Residential Letting and Property Management Practice
This domain covers the transactional and management skills an ARLA-qualified agent must demonstrate: instruction and agency (types of agency - sole, joint, multi-agency - and the terms that must be agreed in writing), marketing and advertising rules, referencing and tenant selection, tenancy agreements (the assured shorthold tenancy, its fixed and periodic phases, and the requirement for a written statement of terms), deposits (protection in a government-approved scheme within 30 days, the prescribed information, and the consequences of non-compliance under the Housing Act 2004 including the penalty of one to three times the deposit), rent and service charges, inventory and check-in/check-out, repairs reporting and contractor management, and ending a tenancy (section 21 and section 8 notices, notice periods, and the abolition of section 21 in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 with transition to periodic tenancies).
Traps: confusing the 30-day deposit protection deadline with the 28-day gas record deadline; thinking the prescribed information need only be given once (it must be re-served on renewal and on changes); assuming a section 21 notice can be served without a valid EPC, gas certificate, How to Rent guide and deposit compliance; and muddling the tenant's notice period on a periodic tenancy (one month for the tenant, two for the landlord, ending on the rent day).
Rule of thumb for section 21 validity: the "four gateways" - deposit protected and prescribed information served, EPC given, gas safety record given, and How to Rent guide served. Miss one and the notice is invalid.
Worked example: a tenancy began 1 March with a deposit taken. The agent must protect the deposit and serve prescribed information by 31 March. If the tenancy renews on 1 September, prescribed information must be re-served within 30 days of the new deposit being deemed paid.