Most problems in a tenancy are created before the tenant moves in. They just do not become visible until the tenant moves out.

This checklist follows a tenancy from the listing to the handover of keys. It is made for the private landlord with a few homes, and it can be used as it is.

Each point is short on purpose. If you want the depth, it is in the articles linked along the way.

In short

  • Write your criteria down before you advertise.
  • Only ask for financial documentation once the applicant is genuinely in the running.
  • Use the standard tenancy contract, and write the security in as two separate items.
  • Hold the move-in inspection, and make the report with photos and a date.
  • Agree clearly what applies at move-out, already at move-in.
  • Keep the contract, the reports, the receipts and the guarantee documents together in one place.

1. Before the listing

  • Decide the rent and the fixed costs, and what is included.
  • Decide what security you require, expressed in months of rent.
  • Decide what documentation you ask applicants for, and use the same for everyone.
  • Decide whether you accept a guarantee as provision of security, so you do not have to take a view under pressure in the middle of an applicant round.
  • Take proper photos. An honest listing means fewer viewings and better applicants.

2. The listing and the viewing

  • State the rent, the fixed costs, the security and the move-in date in the listing. Vagueness here costs you time later.
  • Mention in the listing if you accept a guarantee instead of a cash deposit. That is often what decides whether a good applicant applies at all.
  • Use the same short questionnaire for all applicants. It makes the comparison honest, and it makes a rejection easier to explain.
  • Do not ask for payslips in the first round. They belong later, once the applicant is in the running.

3. Assessing the applicant

  • Ask for documentation of income and fixed costs once you are down to the real candidates.
  • Assess ability to pay in the specific tenancy, not the person.
  • Use the same criteria on everyone, and note briefly why you chose as you did.
  • Delete the information about the applicants who did not get the home.
  • More on what you may ask about and how long you may keep it in the article on assessing a tenant.

4. The contract

  • Use the current standard tenancy contract. Special agreements belong in the clause on special terms, and they have to be understandable.
  • Write the deposit and the prepaid rent as two separate items. They are two different things, including when a guarantee is provided for them.
  • Stay within the limits: up to three months' deposit and up to three months' prepaid rent.
  • Write down what is agreed about repairs at move-out.
  • Write down how the rent is paid, and which day it falls due.
  • Sign digitally, and keep the contract somewhere you can find it in three years.

5. The security

  • Agree how the security is provided: in cash to your own account, in cash to a separate deposit account kept apart from your operations, or as a guarantee.
  • If a guarantee is provided, keep the guarantee document together with the contract, and read the basis for payout before you accept.
  • Confirm in writing to the tenant what you have received and what it covers.
  • Be clear to the tenant that the responsibility at move-out is the same, whatever way the security is provided.
  • More on the difference between indskudsgaranti, deposit guarantee and landlord insurance in the article on the three terms. More on the deposit account, and when it makes sense in Denmark, in the article on deposits.

6. The move-in

  • Hold the move-in inspection. If you let out more than one home it is a requirement, and either way it is the best half hour you will spend on the tenancy.
  • Make the move-in report at the inspection, and send it to the tenant within the deadline.
  • Take photos of every room, of floors and of appliances, with a date.
  • Note the meter readings.
  • Go through the keys, and write down how many were handed over.
  • Tell the tenant how to report faults, and within what deadline.

7. During the tenancy

  • Keep an eye on the rent arriving, and react the same week if it does not.
  • Keep all important communication in writing.
  • Keep receipts for repairs and maintenance.
  • Give notice of changes in writing and with the applicable notice period.
  • More on what to do when rent goes missing in the article on unpaid rent.

8. The move-out

  • Call the move-out inspection in writing with the required notice.
  • Hold the inspection, and prepare the move-out report at the inspection.
  • Write each item down with documentation, and stick to what was agreed about repairs.
  • Raise the claims within the deadline. What is not in the report cannot be added afterwards.
  • Make the settlement item by item, offset the security, and pay back the rest without unnecessary delay.
  • More on what to do when the security does not stretch in the article on that.

What most often goes wrong

No move-in report, so there is nothing to compare with at move-out.

The move-out inspection is held too late or not at all, and the repair claim lapses.

Deposit and prepaid rent stated as one amount in the contract.

Payslips sitting in the inbox two years after the applicant was turned down.

Rules from a Norwegian guide applied to a Danish tenancy.

Arrears left to run for three months, because it is uncomfortable to write the first email.

How Keyhole makes it easier

Tenant Screening gives you a documented basis before you sign, as an overall recommendation rather than raw financial data.

Keyhole Guarantee makes it possible to accept a good applicant who lacks liquidity at move-in, without compromising on the security you require.

Keyhole Secure keeps the deposit separate, if you prefer a clean trail over liquidity along the way.

Keyhole Landlord Protection is landlord insurance developed together with TRYG, covering documented losses beyond the security provided, according to the terms.

Four points on the list, four places where it usually hurts.

Book a conversation

Talk to Daniel about your tenancies, and which of the points is worth setting up first.

Sources

  • The Danish Rent Act (retsinformation.dk), deposit, prepaid rent, move-in inspection, move-out and deadlines
  • Typeformular A10, the authorised standard tenancy contract
  • Huslejenævnet, borger.dk
  • The Danish Data Protection Agency, processing personal data about applicants