Tenants Guide

If you are looking to rent a property, whether that is an apartment or house then Le Gallais’ can help you. We are one of the largest property management and lettings businesses in Jersey and cater for every requirement from one bedroom apartments through to extensive country and coastal properties.

We appreciate that choosing the right home for you and your family is of primary importance but so is choosing a management agency that will deliver a professional and efficient service to allow you to occupy the property in the knowledge that it will be well looked after on behalf of the landlord in a efficient and organised manner. We believe it is our role to allow you to spend more time enjoying the property and your lifestyle.

In choosing to rent a property managed by Le Gallais you will benefit from:

Years of experience in managing and letting property in Jersey.
Honest and straightforward advice.
Maintenance and property repairs will be carried out in an efficient manner by specially selected contractors.
We will guide you through all of the necessary property and statuary requirements to renting property in Jersey.
We will pay you interest on your deposit whilst under our control and it is also covered by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Client Money. Protection Scheme.
You can rest assured that your funds are looked after in the right way.

If you have seen a property that you would like to view then you will need to contact us so that we can discuss specific information about the property with you and get an appreciation of who you are. On the majority of occasions we will ask you to completed a brief tenant information form which will allow us to gain more information about yourself and hence enable us to match your requirements on one or more of our available properties. We aim to provide information in as straight forward a manner as possible and we will explain the processes of renting property through us as clearly as possible.

We will also indicate any charges that are or will become applicable during the tenancy. Once you have identified a property you wish to rent, there are then a number of steps, which we will have to run through to process your application.

On behalf of our clients we generally request three references and will write to your employer, your existing or previous landlord and your bank to request references on your behalf. Please note that any fees charged by your bank in providing a reference will be your liability. On behalf of our clients and where the Tenant is not a corporate body, we request a credit reference on all applicant tenants by an independent credit check organisation.

A credit check costs in the region of £5 and we request forward payment for this.

On rare occasions it may be necessary for us to request the provision of a guarantor to your lease whereby the guarantor will guarantee a payment of rent during the tenancy and this is normally a member of your family.

Subject to receiving satisfactory references on your behalf we will then submit a housing application form, which all applicants (apart from those applying to rent unqualified property) must sign and complete. If you have rented or brought property in the Jersey before then you will already have been provided with a housing reference number, which we will need to process your application.

Subject to obtaining the necessary housing consent we will issue you with a Lease Agreement, Inventory of Contents and Schedule of Condition, all of which will require your signature. Our Lease Agreements are written in clear plain English however if you have any specific questions on any of the terms then we will be happy to run through these with you.

An Inventory of Contents and Schedule of Condition is prepared for your property prior to letting. You will be asked to carefully check the contents and sign the documents. Any discrepancies in the contents or the condition description should be noted to us or marked on the copies.

Any changes made will be subject to verification by your property manager. Once all of the agreements have been signed you will retain a copy for your records, the other copy will be passed to our client for their retention. On signing the lease the deposit and first months rent will be payable together with any apportioned amount for leases commencing after the first day of each month. Once all of the above has occurred you will be passed a set of keys and your tenancy will commence.

In most circumstances you will be responsible for all charges at the property including for example: electricity, water, telephone, gas and parish rates.

We will arrange transfers of utility accounts to you and we will be responsible for completing and returning the parish rate form for your property. Please note that if you are in occupation of the property on the first of January in any year you will be responsible for the parish rates for the entire twelve month period whether or not you remain in occupation for the entire twelve month period.

We cannot make any arrangements to connect a telephone and suggest you contact a supplier on the Island at your discretion.

In most circumstances the landlord is responsible for insuring the structure of the building and any of their contents which remain in-situ during your tenancy, however this insurance will not cover your individual belongings and any furniture that you bring to the property. We advise you to arrange separate insurance cover in this respect.

Although this information is covered in a separate section we point out that you must contact us immediately in respect of any maintenance or repair problem. Your lease will set out the responsibilities for both the Landlord and Tenant in connection with any repairs, but you should always report the issue to us for clarification first before proceeding. Where you proceed to appoint a contractor without informing us first regardless of whether the repair is the responsibility of the Landlord we cannot guarantee that the contractors invoice will be refunded to you by the Landlord.

We use a variety of contractors so in most situations we can respond quickly to problems reported to us and we are confident that our contractors can carry out most repairs in a time efficient and orderly fashion.

Frost Damage

If you are going away from the property for any length of time during your tenancy you must make prevision for someone to check your property during your absence. Secondly you should ensure that the central heating pipes do not freeze and burst. In this instance we would suggest that you keep the heating on at a low level or where no heating exists you should turn the water off at the water mains stop cock.

Additional Services from Le Gallais Estate Agents