Help and guidance for landlords and agents – online
Subscribe to the Guild of Residential Landlords and get all the help and advice you need, all available from our subscriber page.
You can ask any question anytime on-line (although we might not answer if it’s 3am, we do sleep you know!)
We have guidance on:
- Granting an assured shorthold tenancy
- Tenancy deposit schemes
- Protecting and un-protecing a deposit
- Serving possession notices (including section 21 and section 8 notices)
- Houses in multiple occupation
- Much much more
Landlords and agents can download over 100 forms and templates
Download from a choice of over 100 forms, letters and templates onto your computer or mobile device. There are no limits to the number of times you can download and all are included free with your subscription.
Forms include tenancy agreements, all types of possession notice, rent arrears letters, inspection letters and much more.
Our forms are either PDF with dedicated form fields for quick completion or rich text format for easy editing with any word processor.*
* Separate software or apps maybe required to fill in the forms and save them.
Telephone helpline
Call our telephone helpline for help and advice anytime (during normal office hours). There is no clock on our help-line so you have unlimited use included in your subscription.
Please see our contact page for the number matching your enquiry.
We’ll keep you up to date
Landlord and tenant advice is constantly changing. There’s always some new law in the making or some court case changing the way landlords work.
We provide a number of options for receiving updates by email:
All – an email will be sent for any new article or form posted on the website. Normally 3 times a week but could be up to daily
Main – if we think an article or update is particularly important we will send you an email. Normally a couple a month.
Weekly digest – receive a weekly summary of most articles/updates posted on the website during the previous week. Also includes a selection of our ask a question part of the website.
Non subscribers to the Guild may signup for free to receive the weekly digest. Please note some of the content contained in the digest may only be viewable by full subscribers to the Guild.
Our forms are regularly updated and if a new prescribed form is legislated, we always have the latest version in time for any commencement.
Latest articles
Coronavirus Templates for Landlords and Agents
Email templates for landlords/agents Over time we will add templates which might be useful during the coronavirus period. Currently, there are only a couple but we plan to add more as people ask questions or provide recommendations. They won't be downloadable letters...
Time for Banks to Repay Debt to Taxpayers, Warns Business Secretary
Business secretary Alok Sharma has warned the banks that they need to do more to help small businesses desperate for financial aid. In the daily coronavirus briefing from 10 Downing Street, he pointedly warned the banks that it was time for them to repay to favour the...
Updated Possession Notice Wizard for Coronavirus
We have now completed our Coronavirus Act changes to the possession notice wizard which is now live again and can be used. We decided to make changes to the section 8 and section 21 notices in line with the Coronavirus Act 2020 even though some commentators don’t...
We’re really social!
Primarily we use Twitter (@adrian_thompson) and you can find us on our Facebook page.
If you just want to keep up to date with articles on the website alone, the most efficient way is via our RSS feed using your favourite reader. This way you will always be instantly up to date.
Subscribers can sign up to email newsletters sent at a frequency to suit you:
- All content added to the website – speaks for itself
- Main content – we will only email if we think you will find the article particularly useful
- Only very important – hate emails? We hear you. Choose this mailing list and we’ll only email you with the really big stuff on the website.
- Forms and templates – keep up to date with all our forms and letters which are regularly updated
Secure access and data
Our top priority is your security. That’s it. We use 2048 bit encryption using the very latest SHA-256 signature algorithm with RSA Encryption.
Much of our website is only available to subscribers and you can securely access all this information instantly when you signup on-line.
Guild of Residential Landlords
Landlords / small agents
Quarterly- Pay Quarterly
- Cancel anytime before next payment
- Landlords or agents 2 or less staff
- Unlimited telephone help-line
- Unlimited forms
- Unlimited website questions
- Discounted deposit protection
- Discounted buildings insurance
- Upgrade to annual anytime
- Full access to all secured pages, services and discounts
Landlords / small agents
Annual- Pay annually
- Cancel anytime before next payment
- Landlords or agents 2 or less staff
- Unlimited telephone help-line
- Unlimited forms
- Unlimited website questions
- Discounted deposit protection
- Discounted buildings insurance
- Upgrade from quarterly anytime
- Full access to all secured pages, services and discounts
- Accredited landlords pay discounted rate
Larger agents
Annual- Pay annually
- Cancel anytime before next payment
- Agents 3 or more staff
- Unlimited telephone help-line
- Unlimited forms
- Unlimited website questions
- Discounted buildings insurance
- Upgrade from quarterly anytime
- Full access to all secured pages, services and discounts
About us
The Guild of Residential Landlords is one of the landlords associations that operate nationally.
