For Owners and Property Managers

Traditionally, the property owner has always been considered to be the Landlord.  This fine and we're not expecting any overnight change.

However this can be confusing for Tenants, especially those that are in properties being managed by Property Managers - who are in essence "the Landlord", although they are generally Agents for the Landlord.

On the Your Home Our Home platform we have slightly tweaked things to make it very clear for tenants while still being accurate for the Owner and Property Manager.  

We use three roles:

Owner: The owner of the property.

Property Manager: The entity or individual that is managing the property as 'Agent' for the Owner.

Landlord: The person/entity in charge of the tenancy... the one that the tenant contacts in the first instance.

In practice it is likely that for a single tenancy any TWO of the above roles will apply at the same time. For example the Owner could also be the Landlord in charge of the Tenancy.  Alternatively, the Property Manager could be the Landlord in charge of the Tenancy.

What this means for you

About the only change you will see is that we use the terms 'Owner' and 'Property Manager' more than we use the term 'Landlord'.

Adopting this approach avoids the confusion for Tenants where they may be required to liaise with the Property Manager as ‘Landlord’ but then the Property Manager might say ‘I will need to check with the Landlord’.  We understand the need to make it clear that the Property Manager is invariably acting as ‘Agent’ for the Owner/Landlord.

We are not changing what the terms mean... we're just clarifying the use of them.

What Tenancy Services says

Another reason we have adopted this approach is because it is essentially how Tenancy Services uses the concept.  

If the owner isn’t on the agreement, the property manager takes on all the landlord’s responsibilities. They could be held responsible for:

• any Tenancy Tribunal orders issued in favour of the tenant
• paying any monetary orders issued by the Tenancy Tribunal
• any actions or non-actions of the owner.

It also means the owner may not be able to apply for enforcement on a Tenancy Tribunal order.

From Tenancy Services Website

Here's another quote from the Tenancy Services website:

"If the owner of the house uses a property management company,
they are considered the landlord."