How to use the Online Model Tenancies: Frequently Asked Questions
- What is an Online Model Tenancy?
- Where are they available?
- How much do they cost?
- Creating a Model Tenancy Online
- How long will it take?
- Tenancy Deposit Protection Legislation
- Customising a Model Tenancy Agreement
- Saving and printing your Model Tenancy Agreements
- Access to completed agreements
- Onscreen version
- Access to completed agreements
- What if I make a mistake?
- There is something I charge/do that is not covered elsewhere in the agreement?
- Guidance notes
- Tenants section
What is an Online Model Tenancy?
As a registered Unipol owner, you have access to the Unipol Student Homes Online Model Tenancy Agreements where it is possible for you to create Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreements that are specific to your properties and tenants on:
- Joint Tenancies
- Single Tenancies in a Shared Property
- Self-Contained Properties
There is also an agreement for owner occupier or ‘Home Stay’ properties (This has to be customised by hand).
The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreements are:
- Free
- Quick and easy to use (takes 5-10 minutes)
- Written in plain English
- Available online and easily saved to your home computer
They can be:
- Customised by owners, sections such as name of tenants and address can be left blank
- Made specific to owners properties, sections not applicable can be ignored
- Used by owners to standardise tenancy agreements for all properties
They have been:
- Developed in consultation with both owners and tenants
- Designed to include links to guidance notes and information to make them more understandable and easy to use
Where are they available?
There are two ways you can access the Online Model Tenancy Agreements. You can create customised ASTs by using the Online Model Tenancy Generator and you can also buy blank copies for up to 6 or 12 tenants in the Unipol Bureau. If you are buying a blank copy in the Bureau you will need to customise it by hand.
How much do they cost?
Online Tenancy Agreements created online are free to complete online.
There is a cost for the blank paper agreements sold in the Bureau.
Creating a Model Tenancy Online
The Model Tenancy generator can be found at the bottom of the page you log into as a registered owner if you click on the button labelled ‘Online Tenancy Agreement’ and you will be taken to the Online Tenancy Generator.
The next thing to do is to choose the type of Agreement you want and also how much detail you want to include. For example It is possible for you to include your tenants names or to leave that section blank and fill it in at the signing.
How long will it take?
A progress strip allows you to see how far you have progressed through the tenancy and on average the Online Tenancy Agreement should only take five to ten minutes to fill out.
Tenancy Deposit Protection Legislation
If you are charging a deposit, from 6th July you must state which tenancy deposit Scheme you are putting the deposit in, this information is included in the online Tenancy Agreement.
Customising a Model Tenancy Agreement
When using the Online Tenancies you are able to customise the agreements by leaving certain questions such as the names of tenants and the property address blank. These parts of the tenancies can be filled in when signing the agreement with tenants, or you can re-access and amend the Model Tenancy Agreements once you have spoken to your new tenants.
This section is not applicable
If a question is not applicable to your property or tenants you can indicate that and a message will pop up stating it is not applicable. Further sections and pages relating to this question will be skipped. The printed out version of the Agreement will state that this section is not applicable, not just leave it blank.
Saving and printing your Model Tenancy Agreements
The agreement you create can be saved as a PDF document to your home computer when completed and printed off on your home printer. As your Agreement is saved as a PDF you can also e-mail perspective tenants and their parents the Agreements you create.
Onscreen version
When you have filled in all the sections you are able to read through the tenancy Agreement on screen, once again you can go back and change anything that is incorrect.
Access to completed agreements
As well as being able to save a copy of the completed agreement to you home computer, you are also able to access Model Tenancy Agreements that you have created and re-print or amend them. All you have to do is click on the button marked ‘ My Online Tenancy Agreements’ and then click the link to your Tenancy Agreement.
What if I make a mistake?
If you don’t fill in a section correctly an error message will pop up and you will not be able to fill in the tenancy further without going back and correctly filling in the details.
If you make a mistake or want to revisit a previous page you can go back to the previous questions or the beginning of the agreement. The information you have provided is saved, so you won’t lose it if you go back.
There is something I charge/do that is not covered elsewhere in the agreement?
You should write these in Section C, which is for clauses not covered elsewhere in the agreement and example would be ’no bikes inside’.
Guidance notes
There are guidance notes explaining what different terms mean in the tenancy which can be accessed by both tenants and owners. Both Tenants and owners also have access to a draft copy of each of the tenancy agreements. Tenants do not have access to the tenancy generator that creates the Tenancy Agreements.
Tenants section
This section is accessible by owners has full versions of all three Tenancy Agreements, guidance and information about filling in a Tenancy Agreement and allows tenants to see a tenancy agreement before signing. Tenants are not able to access the generator for creating Tenancy Agreements.