Some 25 – 30 years ago, the association was run only in the south west, including, Plymouth, Weston Super Mare, Bristol and Cardiff. Because of this, membership is still considerable in these areas.
In 2000, the name was changed and the company taken to a limited company called The Guild of Residential Landlords.
In 2005, we purchased the Guild after the original chairman retired. Our main aim when purchasing the company was to continue the personal service and advice that was previously provided and to expand the Guild much more on-line. I think we have achieved this goal although as technology moves on, it seems never ending to keep updated.
We are also private landlords in our own right, managing a reasonably sized portfolio.
Our main subscriber base is what we would term the professional landlord, although we equally cater for landlords with just one property.
We have assisted many subscribers with cases including residential property tribunal cases. Just one example of an important case would be Doncaster v Coventry City Council, First Tier Tribunal 032/09/00932, 5 October 2009.
In the words of one of our subscribers who is a member of the Guild and also a member of one of the other nationals: “We use (the other association) for the news and you (the Guild) for legal advice.” I think this one line sums us up perfectly.
With all the information available on-line nowadays, it might be asked why should someone pay to be a member of any landlords association? In reply, many subscribers who join us have had serious problems after being misinformed on public forums or using some of the many available free documents. Our view is that there are two ways of making money to pay the bills. Firstly, you can offer the service for free. However, this involves massive amounts of time obtaining sponsors to advertise through the company perhaps on the website. It also means, any services that are outsourced (for example buildings insurance) are not normally as cheap because anybody offering free information needs to add money to these services.
We prefer the second option which is to charge for the service but spend all our time assisting members with their problems and providing advice to the best of our ability and keeping the website / forms updated.
We will never offer a service that we would not personally use on our own properties.
We truly hope you will consider subscribing to the Guild.
Guild of Residential Landlords
More features available to landlords and agents
Possession notices
All possession notices are included free in your subscription. Download section 21 and section 8 notices or notice to quit and surrender of tenancy templates.
Court forms
Sample court forms including Accelerated Possession, Claim Form for Possession, Particulars of Claim and Bailiff forms.
Accreditation
Guild members can become accredited via the on-line development course with the Private Rented Sector Accreditation Scheme (PRSAS) for a discounted rate. Once accredited, Guild annual landlord membership is reduced so you save each renewal.
Buildings insurance
Guild members are entitled to feature packed discounted buildings insurance rates.
Finding answers
All our articles are split into categories such as: tenancy deposit, possession, gas safety, new legislation etc. Drill down until you find the answer you need. If you can’t find what your looking for, simply get in touch and we will help.
Ask a question
We have a dedicated (and very popular) ask a question part of the website where members can ask any question relating to landlord and tenant. We promise to always answer and the main advantage is that this builds an excellent q & a section for the benefit of all members.
Personal service
We provide a personal service from start to finish. A human will always answer the telephone and if we’re not available right at that moment, we will always ring you back. That’s a promise!
Training
The Guild works with Training for Professionals to provide training solutions for private landlords, letting agents and local authorities. Most training goes towards CPD (continuous professional development) points.
Dedicated subscribers page
The answer to around 90 percent of enquiries can be found from our single subscribers page.
Discounts
Being a member of the Guild attracts discounts to the services you use:
Tenant Referencing
- 24-hour easy online access
- One simple online form to fill in, we do the rest
- Uncovers adverse, undisclosed and withheld information
The tenancy assessment check includes (but not limited to) the following:
- Electoral roll check at the applicant’s current and previous/linked addresses
- Date of birth confirmation
- A Public Information check to ascertain whether the applicant has CCJs, bankruptcy orders or voluntary arrangements
- A check to see if the applicant has any undisclosed addresses
In addition, we have free templates for obtaining employee, character or landlord references.
Guild of Residential Landlords
Testimonials
I just wish to say thank you – just attended court and thanks to your advice (once again) I won and was completely prepared.
Many thanks for your help in this matter, the hearing for a stay of enforcement still went ahead and it sailed through in our favour without the landlord hardly having to say a word. The tenant as usual dug a big hole for themselves as soon as they started speaking and peed the judge off.
Couldn’t have done it without your help. An excellent service as usual and so much better than **** who we use to belong to a few years ago.
Thanks so much Adrian, you really are the 5th emergency service!!
Office
Suite 3
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Harrogate
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Guild of Residential Landlords