Help guides

Getting started and your account

• Getting started with Selfmanaged

  Create your account, try the sample account, and set up your first home one step at a time, skipping anything for later.

• Find your way round the app

  The three tabs, what red lines, clocks and ticks mean, The Law and the (i) button, the More menu, and the text size.

• Your name, address and how tenants pay you

  Set the name and address that go on notices and letters, and the payment details that every rent reminder gives your tenants.

• The daily email and the Reminders bell

  Choose a daily email of rent dates, legal dates and repairs, see every reminder under the bell, and stop the email when you want.

• Download everything, or delete your account

  Take a copy of every record and file in one download, and see what is deleted, and what stays for a short time, when you delete your account.

• Plans and the trial: what each plan includes

  See your plan, what each plan includes and how many properties it covers, and what happens to your records when a trial ends or a plan changes.

Properties and tenancies

• Inspections and inventories: check-in to check-out

  Recording the home’s condition at check-in, visiting during the tenancy with notice, and comparing it all at check-out.

• Add a property

  Add a home by its address and postcode, find the address from the postcode.

• Add a tenancy and its tenant

  Record the start date, the lead tenant, the rent, the deposit and the dates the law asks about, then change them later.

• Record the deposit and the prescribed information

  Record when the deposit arrived and was protected, see the legal cap, and give your tenant the scheme’s prescribed information from the app.

• End a tenancy and start the next one

  Record the day a tenancy ends, add the next tenancy before or after it, and find the earlier tenancy’s evidence file when you need it.

• Keep the signed tenancy agreement

  Add the signed agreement as a PDF or photos, replace it with a newer version, and have it checked against the app’s list of what it should say.

• Set up a let from its documents

  Send a let’s documents, then check the draft the app makes of its property, tenancy, tenants, deposit and certificates, and save it in one go.

• Log and answer a pet request

  Log a tenant’s request to keep a pet, see the date your written answer is due, and record your answer or a request for more information.

Rent

• Mark rent received, not arrived or paid in part

  Answer each rent date as received or not arrived yet, record part of it paid, and see what is still waiting on you. You can also forgive some of a rent date once it has fallen due.

• Chase late rent with a reminder

  Write a friendly or firmer rent reminder and send it, record a part payment, and stop every reminder during a breathing space.

• Prepare an arrears letter

  Prepare a first letter or a letter before action from the rent records, check it, then give it to your tenant or dismiss it.

• Raise the rent with a section 13 notice

  Prepare Form 4A from your records, serve it, keep comparable rents with it, or record a notice you served another way.

• After a rent increase notice

  Put the new rent in place on its start date, or record an agreed rent, a tribunal application or the tribunal’s decision.

Safety checks and certificates

• Landlord gas safety checks: the yearly check and record

  What the yearly gas safety check covers, checking early without losing your date, giving tenants the record, and keeping it.

• EICR for landlords: the five-year check and the 28 days

  How often the electrical installation is inspected, who does it, the 28 days for remedial work, and who gets a copy of the report.

• Add a certificate and give the tenant a copy

  Add a gas safety record, EICR, EPC or other certificate with its dates, then record or serve the copy your tenant needs.

• Book the gas safety check or EICR

  When a check is due, send it to your gas engineer or electrician in one tap, then record the new certificate or remedial work.

• List your alarms and record an alarm check

  Keep a list of each smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, and record the check on the day a tenancy starts.

Repairs and trades

• How to find a good contractor when your usual one can’t come

  Your usual trade can’t come and your tenant is waiting. Who to ask, where to look, what to check, and what to agree before they start.

• How to check a tradesperson before you book them

  Before you book a tradesperson: check their registration on the scheme’s own register, ask about insurance, and get the price in writing.

• How to check a gas engineer is Gas Safe registered

  Why the yearly gas check needs a Gas Safe registered engineer, checking their number on the register, and keeping it with the trade.

• Log a repair

  Log a repair you were told about by phone, text or in person, or one from a tenant’s email, with photos and where it is.

• Send a repair to a trade

  Send a repair to your trade from its card or page, see what the trade sees, record what they said by phone, or book it yourself.

• Add your trades and choose who gets what

  Add a trade, choose who gets each kind of repair and how much they can spend, and whether repairs go to them automatically.

• Keep your tenant told and arrange a visit

  Send your tenant an update, offer visit times they choose from on their page, and record a visit or that nobody could get in.

• Finish a repair: done, fixed and closed

  Mark a repair done, ask your tenant if it’s fixed, add the cost to the books, print its history, and close it.

Emergencies and out of hours

• Water leak or burst pipe in a rented home: what to do

  A tenant reports a leak or a burst pipe. What their page tells them, getting a plumber, your repair duty, and what to keep a record of.

• No heating or hot water: what to do as a landlord in England

  Your tenant has no heating or hot water. What they can safely check, getting a Gas Safe engineer, and keeping them told.

• Gas smell, carbon monoxide or a power cut: what to do first

  The words your tenant’s page gives for a smell of gas, a carbon monoxide alarm and a power cut, and what you do next.

• Out-of-hours repairs cover for landlords: set it up now

  Why an email isn’t enough at night, a number your tenants can ring, a second trade for each job, and testing it all before winter.

• Get a rented home ready for winter: a landlord’s checklist

  Before the cold: the boiler and the gas check, pipes and the stopcock, gutters and drains, and who your tenants ring at night.

• Set up out-of-hours cover and emergency emails

  Give your tenants a number to ring out of hours, choose which reports email you at once, and send a test emergency.

Tenant pages and notices

• Send your tenants their tenant page

  Invite each tenant to their own page for repair reports, updates, visit times and the house guide, and close it when needed.

• Write the house guide

  Answer the house guide’s questions, ask your tenant what you don’t know, and publish the guide to their page.

• Serve a document to your tenants

  Serve a notice, letter or certificate by email or on paper, record how it was given, and see its certificate of service.

• Ask your tenants to agree to notices by email

  Ask each tenant to agree to notices by email on their own page, record an agreement’s email clause, or record a withdrawal.

Records and tax

• Making Tax Digital for landlords: who’s in and when

  Who has to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and from when, the quarterly update dates, and the records to keep.

• The evidence file

  See every dated entry for a tenancy, record a conversation or visit, correct an entry, and print or share the file.

• Your Selfmanaged email address, and Emails and documents

  Give tenants your Selfmanaged address, see what arrives under Emails and documents, file each email to its tenancy, and have documents read.

• Keep your books for Making Tax Digital

  Add income and expenses in HMRC’s categories, set your share and update periods, and export the books for your accountant.