a fee for it but you can just say to them hey thank you and you can say why because they'll know because they might as well just say look I know that two weeks later it's going to convert to the new type anyway so let's just leave it as it is and from there they really can't do anything.

2:15Matt:The only thing I would think about is making sure that your tenants know what's going on. This is possibly the slightly tricky bit if you don't have a direct relationship with them you have to assume that they have no idea about this change that's coming because most people don't and therefore they might be getting antsy if they know their agreement's coming to an end and you're not proposing to renew it and they don't understand why so again you have to hope that the agent is explaining everything to them properly it's also worth noting that the agent or you if you're managing the property yourself need to by law serve an information leaflet to the tenant by the end of may letting them know about what's happened but it's like for how to rent guide it's just a standard document that will have to be served on them so hopefully get everyone more educated about what's going on As a slight side note, I'm really glad you've asked this question because I'm seeing this happen all over the place.

3:00Matt:Agents are pushing for renewals now because it's kind of the last chance for them to charge one of those annual renewal fees. I've even seen cases recently where agents are doing a let only. They're pushing the tenant to take out a two-year agreement because their terms allow them to take the fee for the entire tenancy up front. So they're taking the fee for a two-year tenancy knowing full well there's going to be no obligation for the tenant to stay beyond a couple of months so chris thank you for the question nice easy answer and an opportunity to share that with everyone else as well so thank you and good luck there's some naughty

3:32Chris:agents out there aren't they they're not all naughty but gosh the ones you've just talked about rob are very naughty right next up let's listen to a question in from matt hi rob and rob

3:44Rob Bence:it's matt here from studlay asking i think my fifth question hopefully he can answer this one again. Thanks for all you do on the podcast as well. Awesome information. Listening to the series where it was goal setting, making sure that you're getting yourself set up for 2026, you talk about the team that you build around you. One of those being a good quality solicitor, someone who knows what they're doing and can get deals through quickly. One of the problems I've found historically is that depending on the lender you use, they obviously have a panel of solicitors that they work with and that can restrict obviously the choices.

4:23I've found that local solicitors that

4:26Rob Bence:I'd actually be able to go and sit down with maybe iron issues out that crop up during the process, they have not been on the panel for different lenders that I've used. These are pretty mainstream lenders. However, some of the much larger nationwide solicitors that often have low cost offerings, they tend to be on all the different panels, but their service is pretty terrible from my experience. So just wondering how you handle this. Is there a tip that you can share in terms of how best to find a solicitor that has access or is featured on all of the panels from major lenders. What are your thoughts on the issue?

5:06Rob Bence:Like I say, great work on the pod and looking forward to hearing the answer.

5:10Chris:Matt, thank you for your question. There's no real easy way of going about this, unfortunately, but I can give you a method for finding someone to put in your power team, if you like. This applies beyond a solicitor. The best way to approach this is get a recommendation. Now, you want this recommendation to come from somebody else who's a property investor and someone who's fairly active because they will have a solicitor that they will be using and should be on the majority of panels they'll also be able to tell you whether they recommend that solicitor from a service level as well we at property hub invest have a panel of solicitors that we recommend we don't enforce people use them but we highly recommend that they do because we've checked them for quality and we've checked that they are on the panels of the main lenders that buy-to-let investors want to use.

5:59Chris:That was something that we didn't do overnight. It has taken time, recommendations from other investors, actually, the investors we work with, and we've eventually built up this panel. And our own list of the panel, we've removed them, chopped and changed it over the years as well, because while they may be signed up with the right lenders, their service levels drop off. So you may find that if you end up working with one this year, in a few years' time, you may need another. So it's always good to engage and network with other property investors. If you are really struggling, because you don't have that network then feel free to drop a note to one of our team at property hub and we can give you a recommendation of solicitors that we use we're happy to do that so if you do not find people in your network that you're happy with then please do reach out to us and we can give you a recommendation but that is the key when you're building your panel out of experts that you work with first of all start with a recommendation if possible well that is

6:53Matt:just done for this week and we'll be back to do it all again next tuesday but before then you can join us for the property podcast on thursday so we'll see you then bye bye bye bye