Whether you are a landlord or a tenant, moving into our out of a property can be a pretty stressful time. In fact moving home is known to be one of the most stressful times in life, so why not make it as easy as possible? Both for the people who own the property and the ones who are going to be calling it their home.

As a landlord there are certain things that you can do to try and make the whole thing go as smoothly as possible. There are checklists, processes and legal procedures that you can follow to ensure that the issues arising with your new or old tenants are kept to the minimum. But where do you start?

The old

If you have tenants that are leaving your property then one of the key things to do is to keep them in the loop of what will happen. If they have plenty of notice and in some cases reminders of the process and timings then they can be prepared, making the whole thing run nice and smoothly.

You can communicate either by phone, email or even letter, whichever one is better. Just make sure that your current tenant is receiving the communication otherwise there could be some confusion and misunderstanding when the time comes to leave.

Here are some of the types of reminders that you should send out:

·         An email 30 days before their move out date, you could also include a checklist of what they will need to do before they leave so they have plenty of time to plan things.

·         It is also a good idea to send the old tenants a copy of the inventory so that they know what items were included in the property to begin with and their condition.

·         A week before the move out date send the tenant an email with a time that they can expect you to collect (or for them to drop off the keys) and where.

The new

Hopefully the current tenant living in your property should have  left it clean, tidy and in a state that means it can be instantly let back out. However, if this isn’t the case then it is a good idea to leave yourself enough time between one moving out and the other moving in to ensure that everything is ready.

Take this opportunity to review your inventory and ensure that you have everything on the list and also take photos of any included furnishings as well as the condition of the property prior to the new tenant moving in.

That way you can be sure that you know exactly how you can expect it to be left when the time comes to swap tenants again.

Of course, one of the simplest ways to ensure that the moving in or out process is as simple as possible is to use an  experienced and professional estate agent who can help you through the process. One just like The Manchester Estate Agent.